The 'Meh' epidemic: heartland youth untweaked.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings - Methamphetamine - Brief article

FROM FEATURES in Newsweek and other mainstream media outlets to harrowing books such as the well-received Methland, Americans have been taught for years that methamphetamine is a huge and growing problem for America, particularly its rural teens. But new research shows that the epidemic, if it exists at all, is not hitting heartland youth disproportionately.

A November 2010 study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine analyzed results from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which included nearly 18,000 teenagers. It found that rural, suburban, and urban teenagers used the drug at about the same rates.

Less than 1 percent of the kids said they had ever used meth. That, as the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine publication MedPage Today notes, is "compared with roughly 4 percent...