OR: more MD's vs. the "meth myth"

A Daily Astorian Special Report - This is your brain on meth: North Coast doctors label meth a ‘social disaster’

Calling Jack Shafer:

“People don’t die of methamphetamine overdoses, that’s very rare,” said Dr. JoAnn Stefanelli, Clatsop County’s medical examiner. She estimates that in the last five years, she’s only seen one person who died of an overdose, possibly of a heart attack. But she believes that the drug plays a big role in many of the suicides and prescription drug overdoses that she sees, she said.

And methamphetamine has severe effects on the brain.

“It biochemically changes the brain,” Stefanelli said. “It interferes with all the pleasure senses, you actually have to take the drug to get back to baseline ... the pull of that sort of drug is so powerful.”