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M-: . MEMO DATE: April 8, 2005 TOSt. Anthony Mayor and City Council FROM: R. Engstrom, Chief SUB.IE+ CT: Impact of Methamphetamine Most of us in the criminal justice arena have seen first hand the gavages of methamphetamine abuse on individuals and our community. According to a January I8, 2005 report of the Hazelton foundation, patients addicted to methamphetamine now account for an unprecedented 9.5% of admissions to addiction treatment programs in the metro area. This is up from 2.9% of admissions for meth in 1998. In addition, Hazelton statistics indicate methamphetamine use was involved in 705 metropolitan area hospital emergency department episodes in 2004 and 18 accidental overdose deaths. Deborah Durkin, Minnesota Department of Health, quoted statistics from a National Household Survey dealing with methamphetamine use only. The survey results indicated that in calendar year 2000, 8.8 million Americans or 4% of our total population had used meth. The numbers were up drastically in 2002 when an estimated 12.4 million Americans or 5.3% of our total population had used meth. We can only speculate as to the current numbers but anticipate they are much higher based on our Local experiences and jail populations. The most startling numbers relating to meth use come from Honolulu, Hawaii where 44% of men and 54% of women arrested for any crime were tested and found positive for meth use. In the continental U.S., meth use, percentage wise, by persons arrested and tested in San Diego (men 37%, women 42.%) and Phoenix (men 39%, women 48%) were found to be only slightly behind the Honolulu numbers. fueling the explosion of localized meth use are the clandestine labs which are being discovered in ever-increasing numbers throughout Minnesota -- although the bulk of illegal methamphetamines continue to be imported from the southwestern United States. In 1999, 18 clan labs were discovered by authorities and reported to the Minnesota Department of I Iealth. In 2003, 525 were found and reported. While the news stories typically deal with the violent nature of meth users (who can forget the mtn "-rs of a father and his adult daughter in North Minneapolis followed closely by the murders of a mother and her children in Blooming Prairie by two binging meth users), an associated part of the story, generally unreported, deals with the environmental crimes and substantial clean up costs associated with clandestine meth labs and the random, unlawful disposal of toxic chemicals and other by-products of the meth trade. And these costs are only from the illegal clan lab by-product disposals we discover. There is no way to estimate the environmental damage from clan lab by-product disposals we never find out about. And there is no way to ever estimate the damage noxious, caustic or poisonous fumes emanating from a clandestine lab may have caused to those adults and particularly young children living, working