Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 Source: Des Moines Register (IA) Copyright: 2006 The Des Moines Register. Contact: http://desmoinesregister.com/index.html Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/123 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) CAUTION URGED OVER METH-USE STUDY Iowa's drug czar and the author of a new study on methamphetamine use nationally hope Iowans and policy-makers don't misunderstand new findings on the rates of meth abuse. The study released this month by the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., said rates of meth abuse have been stable nationally since 1999 and have dropped significantly among teenagers. It also says meth's portrayal as an epidemic nationally has been exaggerated, and cites 2004 government statistics showing fewer than 1 percent of Americans had used the highly addictive drug in the past month, or roughly 583,000 people. Both Marv Van Haaften, who heads Iowa's office of drug control policy, and Ryan King, the study's author, believe meth addiction is a serious problem in certain areas of the country. King, whose organization opposes incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders, said reaction to the study has been highly controversial, with many people accusing him of being "completely out of touch." "The study says clearly that we think meth has devastating consequences for individual communities, but we were trying to take a national perspective," he said Friday. "We knew it was going to be going out on a limb. We just didn't realize how much. I think it just speaks to the need to address the problem smartly." While meth abuse is not a serious problem in much of the East, demand for meth treatment in Iowa remains high: About 14.4 percent of roughly 43,000 adults who have sought help this year for addiction cite meth as their drug of choice. Including youths, the proportion is 15.6 percent. That's only a slight dip in demand from 2005 numbers, when the proportion was 15.8 percent for adults and juveniles, Van Haaften said. Nationally, Iowa has the eighth highest rate of meth addiction in the country. That's also a slight improvement from a couple of years ago, when the state had the fourth-highest rate of addiction. Van Haaften said he agreed with the Sentencing Project's advocacy for drug treatment. "The study says let's treat people more than incarcerate them. That I find palatable," he said. Next year, Van Haaften and Gary Maynard, Iowa Department of Corrections director, also plan to make a push at the Legislature to convert one of the state's prisons in 2008 to one that treats drug offenders exclusively. About three in five Iowa inmates were incarcerated for meth-related offenses in 2005. The program would be modeled after one of the largest drug-treatment prisons in the country in Sheridan, Ill. The Iowa facility would not likely have all the trimmings of the Sheridan model, but its goal -- reducing recidivism -- would be the same. Legislators passed this year on efforts to increase funding for meth treatment, but Van Haaften said he believes they will be supportive of a drug-treatment prison. A law passed last year restricting the sale of meth's main ingredient, pseudoephedrine, led to a 76 percent decline in meth labs found across the state. But imported meth continues to be widely available for addicts in Iowa. King said prison-based drug treatment programs that sequester drug inmates from others in the prison population and provide a 24-hour therapeutic environment show promise. However, national research on the effectiveness of such programs won't be available unless more states initiate similar programs, which he said is likely. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath