Special Report: The Federal Response to Methamphetamine

Part Two of Two
Please read Part 1 of The Federal Response to Methamphetamine

Politicians from states hard-hit by methamphetamine abuse -- notably Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) -- have called meth use a national 'epidemic' that demands more attention from the federal government. The Indiana conservative has been harshly critical of the Bush administration for failing to focus adequate attention and resources on meth, calling the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) approach to meth "pathetic" and demanding the resignation of agency staff members.

Souder's anger was piqued by the Bush administration's FY2006 budget plan, which proposed cutting funding for local anti-drug task forces. Lawmakers from states heavily impacted by meth use were also taken aback by statements from federal drug officials, who insisted earlier this year that meth was more of a regional problem than a national epidemic. Deputy drug czar Scott Burns was excoriated by lawmakers in July for saying that police in the Northeast would "laugh if we told them there was a meth epidemic" because their primary drug of concern is heroin.

In July, a National Association of Counties survey of law-enforcement agencies found that a solid majority considered meth their biggest problem. "Methamphetamine is the worst drug I've encountered in my nearly 20 years in public life," said Rep. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) as he recently joined drug czar John Walters in unveiling a new public-service campaign focusing on meth. Souder has called meth "the most dangerous drug in America," while Rep. Tom Osborne (R-Neb.) called the drug "the biggest threat to the United States, maybe even including al-Qaida."

At the PSA unveiling in November, Walters said, "The methamphetamine challenge has touched communities across this Nation differently, but its devastating consequences are borne by all Americans." A Nov. 14 ONDCP press release noted that, "Once a threat largely in the Southwest, use and production of methamphetamine has moved steadily eastward, with especially severe impact on the Midwest, Northwest, and portions of the South."

But does all of that make make for a meth 'epidemic'? At the same press conference, ONDCP also stressed that overall meth use in the U.S. is declining, a contention echoed in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The annual survey found that less than one percent of Americans -- about 583,000 people -- were current users of meth, while 4.9 percent of survey respondents said they had tried the drug at least once.

"You can clearly see that we do not have something that is growing," a SAMHSA source familiar with the report findings told Join Together, adding that while meth is dangerous and driving up demand for treatment services in some states, "the number of people using meth is not as large as the number of people using other drugs." For example, the NSDUH noted, 5.6 million Americans used cocaine last year, and about 2.2 million used inhalants.

Overall, meth-use numbers are much closer to heroin prevalence, the survey said; about 398,000 Americans were current users of heroin in 2004, according to SAMHSA.

"When you look at the data, meth use has either fallen or remained steady over the last three years. Also, most people who use meth never develop any problems," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "The flattening (or decreasing) of meth-use rates, combined with the fact that only a fraction of meth users are threats to themselves or others, suggests that we don't have the kind of crisis that requires radical steps, like violating people's civil liberties or increasing sentences for nonviolent drug offenses."

But Andrew Kessler, director of government relations for NAADAC: The Association for Addiction Counselors, told Join Together that "NAADAC believes there is a methamphetamine epidemic in the U.S., and it's getting out of control," pointing to statistics showing that seizures of meth labs have increased in most states over the past few years.

Kessler said that not only are counselors treating more methamphetamine addicts, programs are being challenged by a drug that is "far more addictive than most of the other drugs they deal with." At least 90 percent of meth clients relapse, he said, and the drug causes brain damage that requires an extended recovery period even after meth use is discontinued.

"Yes, there really is an epidemic of meth," said epidemiologist Raul Caetano, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. "For one reason or another that we do not understand very well, it has spread and is affecting a lot of rural areas. Maybe growth has to do with easiness of preparation of the drug, which can be made from medication sold over the counter and thus without any control."

"The numbers don't suggest an 'epidemic' in the sense that we usually use that word, but the impact of meth use has been enormous," added James Copple, formerly the head of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and currently a senior policy analyst for the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

Copple, who in recent years has run 16 separate summit meetings on meth for state policymakers, as well as a pair of governor's conferences, said that methamphetamine has wrought economic and environmental damage far out of proportion to the raw number of drug users. He chided the Bush administration for continuing to minimize the scope of the drug problem, saying that ONDCP should be spending less money and effort on marijuana and more on meth.

"Marijuana has negligible mortality and morbidity compared to methamphetamine," Copple said. "My position is that methamphetamine is our number-one drug problem."