July/August 2013 Issue

Crystal Math: The Price of Big Pharma’s Pseudoephedrine Addiction

Chalkboard: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Einstein_blackboard.jpg">decltype</a>/Wikimedia Commons; Man is mask: Shutterstock

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NATIONWIDE

$23.4 billion
Estimated cost of meth epidemic, from child protection to law enforcement

$32 million
Cost of injury and death from meth labs

$29 million
Cost of environmental cleanup of meth labs

21,000
Estimated number of children affected by meth labs, 2002-11

4,154
Incarcerations for murder/manslaughter in state prisons attributable to meth

10.6%
Portion of car theft offenses attributable to meth

$605 million
Estimated value of pseudoephedrine sales

25
States that have considered prescription legislation

2
States that have passed it
 

OREGON

96%
Decline in meth lab incidents after prescription legislation took effect in 2006

0
Children removed from houses with active meth labs since law took effect

$580,000
Cost of meth lab cleanup, 2005

$43,000
Cost of meth lab cleanup, 2011
 

MISSISSIPPI

99.5%
Drop in pseudoephedrine sold after prescription law went into effect in 2010

74%
Decline in meth lab incidents

81%
Decline in drug-endangered children

$600,000
Drop in spending on meth lab cleanup costs
 

KENTUCKY

$30 million
Cost of meth labs to the state (including incarceration), 2009

34,496
Number of police hours spent on lab cleanup, 2010

73%
Increase in labs, 2008-09

115%
Increase in crimes associated with meth, 2008-09

25%
Share of hospital burn patients who were injured in meth labs

$229,000
Average hospital cost for meth lab burn victims

$75,000
Average for other burn patients

20%
Death rate among meth lab burn victims

13%
Rate among other burn victims

0-4
Most frequent ages of meth lab victims, 2010

Map of the US

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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