STUDY FINDS USE OF METH FAR FROM AN 'EPIDEMIC'

Author Cautions Federal Authorities Against Using An Universal
Approach To Drug Problem

A new study finds that methamphetamine use might be a serious drug
problem in some cities, but it is far from the national "epidemic"
portrayed by the media in recent years.

The study by The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group that advocates
reforming prison sentencing laws -- particularly those for drug use
- -- warns that hysteria over a perceived meth epidemic might lead to
punitive legislation similar to laws passed in the 1980s that
disproportionately punish crack cocaine users.

"We think (meth use) is very regionally based in certain pockets and
cities. In this report, we're really cautioning against a universal
approach" by the federal government, said Ryan King, a policy analyst
who wrote the report for the nonprofit, based in Washington, D.C.

Houston, for example, saw just 2.1 percent of people arrested in 2003
test positive for meth, according to federal Arrestee Drug Abuse
Monitoring data.

The numbers are dramatically different in West Coast cities. Los
Angeles saw 28.7 percent test positive, while Phoenix had 38.3
percent and San Jose recorded 36.9 percent.

Nationally, meth showed up in just 4.7 percent of arrestees tested in
2003, while cocaine showed up in 30.1 percent. Marijuana showed up in
44.1 percent and heroin 5.8 percent of those arrested.

Devastating effect

Some officials say the study overlooks the devastating impact that
meth -- like crack cocaine -- can have on users, their loved ones and
the community.

"They suggest that meth is not a big problem because there are not a
whole lot of users," said Joe Dunn, associate legislative director of
the National Association of Counties. "Well, there's a lot more
jaywalkers than child molesters -- but at the same time, child
molesters are creating much more devastation."

A National Association of Counties report last year found that about
60 percent of U.S. counties surveyed reported that methamphetamine
presented their region's worst drug problem.

Dunn and King agree at least on one thing: Treatment for meth use is
effective in overcoming addiction to the drug.

Dean Becker, a Houstonian and host of the 420 Drug War News radio
program on KPFT 90.1, has long criticized the media's categorization
of meth use as an epidemic.

"Without some sort of ongoing road-to-hell scenario, the drug war
cannot exist," Becker said, adding that he overcame an addiction to
meth when it was popular in the early 1970s.

"Without death and disease and children's access, the drug war has no
meaning and, therefore, it is necessary that every year or two they
focus on some new drug."

The Sentencing Project found that meth use is rare in most United
States cities, though it is high in certain rural areas and cities in
the western states. Nationally, only 0.2 percent of Americans
regularly used methamphetamine in 2004, while four times as many used
cocaine and 30 times use marijuana, according to National Survey on
Drug Use and Health data.

Of the 1.44 million Americans older than 12 who used methamphetamine
in 2004, about 583,000 were regular users.

Rise in number of users

The study did find that meth use, although relatively low compared
with other drugs, doubled between 1994 and 1999, when 9.4 million
Americans reported using the drug during their lifetime. By 2004, the
number had increased 30 percent to 12 million Americans. The study,
however, points out that use among regular meth users increased by
only 5 percent between 1999 and 2004.

"The distinction is that even one-time users are still considered
lifetime users, although they clearly do not suffer from current
abuse," the study states. Since 2002, about 300,000 "new initiates"
tried meth for the first time, according to federal data.

The record for new users in a single year, however, was set in 1975,
when 400,000 new people tried meth for the first time.

Harsh penalty concern

While treatment for meth use increased more than fivefold between
1993 and 2003, only about 6.3 percent of total substance abuse
treatment admissions in 2003 were for meth use. Recent legislative
responses to meth use have largely been at the state level, where
legislatures have passed laws restricting pseudoephedrine-based cold
pills, a key ingredient in some home-based meth laboratories.

King worries that the federal government might be leaning toward the
passage of laws that would harshly penalize meth users at a time when
many prisons are occupied by people convicted on minor drug possession offenses.