Meth | Addiction Treatment Strategies

Stimulant drugs, which can increase energy and concentration, are widely abused by young adults. One such drug are amphetamines, which in addition to being widely accessible, has been shown in previous studies to have a significant relationship between its abuse and the amount of alcohol consumed.
The results will be published in the March 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
Craig R. Rush, senior author of the study and Professor of Behavioral
Science, Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Kentucky, said that
there is a direct epidemiological link…

Scientists are reporting development of three promising formulations that could be used in a vaccine to treat methamphetamine addiction — one of the most serious drug abuse problems in the U.S. The report appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
In the paper, Kim Janda and colleagues note that methamphetamine use and addiction cost the U.S. more than $23 billion annually due to medical and law enforcement expenses, as well as lost productivity. The drug, also called “meth” or “crystal meth,” can cause a variety of problems including cardiovascular damage and death. Meth is highly addictive, and…

People who abused methamphetamine or other amphetamine-like stimulants were more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those who did not, in a new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
 The researchers examined almost 300,000 hospital records from California covering 16 years. Patients admitted to hospital for methamphetamine or amphetamine-use disorders had a 76 per cent higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease compared to those with no disorder.
Globally, methamphetamine and similar stimulants are the second most commonly used class of illicit drugs.
“This study provides evidence of this…

Federal budget cutbacks have forced many states to severely reduce efforts to shut down methamphetamine labs and clean up the toxic waste left behind. Missouri has found a way around this problem by developing its own program for safe disposal of meth lab waste.
In many states, agencies have had to abandon tactics to confront meth manufacturers, after the federal government in February canceled a program that provided $19.2 million in 2010 to assist local agencies in disposing of meth labs, according to the Associated Press. Since then, the number of seized meth labs has dropped by one-third in Tennessee and Arkansas, and by two-thirds in…

Pure, potent methamphetamine is appearing on the streets of Tucson, courtesy of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
Domestic production of meth was drastically reduced in 2005, when legislation was passed that restricted the availability of meth’s main ingredient, pseudoephedrine, found in cold medicines. Now, Mexican drug manufacturing operations have refined their techniques, making the drug more potent and worrisome to law enforcement officials.
The article notes Tucson is a major distribution hub of this new meth. At least 450 pounds of meth was seized by the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector this year…

While many states are being forced to pull back on methamphetamine lab cleanups because of federal funding cuts, Indiana has been able to buck the trend. The state has increased the number of meth labs it has found and destroyed by 33 percent in the first half of this year compared with 2008.
Indiana has been able to cut the costs of finding and destroying meth labs by partnering with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to set up temporary disposal sites, according to The Journal & Courier. There are 10 such sites throughout Indiana. Through the DEA program, troopers who receive special training package materials they find at a…

According to a new UNODC report, amphetamine-type stimulants – or ATS – in particular methamphetamine, are widely used in East and South-East Asia and are now ranked among the top-three drugs of use in every single one of the 11 countries reviewed. Moreover, in some East and South-East Asian countries, ATS have become the primary drug threat, displacing traditionally-used drugs such as heroin, opium or even cannabis.
UNODC’s latest ATS report estimates that between a range of 3.4 million and 20.7 million people in the region have used amphetamines in the past year – a sizeable portion of the estimated 14 million to…