Hot days and methamphetamine are now a deadlier mix

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Hot days and methamphetamine are now a deadlier mix

2024-10-09 20:49 Last Updated At：21:01

PHOENIX (AP) — On just one sweltering day during the hottest June on record in Phoenix, a 38-year-old man collapsed under a freeway bridge and a 41-year-old woman was found slumped outside a business. Both had used methamphetamine before dying from an increasingly dangerous mix of soaring temperatures and stimulants.

Meth is showing up more often as a factor in the deaths of people who died from heat-related causes in the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Death certificates show about one in five heat-related deaths in recent years involved methamphetamine. In Arizona, Texas, Nevada and California, officials found the drug in nearly a third of heat deaths in 2023.

Meth is more common in heat-related deaths than the deadly opioid fentanyl. As a stimulant, it increases body temperature, impairs the brain’s ability to regulate body heat and makes it harder for the heart to compensate for extreme heat.

If hot weather has already raised someone's body temperature, consuming alcohol or opioids can exacerbate the physical effects, “but meth would be the one that you would be most concerned about,” said Bob Anderson, chief of statistical analysis at the National Center for Health Statistics.

The trend has emerged as a synthetic drug manufactured south of the border by Mexican drug cartels has largely replaced the domestic version of meth fictionalized in the TV series “Breaking Bad.” Typically smoked in a glass pipe, a single dose can cost as little as a few dollars.

At the same time, human-caused climate change has made it much easier to die from heat-related causes in places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and California's southeastern desert. This has been Earth's hottest summer on record.

Phoenix baked in triple-digit heat for 113 straight days and hit 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 Celsius) in late September — uncharacteristic even for a city synonymous with heat. The triple digits have carried into October — this week, the National Weather Service again warned of excessive heat.

“Putting on a jacket can increase body temperature in a cold room. If it’s hot outside, we can take off the jacket,” explained Rae Matsumoto, dean of the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. But people using the stimulant in the outdoor heat “can’t take off the meth jacket.”

These fatalities are particularly prevalent in the Southwest, where meth overdoses overall have risen since the mid-2000s.

In Maricopa County, America's hottest major metropolitan area, substances including street drugs, alcohol and certain prescription medicines for psychiatric conditions and blood pressure control were involved in about two-thirds, or 419 of the 645 heat-related deaths documented last year. Meth was detected in about three-quarters of these drug cases and was often the primary cause of death, public health data show. Fentanyl was found in just under half of them.

In Pima County, home to Tucson, Arizona’s second most populous city, methamphetamine was a factor in one-quarter of the 84 heat-related deaths reported so far this year, the medical examiner’s office said.

In metro Las Vegas, heat was a factor in 294 deaths investigated last year by the Clark County coroner's office, and 39% involved illicit and prescription drugs and alcohol. Of those, meth was detected in three-fourths.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration notes in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment that 31% of all drug-related deaths in the U.S. are now caused by stimulants that speed up the nervous system, primarily meth. More than 17,000 people in the U.S. died from fatal overdoses and poisonings related to stimulants in the first half of 2023, according to preliminary CDC data.

Although overdoses have been more associated with opiates like fentanyl, medical professionals say overdosing on meth is possible if a large amount is ingested. Higher blood pressure and a quickened heart rate can then provoke a heart attack or stroke.

“All of your normal physiological ways of coping with heat are compromised with the use of methamphetamines,” said Dr. Aneesh Narang, an emergency medicine physician at Banner University Medical Center in downtown Phoenix.

Narang, who sits on a board that reviews overdose fatalities, said the “vast majority” of the heat stroke patients seen in his hospital’s emergency department this summer had used street drugs, most commonly methamphetamine.

Because of its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, Phoenix is considered a “source city” where large amounts of newly smuggled meth are stored and packaged into relatively tiny doses for distribution, said Det. Matt Shay, a seasoned narcotics investigator with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

“It’s an amazing amount that comes in constantly every day,” Shay said. "It’s also very cheap.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized about 164,000 pounds (about 74,000 kilograms) of meth at the U.S.-Mexico border this last fiscal year ending Sept. 30, up from the 140,000 pounds (about 63,500 kilograms) captured in the previous 12 months.

And sellers often target homeless people, Shay said.

“It’s a customer base that is easy to find and exploit,” Shay said. “If you’re an enterprising young drug dealer, all you need is some type of transportation and you just cruise around and they swarm your car.”

Jason Elliott, a 51-year-old unemployed machinist, said he's heard of several heat-related deaths involving meth during his three years on the streets in Phoenix.

