METH LAB BUSTS PLUNGE, BUT PROBLEMS PERSIST

Iowa still ranks in the nation's top 10 for the rate of addiction,
and the number of people seeking treatment has gone down only slightly.

Iowa's meth problem - once among the worst in the country - hasn't
disappeared even as meth lab seizures have plummeted.

Since Iowa enacted a pseudoephedrine-control law in 2005, meth lab
seizures in the state dropped 77 percent in 2006 compared with two
years before, according to the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy.

But even with far fewer people manufacturing meth in the state, meth
continues to flow into Iowa from other states and Mexico, and people
continue to use.

"A lot of the hoopla has gone away because of the modest successes
we've had," said Dale Woolery, associate director of the Governor's
Office of Drug Control Policy. "We've had great success with the
meth lab piece of the issue. Much of the attention has gone away
because the most visible piece of the meth problem has mostly gone
away. ... That's taken (Iowa's meth problem) from a very visible
issue to a quieter issue."

Methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant also known as speed,
crank, crystal or ice, began infecting Iowa in the early 1990s. It
has a similar chemical structure to adrenaline or dopamine, but it's
chemically altered to last much longer.

Abusers can become addicted quickly. Meth addiction creates numerous
problems: violent behavior, anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, confusion,
tremors, anorexia, memory loss, severe dental problems,
hallucinations, mood swings, sexual dysfunction, depression and a
high suicide risk.

"Iowa communities weren't prepared for the flow of meth coming into
the state as fast as it did," Woolery said.

So why else has meth use exploded in Iowa, especially in rural parts
of the state, during the past 15 years? Part of the reason lies in
how powerfully addictive meth is - and what a high rate of relapse
recovering meth addicts have.

"Meth users need a longer period of time to get their head clear and
a longer period of treatment. Meth is a super-addictive drug,"
Woolery said. "But any way you cut it, it's costing society to allow
people to continue those cycles."

Between 1994 and 1995, the percentage of Iowa adults in treatment
who reported meth as their primary drug of abuse more than tripled,
from 2.2 percent to 7.3 percent. By 1998, 12 percent of all Iowa
adults in addiction treatment reported meth as their primary drug of abuse.

Meth lab busts continued to rise, too. In 1994, law enforcement
reported just two meth lab incidents in Iowa. The number jumped to
320 in 1998, more than doubled in 1999, and doubled again in 2004.

The 2005 pseudoephedrine-control law caused the number of meth lab
incidents in Iowa to drop precipitously.

Recent state data show that, even as meth lab incidents in Iowa have
declined, meth abuse has not.

The number of meth labs seized in Iowa dropped from 1,500 in 2004 to
345 in 2006. Through September 2007, law enforcement reported 107
meth labs being seized in Iowa.

However, the number of people seeking treatment has not seen that
dramatic decline.

The percentage of people getting treatment for meth addiction has
dipped only slightly - from 14.6 percent of all treatment admissions
in the state in 2004 to 13.6 percent in 2006.

In 2006, more than 6,000 Iowans received treatment for meth
addiction, according to the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy.

And Iowa still has the eighth-highest rate of meth addiction in the country.

"The demand has not decreased," said Gary Kendell, director of the
Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy and a former attorney who
prosecuted drug cases. "Meth is the biggest illicit drug in Iowa."

Since 1992, treatment admissions for methamphetamine abuse have
increased sevenfold nationwide, to more than 150,000 people,
according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A majority of
those addicts don't have health insurance.

In Iowa's prisons, the problem is even more apparent.

Twenty years ago, 2 percent of prisoners in the Iowa Department of
Corrections system were drug offenders. Now, 27 percent of Iowa's
8,800 prisoners are in the slammer for drug offenses - the majority
of those being meth, said Fred Scaletta, spokesman for the
Department of Corrections.

Iowa's prisons run 17 different licensed substance abuse programs.
The in-prison treatment programs - which cost just over $3 million
in 2007 - focus on how values and belief systems lead to thinking
patterns, which in turn lead to addictive behavior.

An estimated 80 percent to 85 percent of Iowa's prisoners have a
substance abuse problem. Still, only 40 percent of Iowa's prisoners
with substance abuse problems ever receive treatment, said Jeanette
Bucklew, the deputy director of offender services for
the Department of Corrections.