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Global Meth Use Exceeds Cocaine and Heroin Use Combined
There are more people using methamphetamine worldwide than users of heroin and cocaine combined, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) head Karen Tandy.
The BBC reported May 10 that Tandy, speaking at the 24th International Drug Enforcement Conference in Montreal, described meth use and trafficking as a growing "global threat."
"More than 26 million people worldwide use amphetamines -- largely methamphetamines," she said.
Some experts said that growing meth use could lead to a worldwide increase in related crime. "We know that many of the people that are arrested in Los Angeles -- about 40 percent of them -- have been using methamphetamine," said California-based neuroscientist Paul Thompson. "We're worried that as this drug is spreading throughout the US and overseas, this could produce a massive increase in violent crime."
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FDA Issues Methadone Warning
Overdoses of methadone -- used as a replacement drug for opiate addicts but also an increasingly popular painkiller -- can lead to heart and breathing problems and death, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says in a new warning.
The Associated Press reported that the warning notes that methadone can cause slow or shallow breathing and potentially deadly changes in users' heart rate. Dangerous side effects and deaths have been reported among people who use the drug as a painkiller.
Part of the problem, the FDA said, is that while methadone is effective as a painkiller for 4-8 hours, the drug can stay in the body for up to 59 hours. Patients who take subsequent doses to relieve pain can unwittingly build up toxic levels of the drug in their bodies.
The FDA urged doctors to be cautious about prescribing the drug and monitor patients closely, giving strong warnings to users against taking more of the drug than prescribed.
Doctors wrote more than 2 million prescriptions for methadone as a painkiller in 2003, and use of the drug is still rising. An estimated 2,452 overdose deaths were attributed to methadone in 2003, up from 623 in 1999.¤
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