METH: THE OVERSTATED ADDICTION

The Department of Justice has declared today National Methamphetamine
Awareness Day. What better way to observe it than taking a break from
the hype? Rather than repeating the popular fiction about
methamphetamine (that use is skyrocketing, that only stepped up
policing will counter the trend, and that addiction is untreatable),
let's take a moment today to consider the evidence.

First, methamphetamine use is not prevalent. Although some 12 million
Americans have tried methamphetamine, this is far fewer than the
number who have tried inhalants (23 million), hallucinogens (34
million), cocaine (34 million), or marijuana (96 million). Of those
who have tried methamphetamine, only 1.5 million have used the drug in
the last year; and only 583,000 have used it within the last 30 days.

There is no indication that methamphetamine use is increasing. The
proportion of Americans who use methamphetamine on a monthly basis has
hovered in the range of 0.2 percent-0.3 percent since 1999. In fact,
according to the 2005 Monitoring the Future survey, the percentage of
high school seniors who reported using methamphetamine in the last
year fell to a low of 2.5 percent in 2005. (Use of depressants,
meanwhile, increased from a low of 2.8 percent in 1992 to around 7
percent in 2005.)

Second, policing is not "taking care" of methamphetamine. While limits
on purchases of precursors have pushed many illicit labs out of our
neighborhoods, the drug is still being manufactured -- just now it's
across the border. Indeed, methamphetamine is now as available and
cheap as it has ever been. This comes as no surprise. As long as
demand for an illegal drug exists, there will be supply to meet it.

While policing has failed to curtail use of methamphetamine, it has
successfully overloaded our jails and prisons. In the 1980s-90s,
California followed national trends by relying increasingly on
punishment and prisons as its primary response to arrests for illicit
drug use. The total number of people imprisoned in California for drug
possession quadrupled between 1988 and 2000, peaking at 20,116.

It was in response to this trend that California voters decided to
change tactics. In 2000, 61 percent of California voters passed
Proposition 36, the treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, which
provides treatment to over 35,000 Californians convicted of nonviolent
low-level drug offenses each year. Over half (53 percent) of Prop. 36
participants -- over 19,000 people -- enter treatment for
methamphetamine abuse each year.

Prop. 36 has provided valuable evidence that methamphetamine addiction
is quite treatable. According to state data on Prop. 36,
methamphetamine users have a treatment completion rate of 35 percent,
higher than users of cocaine/crack (32 percent) or heroin (29
percent). Although this was an important learning opportunity for
policymakers, it was not news to treatment specialists. In fact, there
have been at least twenty recent studies showing the efficacy of
methamphetamine treatment.

The next step for policymakers is to provide treatment on demand, so
that people suffering from addiction have access to treatment outside
of the criminal justice system. It is both cheaper and better for
public safety to provide treatment to those who need it sooner rather
than later.

Other evidence shows that California's public health measures have not
gone far enough. Although the Governor signed the Pharmacy Syringe
Sale and Disease Prevention Act in 2004, well under half of
California's 58 counties have implemented the program to allow
nonprescription purchases of up to ten syringes at pharmacies. This is
literally killing some of our state's most vulnerable residents.

According to the California Society of Addiction Medicine, 30-50
percent of those with newly identified HIV-infection use
methamphetamine. Increasing the availability of sterile syringes
through syringe exchange programs, pharmacies, and other outlets is
proven to reduce unsafe injection practices, curtail transmission of
HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, increase safe disposal of used syringes, and
help intravenous drug users obtain drug education and treatment.

The truth about methamphetamine is that its use is not growing
exponentially, that addiction is treatable, and that the risks it
poses to public health can be mitigated.