(USA) Methamphetamine overdose deaths rise sharply nationwide (USA)

[Joey]

Methamphetamine overdose deaths rise sharply nationwide

NIH-supported study finds biggest increase among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

www.nih.gov

Methamphetamine overdose deaths surged in an eight-year period in the United States, according to a study that will published today in JAMA Psychiatry. The analysis revealed rapid rises across all racial and ethnic groups, but American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest death rates overall. The research was conducted at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

“While much attention is focused on the opioid crisis, a methamphetamine crisis has been quietly, but actively, gaining steam—particularly among American Indians and Alaska Natives, who are disproportionately affected by a number of health conditions,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., NIDA director and a senior author of the study. “American Indian and Alaska Native populations experience structural disadvantages but have cultural strengths that can be leveraged to prevent methamphetamine use and improve health outcomes for those living with addiction.”

Recent national data show that most people who use methamphetamine are between 25 and 54 years old, so the investigators limited their analysis to this age group. When they examined data from this population as a whole, they found a surge in overdose deaths. Deaths involving methamphetamines rose from 1.8 to 10.1 per 100,000 men, and from 0.8 to 4.5 per 100,000 women. This represents a more than five-fold increase from 2011 to 2018.

 

[Joey]

This is something that I've talked about before. The opoid crisis is terrible - but there's very little media attention paid to the meth epidemic. Crystal meth has also been skyrocketing, even more than opoids where I live. It doesn't get the attention or care that it should and I'm glad I found this article. The problem is meth users do not garner the same sort of empathy that users of other drugs like opoids get, because it's stigmatized as being the dirtiest drug there is. Meth addicts also don't die nearly as often or as suddenly too. So although this spike is there, it's still not as newsworthy as fentanyl... in my opinion meth is equally as damaging to society and this should be paid more attention to.

 

[CfZrx]

totally. And it seems like a much more miserable death than from an opioid. ALso there is an article about this some years back saying that in Washington State in 2016 or 2017 or around there, meth overdoses overtook death from heroin overdoses!

 

[MyrandaK]

I just came to this thread to emphasize the fact that injecting drugs is the most dangerous way to take them. Smoking is the safest, for meth in particular. It gets in your blood stream much faster (you don’t have to get your needle ready and find a vein), you don’t risk deadly blood infections, you don’t become addicted to the needle and get blood diseases, if one hit isn’t enough, you do another one and repeat until satisfied. There’s nothing to be gained from injecting besides trouble and a hard time. Collapsed veins, hepatitis and HIV, and a serious risk of overdose.

 

[Snafu in the Void]

I remember some cop saying "I see your opioid crisis and I will raise you my meth hell"

Opioids are the deceiving, silent angel of death, but meth is much more destructive by nature.

 

[dalpat077]

Interestingly enough and while browsing through DEA publications today (for reasons which I’m sure will be of no interest to anyone) it would seem that, of late, Meth. (and Fentanyl) related seizures and cases are relatively many when compared to the rest. And that’s just what’s being published i.e. only higher profile type seizures and cases.

 

[S.J.B.]

It's important to remember that these statistics refer to "deaths involving [methamphetamine]," which includes deaths where the person who died took any number of other drugs, as long as the coroner decided that methamphetamine was involved in the death. My guess is that this increase is largely driven by polydrug toxicity involving opioids.