“It’s pretty typical,” said Elliot, noting that stimulants enable people to stay awake and alert to prevent being robbed in shelters or outdoors. “What else can you do? You have stuff; you go to sleep, you wake up and your stuff is gone.”

Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said brochures were printed this summer and distributed in cooling centers to spread the word about the risk of using stimulants and certain prescription medicines in extreme heat.

But it's unclear how many are being reached. People who use drugs may not be welcomed at some cooling centers. A better solution, according to Stacey Cope, capacity building and education director for the harm reduction nonprofit Sonoran Prevention Works, is to lower barriers to entry so that people most at risk “are not expected to be absent from drugs, or they’re not expected to leave during the hottest part of the day.”

Wildeman reported from Hartford, Connecticut.

Time to evacuate is running out as Hurricane Milton closes in on Florida

2024-10-09 20:58 Last Updated At：21:00

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A steady rain fell in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday morning as a mighty Hurricane Milton churned toward a potentially catastrophic collision with the west coast of Florida, where some residents insisted they would stay even after millions were ordered to evacuate. Stragglers face grim odds of surviving, officials said.

The Tampa Bay region, home to more than 3.3 million people, hasn't seen a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century. Milton fluctuated between categories 4 and 5 as it approached, but regardless of the distinction in wind speeds, the National Hurricane Center said, it would be a major and extremely dangerous storm when its center makes landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday.

“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” the center warned.

The normally busy interstate leading into downtown Tampa was mostly free of vehicles early Wednesday. Few cars moved on side streets. Drivers hoping to top off tanks were hard-pressed to find stations that weren't closed or boarded up. Many had plastic-wrapped their fuel pumps to keep nozzles from whipping around in hurricane-force winds.

In Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, Sheriff Chad Chronister urged residents in a Facebook video to finalize their plans: “My message is simple. We’re approaching that 11th hour. If you need to get someplace safe for whatever reason, the time to do so is now."

Milton was centered about 250 miles (405 kilometers) southwest of Tampa on Wednesday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph), just 2 mph (3 kph) shy of Category 5 status, the hurricane center reported. It was moving northeast at 16 mph (26 kph) and was expected to continue moving in that direction with an increase in its forward speed through Wednesday night.

Milton targets communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida along its devastating march that left at least 230 dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris left by Helene before Milton's winds and storm surge — projected to reach as high as 12 feet (3.6 meters) in Tampa Bay and up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) farther south, between Sarasota and Fort Myers — could toss it around and compound any damage.

Heavy rain began to spread across parts of southern Florida on Wednesday, with conditions expected to deteriorate throughout the day, the center said. Six to 12 inches (15 to 31 centimeters) of rain, with up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) in some places, was expected well inland, bringing the risk of catastrophic flooding. Tornadoes were also forecast.

The storm is expected to retain hurricane strength as it crosses central Florida on Thursday toward the Atlantic Ocean. The precise track remained uncertain, but as of Wednesday morning, Milton's center was expected to make landfall somewhere around Tampa Bay. The highest storm surge is expected to occur at and south of the landfall location, the hurricane center said.

Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi said that 11 emergency shelters were open there and that pets were welcome. She urged people living on boats and in mobile and manufactured homes to leave: “We don’t want you staying in those structures. They will not do well in this storm with the high winds.”

Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders across 11 Florida counties with a combined population of about 5.9 million people. Officials warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, with first responders not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.

In the bayside town of Punta Gorda, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa, streets were still filled Tuesday with 5-foot (1.5-meter) piles of soggy furniture, clothing, books, appliances and other trash dragged from homes damaged by Helene not two weeks before.

Many homes sat vacant, but accountant and art collector Scott Joiner remained on the second floor of the New Orleans-style home he built 17 years ago. Joiner said bull sharks swam in the flooded streets and a neighbor had to be rescued by canoe when Helene passed and flooded the first floor of his home.

“Water is a blessing to have,” Joiner said, “but it is very deadly.”

Joiner said he planned to ride out Milton, despite the risk. But others weren't taking any chances after Helene.

On Anna Maria Island along the southern edge of Tampa Bay, Evan Purcell packed up his father’s ashes and was trying to catch his 9-year-old cat, McKenzie, as he prepared to leave Tuesday. Helene left him with thousands of dollars in damage when his home flooded. He feared Milton might take the rest.

“I’m still in shock over the first one and here comes round two,” Purcell said. “I just have a pit in my stomach about this one.”

Spencer reported from Fort Myers Beach. Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Curt Anderson, Mike Stewart and Kate Payne in Tampa; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Seth Borenstein in Washington and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City.