Meth Math: UA Researcher Reveals Staggering Costs Of Popular Illicit Drug Use

Fayetteville, Ark. - Methamphetamine can cost as little as $10 a hit and keep a user high for up to 12 hours, but a University of Arkansas researcher says meth is forcing one county to take a $21 million hit per year.

The low price and lasting effect of methamphetamine make it especially attractive for workplace use in an economic climate that pushes workers to accomplish more with fewer resources and less time.

October is National Methamphetamine Awareness Month, and economics researcher Katherine Deck is playing a critical role in making employers more aware of the devastating economic toll meth use can take. In Benton County alone, according to Deck's research, methamphetamine use costs employers $21 million a year, or roughly $42,000 per worker. That staggering statistic represents solely the cost to business' bottom line and does not include treatment, law enforcement and other drug-related expenditures.

"Certainly this is a big number," Deck, associate director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, explained. "Just think of what you can do with $21 million a year. That's half the budget of the city of Bentonville. There are so many things for which we're in desperate need of money. Also, employers don't eat all of these increased costs, but pass them along to us, the consumers, whenever they can.

"This is really the first economic impact study of methamphetamine use we can find," Deck said. "Localities are now just beginning to get a handle on the magnitude of this problem; they didn't see it coming until it was just on top of them. Resources were spent on just fighting rather than studying the problem. Now we have a great opportunity to do something groundbreaking that might be a model for other counties."

At the midway point in her research, which she plans to complete before the end of the year, Deck has identified five categories in which methamphetamine use most significantly affects the workplace.

"The largest impact is in employee absenteeism," Deck explains, saying an employee using meth is five times more likely to be absent than his or her counterparts. Second is "lost productivity, because it basically takes four meth users to do the job of three 'regular' people."

Employee theft is the third component, as Deck found meth users were significantly more likely to steal from their employers.

Fourth, insurance premiums that employers must pay are higher with meth users in a workplace. Finally, workers' compensation costs go up, since meth users are more likely to file a claim and that claim is likely to be more expensive.

Deck and her colleagues have forged a partnership with more than 60 Benton County employers to administer surveys about meth use in the workplace. The surveys are confidential and are returned to Deck, rather than employers. Still, she acknowledges skepticism about the honesty with which meth users will provide answers. Short of massive-scale and costly drug testing, however, the surveys are the best, most economical way of reaching the most people.

Traditionally thought of as a blue-collar drug, methamphetamine has crossed all borders of class, gender and age. Suburban housewife users rely on it to lose weight; attorney and CEO users turn to it increase productivity during long, demanding days.

"It's cheap and it's accessible, and it's not hard to make," Deck explained, though awareness of its pervasiveness in the workplace has not kept up with demand. "I think it goes back to a lack of awareness that meth use might even be an option [for employee use]. That's obviously changing as it becomes more of a problem over time, but most employers would think of alcohol or marijuana first. There is a fundamental lack of understanding about the magnitude and the prevalence of meth in Benton County, Washington County or anywhere else."

Nationally, meth use by workers and job applicants soared 68 percent last year and the latest government report (2002) indicates more than 12 million people age 12 and up have used methamphetamine. The statistics are chilling in light of research by UCLA that found regular meth users lose about 1 percent of their brain cells each year - a loss comparable to that experienced by someone with Alzheimer's.

Deck is working with the Benton County Methamphetamine Community Task Force, largely funded by the private Wal-Mart Foundation, and Drug-Free Rogers Lowell, to study the meth economics of Benton County.