Meth

Statistics 

• More than 85% of meth in the US comes from super-labs in California and Mexico. Mexican drug rings often use safe houses on Indian reservations to facilitate distribution into North Dakota.
• In 2004 meth addiction statistics reported that 8,000 meth labs were seized in the US. Child welfare workers removed more than 3,000 children from the labs.
• According to the North Dakota Attorney General's office, state legislation which controlled sale of over-the-counter cold medications like Sudafed reduced the number of local labs significantly from 190 lab incidents in 2005 to 40 in 2006.
• Small clandestine labs use hundreds of different recipes to manufacture meth. Because the recipe using anhydrous ammonia was developed by the Germans during WWII, it is called the "Nazi" method of meth production.
• Meth manufacture creates toxic fumes and hazardous waste by-products that can poison water, pollute lakes, and permeate walls and flooring resulting in fires and explosions.
• According to meth addiction statistics, it takes only $1,000 worth of ingredients to make $20,000 worth of meth.
• According to police, the price of a single cocaine dose that would give a user a 20 minute high is enough money to buy sufficient amounts of meth to keep a user buzzed for a day or two.

• Meth seized by drug agents in spring 2006 averaged 51 percent pure, down from 77 percent in spring 2005, according to The Oregonian's analysis of federal data. At the same time, prices have more than doubled. A gram of uncut meth cost about $260 this past spring, up from $100 a year before. It was the first significant, sustained decline in purity and increase in price since 1997.
• The impact on meth use nationwide cannot yet be calculated. But, meth addiction statistics from treatment providers and meth users in Oregon report that people are using meth less frequently and not getting as high when they do. Studies have shown that fewer people use drugs when purity is low and the price is high. Rob Bovett, legal counsel to the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association and a national meth activist, said the drop in purity signifies progress against meth producers. "What's happening is clear as day," Bovett said. "They're making less meth."
• More than 12 million Americans have tried methamphetamine and 1.5 million are regular users, according to federal estimates.
• Meth addiction statistics show that in 2005, nearly 6.2% of high school seniors reported using methamphetamine at least once.
• The manufacture of a pound of meth creates 5-6 pounds of toxic waste. Minnesota drug officials closed down a meth lab in 2003 being operated in an ice-fishing shack. The cooks were dumping waste into the ice hole, poisoning the lake.
• The number of 12-17 year olds admitted to treatment for meth addiction more than doubled between 1994 and 2004.