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Tag: meth crisis

  • South Dakota's "Meth. We're On It." Awareness Campaign Goes Viral

    South Dakota's "Meth. We're On It." Awareness Campaign Goes Viral

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says the viral ad campaign’s name is fulfilling part of the state’s mission: to start a conversation about meth.

    On Monday, South Dakota set the internet abuzz with its new meth awareness campaign which is questionably titled, “Meth. We’re On It.” The rollout for the awareness campaign will include commercials, billboards and a new website.

    The Meth Crisis

    Currently the state is being hit hard by meth addiction. The number of people seeking treatment for meth addiction doubled from 2014 to 2018. The number of underage users is double the national average. According to SDNewsWatch, meth-related arrests rose 625% between 2002 to 2017.

    “South Dakota’s meth crisis is growing at an alarming rate,” said South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in a recent PSA. “It impacts every community in our state and threatens the success of the next generation. It is filling our jails and prisons, clogging our court systems, and stretching our drug treatment capacity while destroying people and their families. This is our problem, and together, we need to get on it.”

    Aside from raising awareness about meth use, the state is taking other measures to help curb meth sales and use. According to OnMeth.com, the official site of the awareness campaign, these are some of the moves South Dakota has made:

    • The state has implemented meth task forces in Sioux Falls and Pennington County. These two areas accounted for the majority of the state’s 2,242 arrests in the first eight months of 2019.
    • Additionally, Gov. Noem’s FY20 budget request included more than $1 million in funding to support meth treatment services and more than $730,000 for school-based meth prevention programming.

    Reactions Are In

    Twitter users lampooned the name which quickly began trending on the site. 

    While others pointed out that real lives are being lost to meth addiction and awareness is a good thing. 

    For Gov. Noem the name is fulfilling part of the campaign’s mission: to start a conversation. The maligned name of the campaign has trended on social media and been spotlighted on TV outlets across the nation. 

    “Hey Twitter, the whole point of this ad campaign is to raise awareness,” Gov. Kristi Noem tweeted on Monday afternoon. “So I think that’s working…#thanks #methweareonit”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Meth Seizures, Overdoses Skyrocket

    Meth Seizures, Overdoses Skyrocket

    “Meth just presents a whole new issue for us, and our officers are getting hurt. We’ve had concussions. We’ve had broken hands,” said one police chief.

    Seizures of methamphetamine rose 142% between 2017 and 2018, according to federal data obtained by NPR. During the same time, overdoses involving a stimulant increased 21%. 

    “We’re seeing almost as many people starting up methamphetamines and cocaine and prescription stimulants as are abusing the opioids,” said John Eadie, public health coordinator for the National Emerging Threats Initiative, which falls under the government’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program. “So the problem is getting worse at the moment, and it’s getting more complicated to deal with.”

    Officers’ Safety

    Concord, New Hampshire, Chief of Police Bradley Osgood said that the rise in meth is making policing more risky for his officers. 

    “Methamphetamine just presents a whole new issue for us, and our officers are getting hurt. We’ve had concussions. We’ve had broken hands,” he said. 

    While Concord has had one of the highest opioid overdose rates in the country, Osgood has seen a sudden and steep uptick in meth on the streets, he said. 

    “It’s surpassed what we’re seeing from heroin and fentanyl. The rise in meth has just been unbelievable.”

    Dr. Melisa Lai-Becker, who runs an Emergency Room outside of Boston, said that she now sees about four admissions for meth overdoses each week. In previous years, meth overdoses were virtually unheard of, she said. 

    In addition to methamphetamine, other stimulants, like ADHD medications, are being abused more often, said Mbabazi Kariisa, a health scientist at the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

    “We know that the relationship between stimulants and cocaine is a growing problem, and it requires an increase in public health and data collection efforts so that we can implement effective and comprehensive drug overdose prevention,” Kariisa said. 

    Meth isn’t as likely to cause a fatal overdose as opioids. However, meth users experience symptoms that mimic psychosis, which can lead to risky behavior. Osgood said that he has had officers follow a meth user leaping through traffic. In other cases, all officers on duty have had to be called to contain a person on meth. 

    No Narcan For Meth

    One of the most concerning aspects of meth use is that there is no medication that can reverse the effects of meth, as Narcan can do for opioids. Benzodiazepines can be used as sedatives for meth users in emergencies, but getting the right dose is difficult, said Lai-Becker.

    “You’re looking at the speedometer, and you’re trying to get them down from going 148 miles per hour down to 60 miles per hour,” she said. “You want to get them to right around the speed limit, but you don’t want to bring them all the way to a full stop.”

    Jon DeLena, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that Mexican Cartels are pushing meth into the country because drug users are becoming more wary of using opioids that could be laced with deadly fentanyl.

    He said that he recently toured a Mexican meth lab that was producing more than 14 tons of meth a week. 

    “It was enormous. It was incredible,” he said. “Those are the drugs that are coming into the United States and ultimately up into our region.”

    View the original article at thefix.com