High meth use among working-class Whites in cities with large Hispanic populations.

It's the low quality of natives that requires immigration.

Don't know what to make of that correlation, but I suspect there's both chicken and egg in motion.

Meth is a big problem in Downstate Illinois. Don't know what what says about us "Flatlanders". I assume you can tell us, OJ. Too much prairie?

That it's not a big problem, just a well-publicized one.

No, it's a real problem endemic to the White working class. Make of that what you will.

You're right about the publicity. Local law enforcement makes a big deal about arresting folk from other towns who try to buy Sudafed in impermissable quantities around here. Maybe because they can't do much about the harder drugs. But cop friends of mine really hate meth because of its destructivenes, But right again, the arrestees are all seemingly losers with bad teeth, among other problems. The mug shots are horrendous.

Too much ammonia sitting around the cornfields,I guess.

OJ,

You better show them the picture before their first hit. It's said that once you get your first rush, the rest of your sad, sorry, life will be to recapture the sensations.

Only 500K people!!! Each addict DEVASTATES the lives of all they know.

Addicts are addicts. If it's not meth it's alcohol or Vitalis and Listerine.

Meth addicts are way more desperate. There's most definitely a meth-fueled crime wave in the Portland OR area. Choking off the supply of raw materials (via restrictions on Sudaphed, etc.) has driven up both the street price and the robbery rate.

You ever tried Vitalis?

Never been that desperate.

Alcoholics are.

Agreed. But meth addicts seem to operate on an even higher level of obsession. I really do wonder if driving up the street price, by choking off most of the local supply, is just one more example of The Immutable Law of Unintended Consequences. Much of the West Coast supply of meth now comes straight up I-5 from Mexico.

ghost is right. Meth is pure evil. Plenty of alcohol around. Why don't they use it? Meth must be "better". Scary stuff. Scary people. Must be nice to be above it all out East. Time will tell.

Trendier.

There is a gallery of before-and-after photos of meth addicts. It's amazing (and sad) what a year of meth can do.

For a look beyond mere conjecture, go to Frontline's site an look at their meth show.

I particularly enjoyed the part played by America's own pharma industry (which I hear doesn't really exist).

One wonders what one might find if they dig around in the background of some one who funds a study with this outcome.

...it's only 500,000 people, why that's only 5/8th of a Rwanda...

> Alcoholics are.

Oh, you meant drinking it! You had me scared. I only use it for a few days before I get a haircut, honest.

Meth has been epidemic for a decade on the West Coast. The epidemic started in the SFO gay community, where meth pills were affectionately known as "tinas". But the vast majority of addicts these days are low-prospect White folk. It's headed East, hitting poor rural communities first.

Odd that Orrin is all about the War on Drugs, but seems fine with meth. What's the deal, Big Chief?

Bruno: No one says that the Pharma Industry doesn't exist. We just say that Pharma is people.

Bryan:

No, it's awful and we should do all we can to stop it, but things like referring to it as an "epidemic" are just hysterics.

Bruno:

There actually is no such thing as meth, it's just folks who couldn't wangle an autism or ADHD diagnosis.

We have drug additcs in Australia but they're like unicorns, beasts more heard about than seen. Drug addiction as a culture seems to be an American thing. Plenty of friends of mine use drugs, but it never seems to grip, they get bored of it, they stop doing it. The whole 'downward spiral' thing just doesn't seem to happen here.

"No, it's awful and we should do all we can to stop it, but things like referring to it as an "epidemic" are just hysterics."

Yet you support the pathetic agitprop hysterics of thetruth.org.

oj-

Ask any law enforcement officer West of the Rockies whether meth use is an epidemic. You have a valid point only insofar as such officer would likely not use the CDC definition of epidemic.

Yes, he'd use the "give me a way bigger budget" meaning of epidemic.

Bryan:

Yes, I support looking at a marginal problem with a clear head. Bruno's hysterical about 1/3rd of half a percent of the population.

oj -

Agreed as to bias. But I live in a community full of federal, state and local law enforcement types and they tell me meth is a very big problem. I also follow local news closely, and the link between meth adiction and the crime rate is patently obvious.

The hype is obvious anyway. The problem is discrete.

Yes. And it doesn't devour people at random. Meth addicts have major "issues" long before they pop that first pill.

So once you strip away the hysteria there's not much left to the story.

Other than a trail of robbery, death and destruction.

insert [narrow]

Compared to what? Narrower than generic lust and greed. Probably narrower than heroin, crack, tobacco or alcohol. But wider than many of the other "public health threats" that the media are constantly harping about. And a particular scourge among White working class folks.

Yes, the proper comparison--my original point--is to the other bogus scares the media prattle on about, like autism and ADD.

It's not a mysterious scourge spread by casual contact.