WASHINGTON—The rising popularity of methamphetamine in the eastern United States indicates a growth in nationwide use of the drug beyond its former domain in California, federal officials said Thursday.
Barry McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's national drug policy director, said methamphetamine was "probably the worst drug to hit America in 20 years."
McCaffrey released a semi-annual report on illicit drug trends that includes information collected from drug researchers, law enforcement officials and substance-abuse treatment workers. It shows the use of the methamphetamine spreading to Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston and Columbia, Md., a suburb of Baltimore and Washington.
Methamphetamine, which is known by such street names as speed, meth, and ice, is a brain stimulant that enhances mood and body movement. It is taken in a variety of forms, including pills, crystals that are smoked and powder that is snorted through the nose.
Dr. Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told a news conference that methamphetamine was "one of the most dangerous drugs we have in front of us."
Side effects of using methamphetamine include irritability, anxiety, paranoia and aggressiveness.
"The violence associated with that drug includes spouse abuse, child abuse and neglect and risks posed by methamphetamine users and manufacturers to law enforcement officers and unsuspecting citizens," said Donnie Marshall, deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the federal government's 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 4.9 million people—or 2.3 percent of the population—had tried methamphetamine at least once in their lifetime.
Methamphetamine abuse is widespread In California, the Office of National Drug Control Policy said in the report.
But the semi-annual report released Thursday contained no specific figures on drug use or statistics on violence linked to methamphetamine.
As a drug that is produced in illegal laboratories, and even in the home, the cheap price and the rush that lasts longer than the high from cocaine are two factors in the growing popularity of methamphetamine.
In a poll taken by the National Institute of Justice in 1996, 45 percent of methamphetamine users reported paranoia, 62 percent reported family problems and 44 percent experienced problems at work.
In addition to the use of methamphetamine, an increase in the use of heroin was reported in Atlanta, Miami, Newark, and San Francisco, McCaffrey said. He attributed the increase to the significant supply available on the world market.
"The stock has no value. Mexican and Colombian heroin, to compete in the market, they're going to go higher purity, lower cost," he said.
The increase in purity gives users more opportunities to snort or smoke heroin instead of injecting it, which appeals to younger users who fear intravenous injection, McCaffrey said.
Another factor contributing to the rising use of heroin is that criminal organizations push both cocaine and heroin, the government said.
The report shows that 75 percent of addicts in treatment for heroin
have problems with
cocaine as well.
Publication Date : 1998-06-26
Copyright 1998 by Simon & Schuster All rights reserved. This copyright material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.