Will methamphetamine become the new epidemic drug in Florida?

Methamphetamine use (MA), is quickly emerging as a major public health concern. Florida is considered a low use state for methamphetamines, but law enforcement agencies in a few counties have reported growing levels of arrests related to methamphetamine use and manufacture, and ethnographers studying drug use in gay urban male clubgoers in South Florida have reported high levels of methamphetamine use in this subpopulation. We applied GIS mapping and descriptive statistics to hospital admission data from the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration to examine the distribution of admission diagnoses linked to methamphetamine use in Florida. Between 2000 and 2005 there has been a doubling (from 994 to 1958) of the number of patients admitted to hospitals for methamphetamine related causes The greatest increases have been observed among individuals aged 20 to 49 years, but rates have remained similar for men and women, all the major ethnic groups and the geographic regions. Geographically, overall, Florida seems to fit the national pattern of high methamphetamine use in rural counties. The highly populous counties have the lowest rates, except Hillsborough County which has one of the highest rates, typically above 100 cases per 100,000. Another observation is the clustering of cases among costal zipcodes, which is consistent with anecdotal high prevalence among urban gay nightclub patrons These findings suggest that while overall Florida can still be viewed as a low endemic area for methamphetamine use and health complications, some areas of the state may require special attention from law enforcement and prevention professionals.