Meth Use - Monitoring the Future Study (MTF)*
MTF assesses the extent of drug use among adolescents (8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders) and young adults across the country. Recent data from the survey indicate the following:
In 2003, 6.2 percent of high school seniors had reported lifetime use of methamphetamine, statistically unchanged from 6.9 percent in 2001. Lifetime use was measured at 5.2 percent of 10th grade students and 3.9 percent of 8th-graders.
Annual use remained stable at 3.3 percent in 2003 among 10th-graders and at 3.2 percent among seniors.
Community Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG)**
Results reported at the most recent CEWG meeting indicate that methamphetamine abuse and production continue at high levels in Hawaii, west coast areas, and some southwestern areas of the United States—but methamphetamine abuse also is continuing to spread eastward to urban, suburban, and rural areas at a pace unrivaled by any other drug in recent times.
The percentage of adult male arrestees testing methamphetamine-positive increased in 10 CEWG areas between 2001 and 2003. The percentages were highest in Honolulu (43.8 percent), San Diego (36.7), Phoenix (38.5), Los Angeles (14.8), and Seattle (10.9).
Several other items of significance were reported, as follows:
In 2002, 46 percent of the 15,676 methamphetamine lab incidents were reported in 9 sites located in middle America: Missouri (2,788), Iowa (862), Kansas (763), Oklahoma (595), Tennessee (560), Illinois (551), Arkansas (398), Kentucky (372), and Nebraska (272).
In the first 6 months of 2003, more than 56 percent of substance abuse treatment admissions in Hawaii were for primary methamphetamine abuse. San Diego followed, with nearly 51 percent.
Some MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine users are switching to methamphetamine, ignorant of its severe toxicity.
In many gay clubs found throughout New York City and elsewhere, methamphetamine is often used in an injectable form, placing users and their partners at risk for transmission of HIV, hepatitis C, and other STDs.
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)***
According to the 2002 NSDUH, 12.4 million Americans age 12 and older had tried methamphetamine at least once in their lifetimes (5.3 percent of the population), with the majority of past-year users between 18 and 34 years of age.
Notes
* These data are from the 2003 Monitoring the Future Survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, DHHS, and conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The survey has tracked 12th-graders' illicit drug use and related attitudes since 1975; in 1991, 8th- and 10th-graders were added to the study. The latest data are online at www.drugabuse.gov.** CEWG is a NIDA-sponsored network of researchers from 21 major U.S. metropolitan areas and selected foreign countries who meet semiannually to discuss the latest epidemiology of drug abuse. CEWG's most recent reports are available at http://www.drugabuse.gov/about/organization/cewg/pubs.html.
*** NSDUH (formerly known as the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) is an annual survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Findings from the latest survey are available at www.samhsa.gov.
-This text came from NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse)
