The Meth Epidemic

This episode of "Frontline" is about the spread of methamphetamine in the United States. Oddly, apart from severely limiting domestic sales of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, no one seems to talk about this problem very much. If you watch the news or read the newspapers, there still isn't very much said about this--even though its effects are terrible on the individual and society.

For me, the biggest impact in the show was when it began--as they showed photos that showed the extreme changes in the faces of the users. The only complaint I have about this is that they never said how far apart the two photos of each user were taken. I assume it was only a couple years (based on previous before/after photos I'd seen)--and yet the people looked like they'd aged 10-20 years and appeared to be rather gross. I do wish they'd also showed photos of the teeth (or lack of them)--it is pretty telling about the effects.

The show focused less on the individual impact and more on efforts to slow the spread of the drug through limiting the availability of the base drugs needed to make this cheap high. Overall, it was a very effective overview of the problem and discussion of ways to reduce the problem. Not perfect, but very good.