A best-selling author and psychiatry professor discussed the American methamphetamine epidemic on Wednesday as part of the ongoing Stanford Health Policy Forum.

Nick Reding, author of the 2009 book “Methland,” and Keith Humphreys, a professor and psychologist, spoke in front of a 100-person crowd in the conference room of the Li Ka Shing Center in Stanford Medical School. In a discussion moderated by Paul Costello of the medical school, Reding and Humphreys related the sobering reality of meth use in small-town America.

Calling meth “the most American drug,” Reding explained its popularity among the working class by detailing the stimulant’s ability to increase alertness, concentration and energy.

“Meth allows you to work really hard for a really long time and feel good about it,” Reding said. “You don’t have to eat, drink or sleep.”

“You don’t have to brush your teeth, either,” Costello added jokingly, referring to meth’s damaging dental effects.

Meth, like other stimulants, acts on the central nervous system’s dopamine system and causes a pleasurable but short-lived “rush.” Following this rush come negative effects like depression and fatigue. Long-term use of the drug can lead to psychiatric disorders and impaired brain function.

Written over the course of four years, “Methland” chronicles the struggles of Oelwein, Iowa, a town of 6,000 located snugly in the American heartland. Oelwein began transitioning from a thriving farming community to a semi-industrial one with the introduction of a meat packaging plant in the 1980s.

Faced with long, grueling shifts at the plant, citizens began turning to the energizing powers of meth in large numbers. Some even began producing the synthetic drug in what Reding dryly called an example of “classic American entrepreneurship.”

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, there were 966 meth lab incidents nationwide in 2009. A 2009 study by the Rand Corporation, based on data from 2005, estimated the cost of meth to society at between $16.2 billion and $48.3 billion.

Humphreys cites the widespread availability of sudafedrin, a common cold medicine and an ingredient in synthetic meth, as a major factor in the growth of meth labs.

“The number-one exploding problem is diverted prescription drugs,” Humphreys said. “We instituted controls in 2005, but in the past year or so those controls have stopped working. For instance, the number of people reporting meth use rose 60 percent last year.”

These controls were part of the Combat Meth Act, designed to regulate over-the-counter sales of products commonly used to manufacture illegal drugs. The statute included establishing a record of all buyers for two years.

“In the most technologically advanced country, the best solution we can come up with is to go into the pharmacy and write my fucking name in a log book,” Reding said.

In their discussion of possible solutions, Reding and Humphreys both emphasized the need to address the social and political factors driving the epidemic.

“It’s very easy to say, ‘Poor red-state hillbillies do meth,’” Reding said. “It adds a funhouse mirror aspect to the story.”

According to Humphreys, a regional approach will be necessary to successfully combat the pockets of drug abuse.

“There is no unified national drug problem,” Humphreys said, urging the audience to consider “the irreversible regionalization” of the epidemic.
Contact Samantha McGirr at [email protected].