In ‘fourth wave’ of crisis, Feds say meth use rising

Use of opioids feared to have domino effect

Washington — Federal drug enforcement agents are alarmed that the opioid crisis is fueling a spike in methamphetamine use.

Across the country, meth overdose deaths and federal seizures from drug busts and border raids paint a stark picture of an increase in the drug’s proliferation.

Demand for meth now poses the greatest challenge to the Drug Enforcement Administration, where agents see Atlanta and Charlotte as the two primary trafficking hubs on the Eastern seaboard. One DEA agent said that drug cartels have easy access to the Carolinas through these hubs, primarily transferring loads by vehicles as large as tractor-trailers.

Half of American methamphetamine users suffer from opioid use disorder, according to U.S. officials, substantiating fears that a deadly increase in the use of prescription opioids, heroin and illicit fentanyl in the last decade has led to a compounding crisis in which the popularity of one drug has led to the popularity of another.

The National Institutes of Health says that a flood of legally prescribed opioids has created a domino effect since the crisis began in 1999: 80 percent of heroin users began their addiction with prescription drugs between 2002 and 2012, and in the last decade, the number of prescription opioid users turning to meth has doubled. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that drug overdose deaths decreased in 2018 from the prior year, to roughly 68,000 deaths from more than 70,000 in 2017, has been overshadowed by daunting trends within the data showing an increase in the use of fentanyl and meth.

While deaths attributed to overdoses in fentanyl — a synthetic opioid — have risen tenfold in the past six years, statistics gathered in July by federal agencies found that meth-related deaths now outpace fentanyl deaths in at least 12 states.

“We’ve seen three waves — we’re very concerned about the fourth wave and getting ahead of it, and that’s methamphetamine,” one senior administration official said.