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Idaho Methamphetamine Admissions Outpace Alcohol and Marijuana
April 16, 2008

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News Summary

A nationwide study released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows treatment admissions for methamphetamine use increasing faster than those from both alcohol and marijuana in Idaho, the Boise Weekly reported April 16.

The data show a 35 percent increase in methamphetamine admissions, compared with a 22.5 percent increase for admissions related to alcohol use and a 23 percent increase for marijuana.

The study, based on treatment admissions data from 2004 to 2005 and 2005 to 2006, notes a nationwide increase in rates of underage binge and chronic drinking, drug and tobacco use, and substance abuse. The Idaho statistics for substances other than alcohol and methamphetamines fall slightly below overall national averages.

"There were no surprises for us," said Bethany Gadzinski, bureau chief for substance-abuse disorders at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The agency recently completed a federally funded three-year Access to Recovery program.

This news summary has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction, April 17, 2008
An error in the source story was reproduced in our summary as originally published. The Boise Weekly article conflated treatment admissions from a substance with the overall prevalence of use of that substance. We have revised our summary to correct this.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:
(Comments now appear first to last)

Posted by John French on 17 Apr 08 08:50 AM EDT
The article in the Boise Weekly is poorly written, exploitive, with twisted meanings of the words "outpace" and "use." It turns out they mean that the INCREASE in meth use is outpacing the INCREASE in alcohol and marijuana use, and it turns out they don't mean USE at all -- they mean ABUSE, as measured by treatment admissions. The JTO article reports the facts but continues the sensationalism in its headline.

Posted by Steven T. Coulter, MD on 17 Apr 08 12:14 PM EDT
As John French pointed out, this piece is shoddy, unhelpful journalism. Boise Weekly mangled the information available, and JoinTogether has compounded the irresponsible journalism by uncritically disseminating it. The actual data being described is here: http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/ID06.htm There are crucial differences between the actual information and the way it's been digested for mass consumption. JoinTogether does wonderful work. This piece wasn't an example of that excellence. Steve Steve Coulter, MD SteveMDFP -at- gmail -dot- com

Posted by Eric Helmuth, Join Together on 17 Apr 08 01:20 PM EDT
Thanks to both of you for pointing out the weaknesses in the source story that slipped past our editorial filters in the summary published here. We've posted a correction above. We retained the term "outpaces" in the headline because we feel it's reasonably clear in referring to a comparison of growth rates and not overall prevalence, especially once you read the 2nd sentence of our summary which makes that point explicit.

Posted by Dr. David R. Hadlock on 21 Apr 08 04:31 PM EDT
It is amazing to me that we try and draw some kind of statistical analysis from this survey that deals with admissions numbers. The ATR/BPA monies were resricted to certain prioritized groups of people who could get into treatment. So any attempt to determine increase or decrease of use, abuse, or dependence would be totally invalid. The same data NSDUH/2006 also shows that methamphetamine useage peaked in the year 2004 in the state of Idaho. So what's true?

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