methamphetamine addiction

A patient arrives to pick up medication for opioid addiction and is given hand sanitizer at a clinic in Olympia, Wash. The pandemic is changing the distribution networks and supplies of street drugs across the United States, authorities say.

Health & Safety

Changes In Opioid Supply Create New Risks As Stay-At-Home Rules Ease

2:23pm May 18, 2020

by Yuki Noguchi

The disruption in the illegal opioid trade had varying impacts around the country. As stay-at-home orders lift, that creates different risks of overdose that public health is trying to manage.

Melinda McDowell sought treatment for her addiction to meth. She started taking the medication naltrexone and has been sober for more than a year now.

Health & Safety

A Medication To Treat Meth Addiction? Some Take A New Look At Naltrexone

10:34am November 07, 2019

by Andrea Dukakis

Methamphetamine addiction is growing fast, but there's no approved medication to treat it. Now, some clinicians and researchers are experimenting with a drug used for opioid and alcohol addiction.

Officer Brian Cregg checks in with a man who says he is homeless and living in his car in Concord, N.H. In Concord, as in many parts of the Northeast, widespread use of meth is new, police say, and is changing how they approach interactions with people wh

Is It A Meth Case Or Mental Illness? Police Who Need To Know Often Can't Tell

7:53pm October 22, 2019

by Martha Bebinger

Calming techniques officers learn during training for intervening in a mental health crisis don't seem to work as well when a suspect is high on meth. Police say meth calls can be much more dangerous.

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Powder methamphetamine packaged in foil for an illegal street sale. Across the U.S., more and more opioid users report using methamphetamine as well as opioids — up from 19% in 2011 to 34% in 2017, according to one study.

Health & Safety

Meth In The Morning, Heroin At Night: Inside The Seesaw Struggle of Dual Addiction

9:41pm June 17, 2019

by April Dembosky

Many users now mix opioids with stimulants such as meth and cocaine. Researchers say efforts to get doctors to reduce opioid prescriptions may have driven some users to buy meth on the street instead.

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Drug agents last fall worked with a Minneapolis police SWAT team to seize just under 171 pounds of methamphetamine. Many U.S. states say they face an escalating problem with meth and drugs other than opioids.

Federal Grants Restricted To Fighting Opioids Miss The Mark, States Say

8:10pm June 13, 2019

The U.S. government has doled out at least $2.4 billion in state grants since 2017, specifically targeting the opioid epidemic. Yet drug abuse problems seldom involve only one substance.

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