Addressing Methamphetamine as an Emerging Threat: Overview of Federal Response Plan

Friday, November 4, 2022

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Presenter(s)

Richard J. Baum, MA, MPA

Senior Policy Analyst, Emerging Threats
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Georgetown University, McCourt School of Public Policy
Falls Church, Virginia

According to by CDC provisional estimates, in 2021, over 33,000 Americans died due to an overdose involving methamphetamine. Overdose deaths involving methamphetamine increased by an alarming 688 percent from 2015 to 2020. While illicit fentanyl was the key driver in those increases, overdose deaths involving methadone and no opioid increased by 228 percent during that period, making clear other factors are also involved in the rapid increase in overdose deaths involving methamphetamine. Substance use patterns vary substantially from state-to-state. For example, data collected from 2015 to 2018 suggested that opioid co-involvement in psychostimulant deaths excluding cocaine ranged from 15 % in Hawaii to 91 % in New Hampshire. Although methamphetamine has been a significant public health problem in the United States for two decades, there have been substantial changes in the impact of methamphetamine consumption.

On March 14, 2022, President Biden signed into the law the Methamphetamine Response Act of 2022 (S. 854), requiring Director of National Drug Control Policy to officially designate methamphetamine an emerging threat, and to develop and implement a response plan. In May 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration’s Methamphetamine Response plan was released and cross-agency work to implement it began. The plan recommends actions in the following areas:

• Supply reduction and trafficking
• Data and research
• Prevention
• Harm Reduction
• Training and Education
• Treatment (and contingency management as a component of it)

Baum will review how and why these changes have occurred, highlight the steps the Biden-Harris Administration is already taking to address this challenge, explain ONDCP’s responsibilities under the formal designation of methamphetamine as an Evolving and Emerging Threat (per the 2018 SUPPORT Act), and explore how state and local partners can utilize federal grants funds available to help communities and individuals impacted by methamphetamine throughout the country. This session will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

Learning Objectives:

Describe current trends in methamphetamine and stimulant use based on epidemiological and law enforcement data.
Outline the key elements of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Methamphetamine Response Plan in both the supply and demand reduction arenas.
Understand what federal grants and related resources may be available to them and their communities to assist in their efforts to address methamphetamine and other drug use.