Uses
Methamphetamine can come in many forms and can be used by smoking, snorting, eating, or injecting it into the body. Different forms alter different moods. When the drug is smoked or injected, the user will experience a pleasurable intense rush that lasts for a couple of minutes. Snorting or oral ingestion produces euphoria that causes a high instead of a intense rush. Snorting produces an effect within 3 to 5 minutes and an oral ingestion produces effects within 15 to 20 minutes.
Methamphetamine abuse is more concentrated in the western, southwestern, and midwestern United States, but it is still spreading eastward . According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 12.3 million Americans ages 12 and older or 5.2 % of the population reported trying methamphetamine at least once during their lifetimes. Users are usually high school or college students, white and blue collar workers, and unemployed people in the ages of 20-30. Methamphetamine is about equally divided among males and females, but there has been an increase in use in the Hispanic and Native Americans communities, but whites have a higher percent tenency of doing methamphetamine. It is also common in biker gangs and truck drivers.
Meth has emerged as one of the most dangerous “homegrown” drugs in the U.S., and its clinical abuse causes public health risks. Methamphetamine has also been ranked as the most widely used illicit drug in the world after marijuana. It has impacted the rural and suburban areas. Treatment admission rates for persons aged 12 years and older have drastically risen over the past decade from 10 per 100,000 in 1992 to 52 per 100,000 in 2002. In 2002, 14 states said that there were more admissions resulting from methamphetamine than heroin and cocaine combined.
Number* of Persons Reporting Nonmedical Use of Methamphetamine, 2002-2005
|
|
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
|
Lifetime use |
12,383 |
12,303 |
11,726 |
10,357 |
|
Past year use |
1,541 |
1,315 |
1,440 |
1,297 |
|
Past month use |
597 |
607 |
583 |
512 |
|
* Numbers are in thousands |
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Percent of Students Reporting Methamphetamine Use, 2005–20067
|
|
8th Grade |
10th Grade |
12th Grade |
|||
|
2005 |
2006 |
2005 |
2006 |
2005 |
2006 |
|
| Past month |
0.7 |
0.6 |
1.1 |
0.7 |
0.9 |
0.9 |
| Past year |
1.8 |
1.8 |
2.9 |
1.8 |
2.5 |
2.5 |
| Lifetime |
3.1 |
2.7 |
4.1 |
3.2 |
4.5 |
4.4 |
Percent of Students Reporting Lifetime Meth Use, 2001–2005
|
|
2001 |
2003 |
2005 |
|
9th grade |
8.1% |
6.7% |
5.7% |
|
10th grade |
9.7 |
7.5 |
5.9 |
|
11th grade |
9.2 |
8.0 |
6.7 |
|
12th grade |
12.8 |
8.0 |
6.4 |
|
Total |
9.8 |
7.6 |
6.2 |
Percent of Prisoners Reporting Methamphetamine Use, 1997 and 2004
|
|
State Prisoners |
Federal Prisoners |
||
|
1997 |
2004 |
1997 |
2004 |
|
|
At time of offense |
3.5% |
6.1% |
3.7% |
7.2% |
|
In month before offense |
6.9 |
10.8 |
6.5 |
10.1 |
|
Regularly* |
11.2 |
14.9 |
9.6 |
12.8 |
|
Ever in lifetime |
19.4 |
23.5 |
15.1 |
17.9 |
|
* Used drugs at least once a week for at least a month. |
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