DATA SHOWS NO NEED FOR SPECIAL METH TREATMENT

The good news is some of the bad news about methamphetamine is wrong.

"I haven't seen the data that support the idea that meth users are
hopeless," Antoinette Krupski told a legislative committee in Casper on Monday.

Methamphetamine remains a hideous drug with terrible social and law
enforcement consequences, said Krupski, who works with the Washington
Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse.

But she emphatically disputed the conventional wisdom that meth's
addiction and treatment require a separate war on drugs.

"We see very positive outcomes with people with a primary
methamphetamine addiction," Krupski told the Legislature's Select
Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

If methamphetamine addicts -- both adults and youth -- complete
treatment programs, they are no more or less likely to require
readmission to treatment programs, lose their jobs or be arrested
than those who complete treatment for other drugs, she said, citing a
report on the division's Web site www1.dshs.wa.gov/dasa.

Committee Co-chairman Rep. Colin Simpson, R-Cody, wondered if the
length of treatment required for methamphetamine might affect that data.

Krupski responded that lengths of treatment in Washington for
addictions to alcohol and other drugs average about 90 days.

Treatment required for methamphetamine is not significantly longer
than that, she added.

Allison Colker, a lawyer and substance abuse expert for the National
Conference of State Legislatures, was just as emphatic.

"There's a lot of misinformation about methamphetamine in the length
of treatment and brain changes," Colker said.

Methamphetamine is more toxic to the brain than other drugs, she said.

But if addicts complete treatment and stay abstinent, their brain
functions return to normalcy in about 24 months, Colker said.

Much of the misinformation about methamphetamine arose from limited
early studies about the drug, she said.

Colker did not minimize meth-caused psychosis and its characteristic
symptoms of bad teeth, eating and sleeping disorders, and the
scratching of the skin.

She also did not disagree with the efforts of anti-meth task forces
and stores keeping medicines with pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed,
behind the counter, either.

But the media -- drawn to the extreme stories of toxic chemicals,
violence, and child neglect and abuse -- have exaggerated the
addictive power of methamphetamine and its length and kind of
treatment, Colker and Krupski said.

Krupski heads a small staff in the state's division of alcohol and
substance abuse that has been collecting data from health care
providers, law enforcement and other agencies since the late 1980s.

Washington's efforts to track problems of alcohol and other drugs
have lead to saving money in state agencies and reductions in
arrests, Krupski said.

The state began collecting data about substance abuse and treatment
when its Legislature years ago asked the division of alcohol and
substance abuse's then-new director Kenneth Stark about the
effectiveness of the money used for treatment.

Stark had no idea, and no data, about how many people were in
treatment programs, Krupski said.

So Stark began the difficult job of asking health care providers and
agencies for data on treatment, she said.

After much resistance, health care workers began submitting their
data and Washington began assembling a database which has been used
by other states, Krupski said.

Legislators from other states react with "disbelief initially" when
they hear about the hope for treating methamphetamine addiction, she said.

"The press has been dominated by reports from criminal justice and
child welfare," Krupski said. "Those are extremes; not all meth
addiction gets to that extreme."

While not minimizing the dangers of methamphetamine, she said the
current crisis mimics concerns about other drugs such as crack
cocaine in the 1980s and LSD in the 1960s.

Based on the research, Krupski said specialized treatment for
methamphetamine is not necessary.

Until Monday, Wyoming Department of Health Director Dr. Brent Sherard
had not seen Washington's data about methamphetamine treatment.

The department has been asking communities about their concerns over
substance abuse and treatment, Sherard said.

He did not know whether the data collected by Washington would
encourage communities to not set up programs for methamphetamine that
are separate from treatment programs for alcohol and other drugs, he said.

"Accurate data is essential to make these kinds of decisions," Sherard said.