July 18, 2006 -- Survey Finds Methamphetamine Number-One Drug Problem Across U.S.

In a survey released today by the National Association of Counties (NACo), county officials reported that methamphetamine continues to be the number-one drug problem in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and that use of the drug is rapidly spreading across the country from west to east. The survey found that meth is increasingly linked to crimes such as robberies and burglaries and is more popular in many places than cocaine, marijuana, and heroin combined. A particular concern to many county law enforcement officials is an increase in meth-related identity theft, which is up 27 percent since 2005. The full text of the NACo survey is available www.naco.org.