Methamphetamine is “is a central nervous system stimulant drug. Due to its high potential for abuse, methamphetamine is classified as a Schedule II drug and is available only through a prescription that cannot be refilled. Although methamphetamine can be prescribed by a doctor, its medical uses are limited, and the doses that are prescribed are much lower than those typically abused. Most of the methamphetamine abused in this country comes from foreign or domestic superlabs, although it can also be made in small, illegal laboratories, where its production endangers the people in the labs, neighbors, and the environment (drugabuse.gov.).
An example of a new trend in illegal laboratories was reported, last week in Ohio. Apparently, a vacant room in a nursing home had been in use as a production lab for meth. Firefighters were called in to extinguish a fire that mysteriously broke out in the Park Haven Home in the Ashtabula, Ohio home. Although no drugs were being synthesized at the time, a man was killed in the fire.
National safety and security experts say the lab’s presence in a nursing home is part of a larger trend involving the bizarre lengths meth addicts and dealers are willing to go for their drug. The DEA reported more than 10,000 clandestine meth lab incidents in the United States during 2011. “It’s outrageous to see it happening inside of a facility, but not completely unexpected,” says Stan Szpytek, president of consulting firm Fire and Life Safety, Inc. Szpytek, a former deputy fire chief, says the location for a meth lab is chosen based on the potential for discretion. While these locations can be anything from a hotel room to a parked car in an abandoned lot, health facilities can now be counted among their possible locations.
Park Haven Home’s management has not responded to media calls, and questions persist as to whether or not administration was aware of the meth lab being set up. The nursing home, which has a one-star rating under Nursing Home Compare, was cited last year for serious violations including inadequate care and failure to investigate how a resident was injured. Inspectors had also previously found that the building did not have a written emergency evacuation plan. Szpytek cautions providers to not view the Park Haven Home incident as an “anomaly,” but instead as an opportunity to reevaluate their vulnerability to all types of hazards, including criminal activity, by conducting Hazard Vulnerability Assessments (HVAs). So how do we design for this potential use of a building? “Say the socio-economic culture is starting to change, there’s more drugs [in a municipality], you’d at least put it on your radar screen that this type of activity is possible,” Szpytek says. “So it’s just a matter of long-term care facilities becoming more sophisticated, not just focusing on the common threats and perils—fires, floods, tornadoes—you’ve got to take that ‘all hazards’ approach.” A sprinkler system contained most of the fire.
Jeff Chester, vice president of Advance Catastrophe Technologies, which deals with crime scene cleanup and also serves senior living facilities, says he has never heard of a meth lab in healthcare, but agrees with Szpytek’s call to action on provider preparedness. “We have an epidemic when it comes to meth labs,” he says. “The criminal mind is very unpredictable and usually desperate to find new areas so that they won’t be caught.” Chester says that cleanup of a meth lab can shutdown a quarantined area for up to two days, even if a fire had not occurred. “From a liability standpoint, the senior living operator would want to make sure that the place is safe for their staff and residents in and around the affected room or rooms,” he says. After the volatile liquids and chemicals are contained by the cleanup service, contaminated “soft goods,” such as absorbent hydroscopic materials and cloths, are disposed. Hard surfaces would then be cleaned.
A valuable guide to conducting a HVA ( A HAZARD & VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT) can be found at http://cahfdisasterprep.com/PreparednessTopics/AllHazardResourcesGuides.aspx.
Chronic methamphetamine abuse significantly changes how the brain functions. Noninvasive human brain imaging studies have shown alterations in the activity of the dopamine system that are associated with reduced motor skills and impaired verbal learning. Recent studies in chronic methamphetamine abusers have also revealed severe structural and functional changes in areas of the brain associated with emotion and memory, which may account for many of the emotional and cognitive problems observed in chronic methamphetamine abusers.
Repeated methamphetamine abuse can also lead to addiction—a chronic, relapsing disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, which is accompanied by chemical and molecular changes in the brain. Some of these changes persist long after methamphetamine abuse is stopped. Reversal of some of the changes, however, may be observed after sustained periods of abstinence (e.g., more than 1 year).
Long-term methamphetamine abuse has many negative health consequences, including extreme weight loss, severe dental problems (“meth mouth”), anxiety, confusion, insomnia, mood disturbances, and violent behavior. Chronic methamphetamine abusers can also display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and delusions (for example, the sensation of insects crawling under the skin).
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