Pubdate: Fri, 09 Sep 2005
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2005 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Jacob Sullum
Note: Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine and a nationally
syndicated columnist.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

'SPEED' TRAPS: RETHINKING METH HYPE

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says thousands may have died when
Hurricane Katrina hit the city, which would make it one of the worst
natural disasters in U.S. history. But if we can believe
government-sponsored warnings, methamphetamine kills a similar number
every week.

That extravagant claim came to light as a result of the Bush
administration's decision to join forces with the nation's most
extreme methamphetamine alarmists, whom the Office of National Drug
Control Policy not long ago accused of "crying meth." In response to
criticism it was devoting insufficient attention and money to the
latest drug scare, the administration decided to participate in the
panic.

"Meth has spread like wildfire across the United States," Karen Tandy,
head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, told a recent press
conference where she announced more than 400 methamphetamine-related
arrests. "It has burned out communities, scorched childhoods, and
charred once happy and productive lives beyond recognition."

Throwing in another disaster metaphor for good measure, Miss Tandy
declared the Bush administration's "commitment to extinguishing this
plague."

As further evidence of that commitment, the DEA launched a Web site,
justthinktwice.com, that seeks to scare teenagers away from meth with
tactics that are bound to backfire. For example, the site presents an
ominous list of chemicals used to produce methamphetamine, including
"lye, drain cleaner, iodine, battery acid, cold medicine -- and other
things you'd never dream of putting in your body." The implication --
that meth users might as well be consuming lye or drain cleaner -- may
be daunting, but only to those who believe people routinely drop dead
the first time they try the stuff.

As usual with anti-drug propaganda, the DEA implies the worst outcomes
are typical: If you are stupid enough to try meth, you will end up a
broken-down shell of your former self, your dreams shattered, your
relationships ruined, your teeth rotten. "Some say it's great, but
it's really your worst nightmare," the DEA warns. "With meth, you put
your future behind you."

The DEA's site includes a conspicuous link to "Meth Is Death," a site
sponsored by the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference. The
latter site claims "1 in 7 high school students will try meth"; "99
percent of first-time meth users are hooked after just the first try";
"only 5 percent of meth addicts are able to kick it and stay away";
and "the life expectancy of a habitual meth user is only 5 years."

Do the math (which the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference
clearly didn't), and you will see 13.4 percent of Americans die as a
result of methamphetamine abuse within five years of graduating from
high school. According to the Census Bureau, there are more than 20
million 15-to-19-year-olds in the U.S., so we are talking about
hundreds of thousands of deaths a year, and that's not even counting
people who start using meth after high school.

Such ridiculous claims, now implicitly DEA-endorsed , can only
undermine legitimate warnings about methamphetamine hazards. The
federal government's own survey data indicate the vast majority of
people who try meth do not escalate to addiction, let alone die as a
result.

In the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 6 percent of
people who have tried methamphetamine report using it in the last
month, which does not necessarily indicate addiction but is surely a
minimum requirement. According to data from the National Comorbidity
Survey, perhaps 1 in 10 stimulant users ever experiences "drug
dependence."

Life-ruining addiction is the exception, not the rule, for people who
try methamphetamine. Is this truth too dangerous to admit? To the
contrary: Since the reality is familiar to anyone who knows
experimenters or occasional users, denying it is dangerous.

Likewise, problems experienced by methamphetamine abusers and those to
them could surely be acknowledged without insisting we are in the
midst of a meth "epidemic." Again, the federal government's own data
contradict this description, indicating meth use nationwide has been
flat or declining in recent years among both adults and teenagers.

The DEA sums up well in one of the few accurate statements on its new
Web site: "Discussion of the drug issue is sometimes filled with
emotion, inaccuracies and wishful thinking. In many cases, what is
represented as 'fact' is really fiction."

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine and a nationally
syndicated columnist.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin