The meth epidemic

[PD.]

Cutting edge special "the meth epidemic". 8.30pm SBS, 27-6-06

CUTTING EDGE - THE METH EPIDEMIC

‘Speed', ‘meth', ‘glass', on the street, methamphetamine has many names. What started as a fad among West Coast motorcycle gangs in the 1970s has spread across the United States and despite lawmakers' calls for action, the drug is now more potent, and more destructive, than at any time in the past decade. This documentary investigates the ‘meth' rampage in America: the appalling impact on individuals, families and communities, and the difficulty of controlling an essential ingredient – ephedrine and pseudoephedrine – sold legally in over-the-counter cold remedies. There are 1.5 million methamphetamine addicts in the US: more than coke and heroin put together and the social cost has been enormous. The documentary reveals that up to 75% of pseudoephedrine products purchased legally is used to produce methamphetamine. Drug multinationals are profiting from the addiction epidemic and they oppose any measures to restrict access to their products. (From the US)

Edited June 27, 2006 by Passive backseat demon engine.

[Leo^]

It wasnt as informative as I thought it would be, but interesting to see the historical aspects.

[Rev]

" you cant grow Ephedrine/pseudo.."

indeed

LOL

[themagicmushroom]

Yeah, I burst out laughing....

[nabraxas]

was also funny to see the head ov the indian company that supplied tons ov ephedrine to mexican cartels blaming the DEA for neglecting to tell him not to.

also that spokesman for the pharma. industry who was justifying their opposition to any restrictions on the sale ov pseudo-ephedrine on the grounds ov customers rights, when it was obvious all it was about was company profits.....is it just me, or did the fact that he was horrendously morbidly obese just seem to fit??

[PD.]

It wasnt as informative as I thought it would be, but interesting to see the historical aspects.

Yeah it was a bit ordinary, i did get a bit of a chuckle out of some parts but.

[spice]

Not a bad little doco, I was entertained.

[Francois le Danque]

" you cant grow Ephedrine/pseudo.."

indeed

LOL

yeah i'm looking at that and i'm like "uhhh, what?"

and that fat guy...i was thinking about that too!

[Legba]

i can now understand how they had a problem locating New Orleans after the floods. congress cant even see a meth epidemic coming til it crosses the Missssippi.

[indigo264nm]

Hahaha I was watching that with my friends the other day as they had it on tape and I went into a short rant as soon as they mentioned that (pseudo)ephedrine can't be grown... considering there is a fucking plant genus called Ephedra hahaha.

Even documentaries which are good still slip up and talk bullshit.

[amanito]

WASHINGTON -- Methamphetamine use is rare in most of the United States, not the raging epidemic described by politicians and the news media, says a study by an advocacy group.

Meth is a dangerous drug but among the least commonly used, The Sentencing Project policy analyst Ryan King wrote in a report issued Wednesday. Rates of use have been stable since 1999, and among teenagers meth use has dropped, King said.

"The portrayal of methamphetamine in the United States as an epidemic spreading across the country has been grossly overstated," King said. The Sentencing Project is a not-for-profit group that supports alternatives to prison terms for convicted drug users and other criminals.

Overheated rhetoric, unsupported assertions and factual errors about the use of the drug _ including frequent, misguided comparisons between meth and crack cocaine _ lead to poor decisions about how to spend precious public dollars combating drug addiction, King said.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy did not immediately comment on the report.

The report cites statistics compiled by the government to make its case, including a 2004 survey that estimated 583,000 people used meth in the past month, or two-10ths of 1 percent of the U.S. population. Four times as many people use cocaine regularly and 30 times as many use marijuana, King said.

A separate survey of high-school students showed a 36 percent drop in meth use between 2001 and 2005.

The report acknowledged that methamphetamine is more widely used today than it was 10 years ago. Data from the jail populations of a handful of cities on the West Coast also show what King called a "highly localized" problem.

Among men arrested in Phoenix, 38.3 percent tested positive for methamphetamine. Figures for other cities are: Los Angeles, 28.7 percent; Portland, Ore., 25.4; San Diego, 36.2 percent; and San Jose, Calif., 36.9 percent.

But nationally, just 5 percent of men who had been arrested had meth in their systems. By contrast, 30 percent tested positive for cocaine and 44 percent for marijuana, the report said, citing government statistics.

Treatment programs for meth also have been portrayed inaccurately, with news reports suggesting that meth users do not respond as well to treatment as users of other drugs, King said. The Bush administration's recent methamphetamine control strategy also referred to a "common misperception that methamphetamine is so addictive that it is impossible to treat."

Programs in 15 states have had promising results, King said.

"Mischaracterizing the impact of methamphetamine by exaggerating its prevalence and consequences while downplaying its receptivity to treatment succeeds neither as a tool of prevention nor a vehicle of education," he wrote.

King called for a tempered approach to the problem, keeping the focus on local trouble spots and using federal money to beef up treatment programs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Study: Meth Use Rare In Most Of The U.S.

Associated Press

June 16, 2006

source: http://www.wral.com/aphealthandwellnewsnew...349/detail.html

[M S Smith]

http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/meth...mine_report.pdf

~Michael~

[other peoples pubes]

There is a story on ICE on '60 Minutes' tonight. Hopefully it is not full of hype.

