A reader writes:
While the number of methamphetamine addicts in the United States may be overstated, I’m not sure the panic over meth use is overblown because the process of cooking the drug is so incredibly dangerous. Meth production requires toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that contaminate the homes in which the drug is cooked. Repeated exposure to even trace amounts of these chemicals can cause chemical burns, respiratory problems, and even cancer, especially in children. And children are quite likely to be present at places where meth is being cooked – between 2000 and 2005, more than 15,000 children were removed from meth labs across the country.
In places like the Midwest, where most meth is cooked for personal use (rather than in big, Breaking Bad-style super labs), the drug is often synthesized using a “shake and bake” method, in which the ingredients are placed into a 2-liter soda bottle and agitated. If anything goes wrong in this process the bottle can explode and cause horrific burns. For example, according to the Missouri Foundation for Health (pdf), 30% of the burn units in Missouri are dedicated to treating uninsured people injured while cooking methamphetamine – despite the fact that only .3% of the population of Missouri is estimated to be using the drug at any particular time.
As long as the effects of meth production have such an negative impact on its users and on the environment, it will remain a health crisis, regardless of the actual number of addicts.
Update from a reader:
That “30% of the burn units in Missouri are dedicated to treating uninsured people injured while cooking methamphetamine” number is pretty shocking, but is highly misleading: (1) the 30% is of “burn unit beds”, not ‘burn units’ as a whole; (2) the statement was “regionally,” not “Missouri-wide”—which would imply in the St Louis metro, given the cited author’s roll at a St Louis-area sheriff’s department; (3) According to Ameriburn (pdf), there are 36 non-pediatric burn-unit beds in the St Louis region; (4) so, we’re talking about 10 beds.
The Dish 