METH NUMBERS RISING STEADILY

Drug Kills Twice As Many People Now As Four Years Ago

DENVER - The grim toll of methamphetamine is worsening in Colorado, with
the drug killing twice as many people as it did four years ago and putting
more abusers in treatment centers than cocaine.

Methamphetamine-related deaths rose from 16 in 1995-1998 to 38 from
1999-2002. And meth abusers accounted for 22.8 percent of admissions to
treatment centers last year, compared with 22.4 percent for cocaine, the
Rocky Mountain News reported in Monday's editions.

A dozen years ago, cocaine was responsible for 40 percent of admissions,
and methamphetamine, 3 percent. The turnaround surprised experts. "That's
never happened before," said Bruce Mendelson, director of data evaluation
for the Colorado Department of Human Services Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division.

The drug is also causing problems for Colorado law-enforcement officers,
who busted about 25 clandestine meth labs annually in the mid-90s and now
destroy about 500 a year.

Police also linked the drug to high-profile violence in the past month. A
Longmont man accused of stabbing his girlfriend's young sons told
investigators he was high on methamphetamine, and police said they found
the drug in a car that crashed into another vehicle during a high-speed
chase in Thornton, killing a teenager.

Methamphetamine's ingredients can be found in drugstores, and it can be
made almost anywhere - including in the backs of trucks and in rental
storage units.

It is cheaper than cocaine, and its high can last 12 hours, initially
giving the user a feeling of indestructibility and inexhaustible energy.

"People are taking (methamphetamine) to work longer hours" as it gets
tougher to make ends meet on 40 hours of work, Mendelson said.

"They stay awake longer hours but have to pay the piper afterward. They'll
be dealing with depression and appetite problems, kidney problems."

Over time, the drug can also cause psychosis, hallucinations, heart damage
and death, experts say.