Mick

[ergoamide]

Dam i missed it i had work, bastards.

EDIT: quick everyone go to www.ninemsn.com.au and go to 60min site and thwe chat room its about the ICE article.

Edited July 9, 2006 by ergoamide

[MORG]

Hopefully it is not full of hype.

Have you ever WATCHED 60 Minutes ???

[faustus]

Have you ever WATCHED 60 Minutes ???

to be fair 60 minutes used to be a pretty decent and balanced show, IMHO of similar quality to foreign correspondent (but i'm fairly young so my perspective may have been a lot more immature back then).

i felt it was a pretty shit piece i'm afraid, mainly scaremongering. which isn't necessarily a problem given that i think meth is nasty stuff, but it was shit scaremongering a la D.A.R.E. e.g. "can you believe it? people think speed is a fun drug... speed kills... just say no".

they should've interviewed toothless baseheads who think there are bugs under their skin or something if they wanted to scare people. they also had a tendency to refer to normal amphetamine with methamphetamine interchangeably which i thought was silly.

if anyone watched the earlier piece on the war in afghanistan, thought that was also a total pro-american wank, which is a little surprising given that they tended to side against the US around the days of the iraqi war.

[gomaos]

"pro-american-wank" indeed, that's all it is...

To hell with the american government telling all of us which drugs to take and which not...

they should eat all their stupid antidepressants and benzoes themselves, the government, that is...

Instead of bombing Columbia because of Cocaine they should shut down and demolish all their whiskley-factories and breweries...

alc being much worse than coke for example...

Edited July 9, 2006 by gomaos

[Legba]

damn media and there policy of avoiding truth to put out a "good story". although, after reading th link MS Smith provided and th infom amanito put up (thanx guys) i dont believe th ICE threat is as bad as th media portray, im still concerned about th potential for destruction of lives and families that this drug has.

it also seems to be providing th media, and those behind their propaganda, amunition for their "drugs are bad" pitch to the public. i guess telling th truth rather than scaremongering would interfere with th govts plans to get more control over the people, and that comes under the heading of evil in my mind.

[ergoamide]

The media do throw this way of proportion and although it does have the potential to destroy what doesn't. Are they gonna take away fast cars coz they kill? Are they gonna stop supplying alcohol because it kills and destroys? They can kill easily but i think meth is harder to OD off requiring alot more of the drug than any person who valued their life would.

I missed the show but went to the chatroom and what a bunch of wanks to say the least, btu there were a few cool people in there with the same veiws but some people were just so intractable on their stance. At one point some asked about anxiety related to it or sumthin so i told her about GABA, this other person on there then tried to show how superior she was and pointe dout i was talking about GHB. I said i wasnt and pointed out what it was, how ti works and that's it's NATURAL to your body btu she wouldnt buy it and proceeded to tell me thats its just another drug and your only replacing one drug wiht another. Some people!

[faustus]

i agree that all drugs of abuse have the potential to cause a lot of suffering, particularly alcohol, but there's something very worrisome about meth. after you watch rats pressing levers compulsively until they either run out of meth or overdose you start to see how these drugs can completely re-program someone's priorities. anything that's pleasurable can do it but meth seems to have so many things that make it an ideal candidate: smokeable, cheap, long-lasting, potent and pure. and unlike many other drugs chronic low-dose adminstration can cause psychosis relatively quickly. from having known a couple of addicts, i think baseheads are insane and very dangerous.

[indigo264nm]

they should've interviewed toothless baseheads who think there are bugs under their skin or something if they wanted to scare people. they also had a tendency to refer to normal amphetamine with methamphetamine interchangeably which i thought was silly.

I don't pretend to be an expert on the matter but normal amphetamine usually isn't available in australia except prescription from my knowledge. There has been countless discussions on bluelight on the matter.

Speed in aus in just dirty meth.

However what I love is how people refer to base as 'pure' amongst many other names, considering base although purified 'speed' is still dirty as. People who eat lots of it tend to end up with pretty fucked up stomachs.

[PD.]

However what I love is how people refer to base as 'pure' amongst many other names

hahahaha, goob

thats what it used to be called around here.

Goob........... is as pure as the bogans can get.

horrible stuff.

[Pala]

I don't know if all the powers that be are conspiring together, but the public's interest (and who knows the public's interest better than the media that fosters said interest) in meth is almost ubiquitous among TV programs. I was fermenting yesterday in front of the TV and noticed that both Law and Order and Boston Legal were concerned with the drug.

Maybe, maybe not.

[stonewolf]

I personally find there is a problem with ice in australia, at least in the 18-25 year old demographic of which i belong. Kids who used to have a bit of fun with goey every once in a while are smoking ice a few times a week. because it is as even the media can recognise a good deal more addictive than its weaker cousin. Not that there are alot of people on national scale using it, my noticing it is likely a byproduct of surrounding myself with people who have no fear of drug use.

[devance]

I think theres going to be a Aus. problem.

But how to handle it in Aus,

Meth is a needle problem which in the U.S.

should have handled by medical experts insteat of politicians [may all their souls rot in hell].