Oregon meth-related deaths jump 22 percent in 2010, most in a decade

Source: Oregonian

Methamphetamine-related deaths in Oregon jumped 22 percent in 2010, claiming 106 lives -- the most in a single year over the last decade, according to statistics from the state medical examiner.

Although Oregon successfully wiped out local manufacture of methamphetamine after the state adopted tight restrictions on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, that's not the case in other Western states. Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are the ingredients in cold medicine used to make meth.

And since Mexico banned pseudophedrine four years ago, Mexican drug trafficking organizations are now manufacturing the drug in California, Arizona, Nevada and Washington.

"They can't make the good stuff in Mexico, so they're making the good stuff back in America," said Rob Bovett, Lincoln County District Attorney, who serves as legal counsel to the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association and had chaired Oregon's Meth Task Force.


Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/05/meth-related_deaths_jump_22_pe_1.html

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I have had many friends and former co-workers die from this scourge. I had my wallet stolen and would up in jail twice because of identity theft. It was traced to a career criminal/crankster gangster who is from a career criminal family who has done it all as far as crimes go.

Pseudophedrine should be banned outright. I don't care what you do, they will up the effort to get what makes them very good money and do what it takes to stay in business. I know some would suffer syndromes medications made with it ease or stop making an illness much more tolerable.

But considering the devastating cost in human lives and resources this toxic filth substance causes, we have to be smart and recognize the limits of interdiction of people willing to risk life or limb to get this stuff, it's better not having it around.

We need to get off the anti-cannabis kick, regulate and tax it and move on to using these scarce law enforcement resources wasted on interdiction of something not needing that sort of focus. Declare all out war on Meth manufacture and use.

Sorry for the rant, but I see what it does everyday in some people around me, and I miss those I know who I will never see again because they got into this. This is one substance I am profoundly glad I never even have sampled. It is the kiss of death.

that more and more people will seek to escape. What do young folks have to look foreword to? A jobless recovery = Bullshit and the younger generation is not stupid. They feel the pain and they look for things to try and make themselves feel better. They are victims of their fucked up environment.

and the end product ends up here if Pseudo is banned. JMO anyways.

When did DU become a right-wing prohibitionist website?

All the right-wingers said making pseduoephedrine a prescription drug (instead of OTC) would be a cure-all. Well now we can see how well that worked in Oregon.

--because of lack of sleep due to an ongoing sinus condition.

I've never seen anyone who did this stuff habitually who did not get perma tweaked.

Feel free to take or leave my opinion I shared.

You don't like it, that's how it goes.

I've never been for banning anything outright, but I have been thrown in jail when someone used my ID in traffic stops, I have had valuable personal property stolen many times by cranster, some of whom at one time had been friends before they got into this crap. And more importantly, I have seen way too many people die from this stuff.

My position is a rock solid one with a conclusion I am in no way changing.

Or their lives are completely destroyed.

Interesting how Oregon has this 22% increase after they passed the new law.

How outrageously addictive it is, how hard-working folks get into it as a result of economic changes in communities, how the heartland struggles with the devastation of individuals and families. Very eye-opening. The Oregonian was one of the first newspapers in the country to assign a reporter to cover this extensively over years, really getting at the contributing factors. Big Ag, Big Pharma, low wages, and no jobs are all part of the equation. Fighting marijuana production and use is missing the real threat where drugs are concerned.

All ingredients involved in meth production should be banned globally. Meth is a huge moneymaker for international mafia as well, so America is not alone.

Lovely.

If you are, you are talking about lithium batteries, brake cleaner, iodine, acetone, etc. If you meant to be extremely literal than you'd have to include coffee filters as well.

Toward a vaccine for methamphetamine abuse


Scientists are reporting development of three promising formulations that could be used in a vaccine to treat methamphetamine addiction — one of the most serious drug abuse problems in the U.S. The report appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

In the paper, Kim Janda and colleagues note that methamphetamine use and addiction cost the U.S. more than $23 billion annually due to medical and law enforcement expenses, as well as lost productivity. The drug, also called “meth” or “crystal meth,” can cause a variety of problems including cardiovascular damage and death. Meth is highly addictive, and users in conventional behavioral treatment programs often relapse. Previously tested meth vaccines either are not effective or are very expensive. To overcome these challenges, the researchers made and tested new vaccine formulations that could potentially be effective for long periods, which would drive down costs and help prevent relapse.

The group found that three of the new formulations that produced a good immune response in mice (stand-ins for humans in the lab) were particularly promising. “These findings represent a unique approach to the design of new vaccines against methamphetamine abuse,” say the researchers.


http://scienceblog.com/45291/toward-a-vaccine-for-methamphetamine-abuse/

Published just the other day.


Just Remember: Speed Kills

Looks like it's a self-correcting problem.
:shrug:

the current users will die out while many of the potential replacement users will be turned off by the social stigma and catastrophic effects of the drug.

Not to say that this isn't a problems, but the worst of it will self correct to a degree.

it's always been a back door way to fund various cottage industries for repuke corps.

If they were serious, they would have done what you suggested.

However, if they continue to let various old and new types of drugs to breed in society, then the various "law enforcement" agencies aka weapon-porn manufacturers get more money.

And one begets the other.

If you cut the money on the "war on drugs" then the gun lobbyists go nuts, bizarrely thinking, that we are "limiting guns sales", or as the common NRA meme goes, "those dems or repukes or whatever, want to take away your guns!!!" Which then starts a buying spry for the gun manufactures who laugh at the right wings gullibility.

We are stupid people.

the mass sales of pseudoephedrine that apparently fall off trucks somewhere, that might make a dent. My pet theory is that on top of what we know about the money made by attacking mj, some corp is making a lot of money on sneaking in the pseudo, and so that won't be happening anytime soon, on either side of the equation.

Banning it all together is just as stupid as banning MJ or hemp or stem cell research or guns or homosexuality. Its a valid medical product, and some people need it. Here in Oregon, I have noticed that whatever crap they use instead in OTC stuff does absolutely nothing. I haven't had even a solid half night sleep in about a week since my wife got a cold. I drive up across the border, pick some pseudo up, and that night I get to sleep.

I am here in Oregon with this huge jump. I see it on a regular basis as well. Fortunately I have thus far been a stage removed from personal effects(no arrests, though they did steal my identity at one point). But I see what you see. It is a kiss of death, except a slow and corrupt one that does its damnedest to pull anyone around you down too.

But prohibition won't work. If it did, we wouldn't be worried about alcoholism, DUI, and all that in the modern era.