Meth Facts

Meth Facts

Morbidity, mortality, and drug treatment data suggest that methamphetamine use is on the rise.

Methamphetamine abuse is already the biggest drug problem in North America and that it is rising at an extremely worrying rate internationally

Using crystal regularly can cause tooth loss, undesirable weight loss, paranoia, brain damage, and impotence. It impairs sexual choices and greatly increases your risk of HIV.

Nearly one half of all MSM who inject crystal are HIV+. This is more than any other MSM.

Methamphetamine use impairs attention span, memory acuity, impulse control, learning function, and abstract thinking. This diminishes users' abilities to process or recall information and to conduct abstract cognitive functions such as perceiving risk and consequences, making decisions, and prioritizing actions.

The majority of are male, Caucasian, high-school educated, never married, unemployed, and living with other adults. The average age is 38.6 years.

Twenty-nine percent report having one or more STDs in the past 2 months, 17% have a Hepatitis C diagnosis, and 11% have a Hepatitis B diagnosis.

The average age of first meth use was 23.2. The three main reasons why started using meth were to get high (49.7%), to experiment (46.2%), and to party (44.8%).

Professionals are saying children who are first experimenting with drugs are as young as 13.

Women were more likely than men to endorse the following additional reasons: to lose weight (35.1%), to feel more attractive (13.5%), and to cope with mood (35.1%).

The three main reasons for current use were to get high (59.3%), to get more energy (29.3%), and to party (28.6%). No significant gender differences were observed.

Only 35% ever seek treatment for their meth use. Approximately half who entered treatment did not complete their program. The three main reasons for not completing treatment were ‘‘wanted to start using again’’ (28.0%), ‘‘did not get along with the staff’’ (20.0%), and ‘‘felt I could stay clean on my own’’ (16.0%).

Meth users are most likely to use meth with a friend or sexual partner or do it alone (90.9%, 86.7%, 60.0%, respectively). The most popular locations for meeting a sex partner when high on meth were bars (38.1%), dance clubs (21.4%), street corners (16.7%), and the Internet (11.9%).

The majority of participants reported having sex at a partner’s home (57.0%) or at their own home (53.9%). Public locations for having sex while high on meth included the park (14.8%), adult bookstores (7.8%), and public restrooms (5.5%).

A recent study of British Columbia teens says gay, lesbian and bisexual students, especially girls, are 17 times more likely to use crystal methamphetamine and other club drugs.

The Institute for Safe Schools for British Columbia survey of 13,176 high school students from three separate school districts in the province suggests that at least eight per cent of high school students used crystal meth during the 2004/05 school year ( Waterhouse and Dow, 2005 ).

Methamphetamine, ecstasy and marijuana production is on the rise in Canada and trafficking and availability rose during 2005, 95 per cent of the domestic supply comes from large, multi-kilogram operations. "Significant seizures of MDMA ( ecstasy ) from clandestine laboratories indicate they are larger and more sophisticated organized crime operations."

    Resources

Canada: OPED: The Cost Of Getting High

  The Media Awareness Project (MapInc) is a continually updated and easily searched database of current news and opinion articles on drugs, including a section on methamphetamine. The database includes articles from all over the world and can be searched for content by country and province.
    MapInc-Canada  To find recent articles on methamphetamine in your province, scroll down to the 'advanced search' box and choose 'Province' from the 'area' drop-down menu.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) is Canada's national addictions agency. Our mission is to provide objective, evidence-based information and advice that will help reduce the health, social and economic harm associated with substance abuse and addictions.

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