Meth

UI Expert Comments On Meth Report, Other Substance Abuse In Iowa

A University of Iowa expert on methamphetamine and other substance abuse finds some positives in a recent state report on meth lab reduction in Iowa. However, the report also underscores ongoing meth supply and use problems in the state.

The report issued Jan. 17 by the State of Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy credits the state's pseudoephedrine control law (Senate File 169), enacted in May 2005, with a decrease in meth lab incidents from an average of 119 per month before the law to 20 per month since the law was passed. Pseudoephedrine, a main ingredient in some cold and flu medications, is also a main ingredient in meth production. The law put the medications behind lock-and-key at pharmacies.

However, the report also states that the law has not reduced the supply of imported meth or demand for the drug.

"The report recognizes that the law was specifically targeted toward the lab problems and not toward the meth problem more broadly," said Stephan Arndt, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and a non-voting member of the state's Drug Policy Advisory Council.

"The law produced significant benefit in reducing a host of problems associated with meth production, but the report also makes it clear that the overall dangers of meth still need to be dealt with, including prevention and treatment. So the report has an additional indirect positive benefit by highlighting that need," said Arndt, who also directs the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation, housed at the UI.

As an illustration of reduced meth lab incidents, the report stated that the Burn Treatment Center at UI Hospitals and Clinics had fewer meth-related burn cases in 2005 when compared to the same seven-month period in 2004. Cases decreased from 14 to 4, which also represented an estimated cost reduction of just over $2.5 million.

"Meth manufacturing is environmentally unsafe, a fire hazard, produces noxious waste and is just very, very dangerous," Arndt said. "Production sometimes is done in the presence of children, so there are definite problems the law has controlled and will continue to control. However, the law hasn't done anything about addiction, use or some of the other negative consequences."

For one, because imported meth is more pure, it increases people's chances of dependence and any associated medical problems. In addition, child endangerment and abuse problems overall have not been reduced because they are related to people's use of the drug, not its manufacture, Arndt said.

The Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation has been evaluating meth and other