worked for the White House Office of National Drug
Control explains that the impact of U.S. regulations
has increased of drug flow from neighboring
countries saying, "We've just created incentives
for non-US producers to make more." 4 Gary Hill, a
Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special
agent in charge of the San Diego area reports similar
findings. Hill describes the process by which the
methamphetamine trade has evolved. He reports a
recent shift of methamphetamine manufacturing to
Mexico, Hill estimates that, “About 90 percent of meth
now comes from outside of the US.” 4 The drugs are
then stashed in large California metropolitan areas
such as Los Angeles and San Diego counties, before
being distributed across the country. The Mexican
Drug Cartel influence has undoubtedly changed the
landscape of drug presence in the United States.
1.1. Background
Conventional wisdom would lead one to believe that
the January 2016 re-capture of infamous drug lord
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán would disrupt the cartel’s
operations. However, research conducted by the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection found that the arrests
or death of key Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO)
leadership shows no discernable impact on overall
drug flow in the United States. The research report
explains that DTO operations have created a built
in redundancy, personnel, and protocol to mitigate
the impact of the removal of any one person. 5 It is
clear that the regulatory measures have done little
to address the issue of methamphetamine abuse in
the United States. Instead, preventative measures
may be more effective than punitive responses.
Discussing how to deal with the methamphetamine
problem in the U.S., Carnevale stresses the need
for a comprehensive approach to combat the issue
stating, "We need to focus heavily on prevention and
education efforts to teach people about long-term
effects. Meth use needs to be brought back into the
national dialogue." 4
2. Prevalence
On a global scale, methamphetamine use trends
have continued to climb in the past several years.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, there are an estimated 25 million
abusers of methamphetamines worldwide. These
figures exceed both cocaine and heroin, which were
estimated to be 14 million and 11 million respectively. 6
A possible explanation for the increase prevalence
of methamphetamine is the ability to produce the
drug with commonly accessible synthetic chemicals
as compared to the natural derivatives of heroin and
cocaine. Nationwide estimates show that number
of persons aged 12 or older who were current
nonmedical users of stimulants was 1.4 million, which
was higher than estimates in 2012 (1.2 million) and
2011 (970,000). Methamphetamine abuse mirrored
the upward trend of stimulant use for persons aged
12 or older. In 2013, estimates of methamphetamine
were 595,000, which were higher then estimates for
2012 (440,000) and 2011 (439,00). 3 Furthermore,
the number of methamphetamine initiates (first time
Stomatology Edu Journal
users) among persons aged 12 or older was 133,000
in 2012, which was similar to estimates in 2011, and
up from 2010 (107,000). 6
3. Demographics
A variety of factors contribute to methamphetamines
and stimulants use across multiple demographics.
A 2004 study in New York’s club scene
found that significantly higher proportion of
Caucasian individuals reported lifetime use of
methamphetamine compared to African American
and Hispanic individuals. 7 In a second study, several
of the same authors found differences in other illicit
drug use between ethnic groups in New York City,
such as higher rates of injected drug and ecstasy use
amongst Caucasians; along with increased rates of
heroin use for Caucasians and Hispanics compared
to African Americans. 8 While these findings were
isolated to a specific region, they do point out that
methamphetamine use rates vary depending on the
setting and situation.
Methamphetamine use is prevalent across genders.
Treatment samples indicate that nearly as many
women enter treatment for methamphetamine
abuse as men. Some women have reported using
methamphetamine to cope with issues such as
depression, and in attempt to lose weight. 9 Research
of adolescent rates of methamphetamine use found
that female youth were more likely