Meth still grips Iowa, even if it's become less visible

- (desmoinesregister.com) The threat of methamphetamine labs has waned in Iowa, but the drug continues to hook people here and devastate families, experts said Tuesday.

“Some may think meth is yesterday’s problem, and indeed it seems like other illegal drugs often make the headlines more than meth,” U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said in opening a Des Moines hearing on the subject. But he noted that record numbers of Iowans are seeking treatment for meth addiction, and prison authorities are seeing more new inmates whose crimes are related to the drug.

“Meth is obviously continuing to impact Iowa in terrible ways,” said Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Senate’s powerful Judiciary Committee.

Grassley touted a bill he recently sponsored to make it easier for federal prosecutors to target Mexican cartels that sell meth or its chemical ingredients. The Senate recently passed the bill unanimously and sent it to the House.

At Tuesday’s hearing at the State Historical Building, several experts explained how Mexican smuggling rings now supply most of the meth sold in Iowa.

The cartels ramped up their efforts here after state and federal laws made it harder for Iowans to buy meth ingredients, such as the cold medicine pseudoephedrine, and use such chemicals to concoct the drug in makeshift labs. After those laws went into effect, the number of Iowa meth labs being seized plummeted from 1,500 in 2004 to 174 in 2014, according to the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy. Meth abuse has not fallen, however, said the office’s director, Steve Lukan. He said meth remains “arguably the most problematic drug in Iowa.”

Imported meth is made in factory-level labs, and it is much more powerful than the versions produced in most home labs, the experts said. The average purity of meth seized in Iowa has skyrocketed from 35 percent in 2008 to 93 percent in 2014, Lukan’s office reports.

Jay Hansen, executive director of the Prairie Ridge addiction treatment center in Mason City, said there’s a sliver of good news in the fact that the meth supply has become purer. At least addicts using those drugs aren’t being ravaged by the side-effects of random chemicals often found in homemade meth, he said.

Hansen, who also is chairman of the Iowa Board of Health, said meth induces the brain to make vast amounts of dopamine, a chemical that produces euphoria. “It’s hugely rewarding,” he said. “The reason we have problems with drugs in the country is because they work — they make people feel good.”

After the initial meth high, however, the brain compensates by clamping down on its natural production of dopamine, leaving users feeling depressed, Hansen said. That cycle leads to quick addiction, as users crave more and more meth just to feel normal. They keep abusing it, even when they know their addiction will have devastating consequences, such as jail or the loss (Full Story)