Newspaper Page Text
SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2005
8A
METH
From page 1A
behind the barn,” says Carol
Falkowski, director of
research communications at
the Hazelden Foundation in
Minnesota. But that’s not
the case anymore.
Falkowski found that
meth addicts now represent
about 10 percent of patients
admitted to drug treatment
programs in the Twin Cities,
compared with 7.5 percent a
year ago and about 3 per
cent in 1998. About a fifth of
those meth users who
sought help in the last year
were minors.
She and other experts who
track urban drug trends for
National Institute on Drug
Abuse are meeting this week
in Long Beach, Calif., to
present their findings. Some
have noted a big jump in the
use of meth - particularly in
its potent crystal form - in
the past six months to a
year.
“It’s the new major drug
threat,” says Jim Hall,
director of the Center for
the Study and Prevention of
Substance Abuse at Nova
Southeastern University in
Florida. He monitors drug
use for NIDA in Fort
Lauderdale and Miami,
where crystal meth is often
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What is methamphetamine?
Methamphetamine, which can come in the form of a crys
tal-like powder or rock-like chunks, is an addictive stimu
lant that can be smoked, snorted, injected or taken orally.
Its street names include “crystal,” “speed" and “glass.”
Signs that someone is using meth include:
• A change in sleeping patterns and insomnia;
• Increased physical activity and decreased appetite;
• Aggression or a hostile and uncooperative attitude;
• Anxiety;
• Hallucinations;
• Convulsions.
Meth is often made in home-based “labs" in rural areas
using ingredients that are, for instance, contained in some
cold medicines. Some states, including Oklahoma and
Illinois, have passed laws requiring drug stores to keep
cold medicine locked up or behind the counter and to limit
people from purchasing it in large quantities.
Source: The Partnership fora Drug-Free America;
AP archive
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more sought after than
Ecstasy and cocaine.
“Here, it’s almost like the
early days of cocaine, when
cocaine was the chic, expen
sive champagne of street
drugs,” says Hall, noting
that many users come to
Miami’s trendy South Beach
strip in search of the purest,
most expensive meth avail
able.
Methamphetamine - long
a problem on the West Coast
- made its way across the
country in the past decade,
often taking hold in rural
areas, where it’s usually
made because the process
creates a noticeable stench.
Increasingly, drug enforce
ment officials say that mass
quantities are also being
shipped cross country from
“super labs” in the
Southwest and Mexico.
“It’s become more com
mon that I cross paths with
people who say, ‘This is my
drug of choice,”’ says Mike,
a 34-year-old former meth
user whose organization,
Chicago’s Crystal Meth
Anonymous, does not reveal
last names to protect group
members’ privacy.
Experts elsewhere say
their populations of meth
users are diversifying, too.
Claire Sterk, an Emory
University professor who
tracks Atlanta’s numbers
for NIDA, says that while
meth users there have tradi
tionally been white, there
are early signs that meth is
making its way into the
city’s black and Hispanic
communities. Experts in
other cities also have noted
that some young women are
using methamphetamine as
a way to lose weight.
“It’s definitely every
where,” says Adam, a 26-
year-old former meth addict
from suburban St. Louis
who also asked that his last
name not be used out of fear
of embarrassing his family.
“Though I’m not using
anymore, I’m sure it would
only take me three phone
calls to find it” says Adam,
who works in the retirement
benefits industry and is get
ting a business management
degree at Saint Louis
University.
He also speaks on behalf
of the Partnership for a
Drug-Free America, which
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LOCAL
launched ition cam
paigns in St. Louis and
Phoenix last year to try to
combat growing meth prob
lems there. The nonprofit
plans similar campaigns in
at least four other states in
the next year, says
spokesman Steve Dnistrian.
“Our fear has been that
meth will catch on with a
new generation of kids who
haven’t heard about it,” he
says.
But in some cases, that’s
already happening, says Dr.
Rob Garofalo at Children’s
Memorial Hospital in
Chicago.
“It’s the drug that makes
me cringe the most,” says
Garofalo, who’s come across
a growing number of meth
users among the patients he
treats at the hospital’s clinic
for older youth.
At first, he says, these
young meth users see the
drug as a “brightener” - one
that helps them concen
trate, stay up for hours and
feel in control. In time, how
ever, users become increas
ingly paranoid and aggres
Methamphetamine becoming
a threat in some cities
THE TREND: Experts who track drug abuse say metham
phetamine, already a problem in many rural areas, is
replacing Ecstasy and even cocaine as a drug of choice in
some urban areas.
THE CITIES: Atlanta is seeing an uptick in women meth
addicts seeking help from rehabilitation clinics. An expert
in Minneaoplis-St. Paul says facilities there are seeing an
alarming number of teens abusing meth. And in cities
such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., meth is popular
among gay men who use drugs.
THE EFFECT: Users are attracted to meth because it has
a long-lasting effect and helps them concentrate and feel
in control. However, doctors say meth is highly addictive
and that, over time, users become aggressive and para
noid.
- The Associated Press
sive.
It’s also highly addictive -
“such a slippery slope,”
Garofalo says. “You can’t
just dabble in crystal meth.”
On the Net:
Crystal Meth Anonymous:
http://www.crystalmeth.org/
home/index.php
MORRIS
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
#2
In Front of Sports Center
Partnership for a Drug-
Free America:
http://www.drugfreeameri
ca.org
Martha Irvine is a nation
al writer specializing in cov
erage of people in their 20s
and younger. She can be
reached at mirvine@ap.org
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