Tuesday, April 13, 2010

National Price of Meth



The cost of meth is something that is very hard to measure and especially hard to measure at the national level. The use of meth is spreading and because of this spread, more and more federal money is needed to help combat and take care of the addicts of this drug. A somewhat recent study from 2005 states that, “the national price of methamphetamine abuse imposed costs of $23.4 billion in 2005.” That alone is an enormous number and essentially comes from tax dollars. This toll is almost as high as heroin and could be actually higher. It is very hard to find an exact number, but this amount seems to be as close as we can get. It is impossible to look at and find all of the factors that must be accounted for which include the burdens imposed on families and friends and the burden that takes place on the children of the addict.

Meth has also been the drug that has killed many people in 2005 and was close to being the primary cause of close to 900 deaths. Meth is also a drug that has spread over the years not only from one place in the United States but all over it. Meth has left no good in its wake; it wreaked havoc on addicts and families alike. Federal surveys also state that, “the share of Americans using the drug has stabilized, at about 1 percent of the population over the age of 12, which is far higher than the rate for heroin but half the rate for cocaine.” This 1 percent equals out to around 400,000 American addicts.

These studies on the cost of meth to the nation were really an effort to study the effects of addiction in relation to the quality of life it has on addicts. These factors included, but were in no way limited to poor health, anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations that tended to shrink what the addict had going for them and the pleasure they once felt from the drug also drops over time. In this case, the user feels the need to use more of the drug and increase each dose to enable them to feel the same high they once felt. That high can no longer be obtained and never lasts as long as the first time. Therefore, once an addict is addicted, that is when the use of meth increases and the individual really starts to go down-hill.

The study also states other costs which include,
“$4.2 billion in crime and criminal justice , $904 million for endangered children put into foster care, $687 million in lost productivity, $545 million for drug treatment, $351 million for healthcare, and $61 million for injuries and deaths at exploding meth labs and for cleaning up the toxic waste they produce.”

The meth epidemic is really just a drain on society and finances alike and needs to really be taken care of. That $23.4 billion each year is something that we shouldn’t have to deal with and that is just for meth. If each drug is taken into account it can essentially be tripled or more by the financial price and burden they produce. If there were proper plans implemented in today’s society, I do not believe that this problem would have gotten so out of control.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/05meth.html?_r=2

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