METHAMPHETAMINE

Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine

Introduction

The current study applied the first macro-level analysis of methamphetamine use. The extant literature on macro-level drug use has suggested that areas with high levels of social disorganization experience high rates of drug use. In this study it was expected that school districts with low SES and high rates of ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability and family disruption will experience high rates of methamphetamine use. In addition, it was expected that rural and suburban school districts would show higher rates than urban school districts. Social disorganization hypotheses were partially supported as low economic status and residential instability are associated with methamphetamine use. Interestingly, a high percentage of white population is positively associated with methamphetamine use. Further, school districts in the southwest region of Michigan were significantly more likely to have higher percentages of methamphetamine users.

Recently, there have been several findings that indicate the use of methamphetamine in the United States has reached an unprecedented level and has spread throughout the Midwest and Southeast regions, especially in rural areas (Herz & Murray, 2000, 2003; National Drug Intelligence Center [NDIC], 2004; Weisheit, 2004). In 2005, the National Association of Counties (NACO) reported that 87 percent of responding law enforcement agencies in the U.S. reported increases in methamphetamine-related arrests in the past three years. The same report noted that 58 percent of counties stated that methamphetamine was their largest drug problem (NACO, 2005). While many media accounts are often sensationalized (Sommers & Baskin, 2006), these agency and governmental reports indicate reasons to be concerned with dangers associated with substantial levels of methamphetamine use that warrant further policy considerations and exploration of the influences surrounding methamphetamine use.

In 1996 Congress passed the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Act, under which the Methamphetamine Interagency Task Force (MITF) was created. The task force stated the following in its final report:

Of particular concern, methamphetamine use is emerging in cities and rural settings previously thought to be largely unaffected by illicit drug use and is increasing among populations not previously known to use this drug. Methamphetamine use is a particularly serious problem in some rural areas, many of which lack the infrastructures necessary to deal with a major drug problem. For example, many rural jurisdictions do not have local treatment providers or the expertise to respond to methamphetamine abusers. (National Institute of Justice and Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2000)

To control the use and production of methamphetamine, criminal justice agencies at federal, state and local levels have attempted to implement numerous strategies (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2007). Recently, a provision to restrict the sale of over-the-counter medicine and increase penalties for smuggling and manufacturing methamphetamine was included within the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act (U.S. Patriot Act, 2006). Many of these prevention and intervention efforts are geared toward individual offenders rather than the social structural, community-level factors that influence methamphetamine use (e.g., Herz, 2000).

Akers (1998) has noted that in addition to individual-level factors, macro-level explanations of drug use are needed to more fully understand the phenomenon. The extent to which the variation in methamphetamine use across regions and within high-use regions is associated with variation in ...