Written question asked by Sandra Gidley (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 22 May 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 2 June 2008. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Thursday, 5 June 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Methamphetamine: Misuse

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people were treated for addiction to methamphetamine in each of the last five years;

Answer: Methamphetamine is part of the amphetamine family and is commonly known as crystal meth or ice, its chemical name is methylamphetamine. Although the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) does collects data on people in structured drug treatment for amphetamine misuse, this data is not broken down further into the different types of amphetamine.In 2005, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) used NDTMS data in their review of methylamphetamine, ““Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs Methylamphetamine Review””. The ACMD review reported that"““very few drug users applying for treatment were reporting methylamphetamine as either their primary drug or as a secondary drug””"of use.

Secondary information