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The good news is some of the bad news about methamphetamine is wrong. "I haven't seen the data that support the idea that meth users are hopeless," Antoinette Krupski told a legislative committee in Casper on Monday. Methamphetamine remains a hideous drug with terrible social and law enforcement consequences, said Krupski, who works with the Washington Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. But she emphatically disputed the conventional wisdom that meth's addiction and treatment require a separate war on drugs. "We see very positive outcomes with people with a primary methamphetamine addiction," Krupski told the Legislature's Select Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. If methamphetamine addicts -- both adults and youth -- complete treatment programs, they are no more or less likely to require readmission to treatment programs, lose their jobs or be arrested than those who complete treatment for other drugs, she said, citing a report on the division's Web site www1.dshs.wa.gov/dasa. Committee Co-chairman Rep. Colin Simpson, R-Cody, wondered if the length of treatment required for methamphetamine might affect that data. Krupski responded that lengths of treatment in Washington for addictions to alcohol and other drugs average about 90 days. Treatment required for methamphetamine is not significantly longer than that, she added. Allison Colker, a lawyer and substance abuse expert for the National Conference of State Legislatures, was just as emphatic. "There's a lot of misinformation about methamphetamine in the length of treatment and brain changes," Colker said. Methamphetamine is more toxic to the brain than other drugs, she said. But if addicts complete treatment and stay abstinent, their brain functions return to normalcy in about 24 months, Colker said. Much of the misinformation about methamphetamine arose from limited early studies about the drug, she said. Colker did not minimize meth-caused psychosis and its characteristic symptoms of bad teeth, eating and sleeping disorders, and the scratching of the skin. She also did not disagree with the efforts of anti-meth task forces and stores keeping medicines with pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, behind the counter, either. But the media -- drawn to the extreme stories of toxic chemicals, violence, and child neglect and abuse -- have exaggerated the addictive power of methamphetamine and its length and kind of treatment, Colker and Krupski said. Krupski heads a small staff in the state's division of alcohol and substance abuse that has been collecting data from health care providers, law enforcement and other agencies since the late 1980s. Washington's efforts to track problems of alcohol and other drugs have lead to saving money in state agencies and reductions in arrests, Krupski said. The state began collecting data about substance abuse and treatment when its Legislature years ago asked the division of alcohol and substance abuse's then-new director Kenneth Stark about the effectiveness of the money used for treatment. Stark had no idea, and no data, about how many people were in treatment programs, Krupski said. So Stark began the difficult job of asking health care providers and agencies for data on treatment, she said. After much resistance, health care workers began submitting their data and Washington began assembling a database which has been used by other states, Krupski said. Legislators from other states react with "disbelief initially" when they hear about the hope for treating methamphetamine addiction, she said. "The press has been dominated by reports from criminal justice and child welfare," Krupski said. "Those are extremes; not all meth addiction gets to that extreme." While not minimizing the dangers of methamphetamine, she said the current crisis mimics concerns about other drugs such as crack cocaine in the 1980s and LSD in the 1960s. Based on the research, Krupski said specialized treatment for methamphetamine is not necessary. Until Monday, Wyoming Department of Health Director Dr. Brent Sherard had not seen Washington's data about methamphetamine treatment. The department has been asking communities about their concerns over substance abuse and treatment, Sherard said. He did not know whether the data collected by Washington would encourage communities to not set up programs for methamphetamine that are separate from treatment programs for alcohol and other drugs, he said. "Accurate data is essential to make these kinds of decisions," Sherard said. |
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