METH USE RECEDING IN SOME REGIONS

At one Minneapolis-area high school, the methamphetamine problem got
so bad in recent years that staff members sometimes caught students
trying to attend class while high.

But this year's been notably different, says Deborah Mosby, a high
school drug counselor in Spring Lake Park, Minn.

It's a positive sign in a state that is one of many hard hit by the
meth epidemic - and one of several early indications that a drug
that's long been a scourge is losing its grip, at least in some
communities.

Last year, federal officials and many states reported that the numbers
of small "mom-and-pop" methamphetamine labs were dropping, a result
largely attributed to the crackdown on the sale of pseudoephedrine and
similar cold medicine ingredients used to make meth.

Officials feared that methamphetamine from Mexico would simply fill
the void. And while authorities in some places have noticed an uptick
in imported meth, others are hopeful that meth use is starting to wane.

Some examples:

- -In Minnesota's Twin Cities, meth-related emergency room visits
dropped from 1,402 in 2005 to 251 in 2006, according to a recent
report by the nonprofit Hazelden Foundation.

- -In Montana, a new report from that state's attorney general noted
that meth-related crime fell 53 percent in 2006, compared with the
previous year. They also found that, while meth remains a big problem
there, the overall rate of employees in Montana who tested positive
for meth was down more than 70 percent from 2005 to last year.

- -In the San Francisco Bay area, meth-related emergency room visits
leveled off in 2006, after peaking the previous two years. Decline in
meth use has been particularly notable among gay men, following
efforts in their community to spread the word about the drug's ill
effects, says John Newmeyer, who heads San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury
Free Clinics. In addition to causing paranoid, aggressive behavior,
meth is known for its harsh physical effects - from sunken eyes and
bone-thin frames to teeth that turn gray and deteriorate.

Newmeyer believes such effects have helped change attitudes about meth
for "probably the same reasons we saw the decline 10 years ago with
African-Americans and crack cocaine."

"It just became not the thing to do," says Newmeyer, who tracks his
region's drug numbers for the federal government.

The news isn't good everywhere - especially on the East Coast, where
meth became a problem more recently.

South Florida has, for instance, continued to see a steady increase in
meth-related deaths, from 77 in 2003 to 115 last year. It's also more
of an urban problem than a rural one, with much of the meth coming
from Mexico by way of Atlanta, says Jim Hall, executive director of
the Up Front Drug Information Center in Miami.

Others have noted surges in use in the Hispanic community - and also
the advent of strawberry and other flavored meth, aimed at renewing
interest in the drug.

Still, for much of the country, researchers say it appears this latest
meth epidemic reached its peak in 2004 and 2005.

Data from the federal government shows that the number of first-time
meth users has steadily declined in recent years.

And Quest Diagnostics Inc. - a New Jersey company that maintains a
national drug testing index based on millions of tests each year -
found that 16 out of every 10,000 drug tests in the general work force
came back positive for meth in 2006. That compares with 26 in 2005 and
33 the year before that.

While they still remain above the national average for overall
positive tests for the amphetamine class of drugs, Idaho, Wyoming, New
Mexico, Hawaii and Georgia saw the biggest drops in those positive
tests, says Quest researcher Barry Sample.

Some law enforcement officials also are starting to feel less
overwhelmed by methamphetamine - and, in some cases, seeing interest
in the Mexican-made form of the drug decline.

"We expected a big switch (to Mexican meth) - and for a while there
was," says Eric Schober, a police lieutenant with the criminal
intelligence unit in Portland, Ore.

But in recent months, he says, he's seen the price of Mexican meth go
up to more than $1,000 an ounce, compared with $600 to $700 in the
state's meth heyday.

He says the purity of that meth also has been cut from 90 percent to
about 50 percent - perhaps a sign of a dwindling supply.

Meanwhile, he and others are seeing more interest in powder cocaine,
which - like meth - is a dangerous stimulant.

Lisa Madigan, the state attorney general in Illinois, isn't ready to
declare victory in her state but says the significant reduction in
meth lab seizures has been a positive first step.

"There's simply a difference in the impact that the mom-and-pop labs
have - in the cost to families and in cleaning them up," says Madigan,
who has helped push drug stores to comply with pseudoephedrine limits
in her state.

In addition to those types of laws, many experts say state and
community efforts aimed at curbing meth use also have been key.

They include the Montana Meth Project, a public service campaign with
stark, edgy ads that depict the horrors of meth. Some critics view the
approach as one-dimensional.

"They see a dollar spent on prevention as a dollar not spent on
enforcement. But it's all important," says Tom Siebel, the project's
founder and main funder.

The Montana attorney general's report credits the program with helping
change attitudes about meth - and cites a survey in which 93 percent
of Montana students considered meth a "great risk."

Elsewhere, residents are taking it upon themselves to fight meth,
including in the Dodge Flower and Dodge Oak neighborhoods in Tucson,
Ariz., where the theme is "Meth Get Outta Dodge."

They recently sponsored a workshop for the neighborhoods' many
landlords to teach them how to do tenant background checks, legal
property inspections and immediate evictions for criminal activity.

"We still have a meth problem; it hasn't cured it," says Barbara
Lehmann, president of the Dodge Flower neighborhood association. "But
I do feel hopeful. I mean, I'm still living in the neighborhood, right?"