Americas Mounting Methamphetamine Threat
Summary: Methamphetamine is flooding into our country at historic rates and levels. The availability to purchase the drug at a low-cost, high purity has contributed to the growing demand in the United States.
Production:
Methamphetamine is mass produced in Mexico and enters the United States via the southwest border, in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the primary distributors of methamphetamine to the United States.
The precursor chemicals used to produce methamphetamine are manufactured in China and transported in maritime and air shipments directly to Mexican cartels.
Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the primary distributors of methamphetamine to the United States.
Interdiction rates:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials seized a record-breaking 177,695 pounds of methamphetamine in 2020, representing a 25% increase from the previous year.
Methamphetamine represents nearly 33% of all drug seizures made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2020.
The trafficking of methamphetamine across the southwest border is at an all-time high, as official seizure numbers in the last decade have increased 1903% from 2010 to 2020.
Methamphetamine is a highly addictive synthetic stimulant that can be smoked, injected, ingested orally, or through snorting.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials report methamphetamine samples collected in 2019 averaged 97.2% for purity and 97.5% potency.
2 million people aged 12 years or older use methamphetamine in any given year, while about 500 people try meth for the first time each day, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Chronic usage of methamphetamine can have harmful short-term health effects, including increased blood pressure, faster breathing, rapid or irregular heartbeat, and erratic, aggressive, or violent behavior.
Overdose rates:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 16,167 Americans died in 2019 from a drug overdose involving psychostimulants with abuse potential, mainly methamphetamine.
Drug overdose death rates in 2019 involving psychostimulants increased 317% overall.
In 2019, nearly 23% of all drug overdose deaths in the United States involved psychostimulants such as methamphetamine.
Treatment:
Between 2012 and 2017, the most recent years for which data are available, treatment admissions for primary stimulant use increased 41%.
Unlike opioids, there are no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications for relapse prevention or the treatment of addiction to methamphetamine.
An FDA approved reversal antidote like naloxone for opioids does not currently exist for methamphetamine overdoses.