IV METH USE MAKES BILLINGS' PROBLEM UNIQUE

Montanans should be concerned about a "stunningly large number of IV
methamphetamine users," Dr. Donald Vereen Jr., a deputy director at the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Friday in Billings.

Vereen said that information he heard on his visit to Billings this week
concerning the volume of intravenous methamphetamine abuse makes Montana's
problem unique. Greater intravenous drug abuse increases the risk of
transmitting the AIDS virus and the hepatitis C virus. Both of these
incurable infectious diseases are known to be spread through needle-sharing
by drug users. (Methamphetamine addicts also snort or smoke the drug.)

"Montana is facing a huge, huge health problem because of that finding,"
said Vereen, a psychiatrist and public health expert. "The methamphetamine
problem is even more of an emergency because of that. You're going to end
up paying for the health problems."

Sixty-three percent of the first 70 methamphetamine addicts to enroll in an
outpatient treatment research project at the Mental Health Center in
Billings have been IV users, project director Denna Vandersloot reported
Thursday. And more than half of those who said they injected
methamphetamine also said they had shared needles with other addicts.

That preliminary data indicates that IV methamphetamine abuse is
significantly higher in Montana than at the other six study sites in
California and Hawaii, Vandersloot reported.

Among all people coming into state-paid inpatient and outpatient programs
in recent years for all chemical addictions, between 20 percent and 30
percent have reported some history of injecting drug abuse, according to
statistics from the state Addictive and Mental Disorders Division.