During a recent debate, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt argued that drug abuse has been largely ignored as a factor when attempting to address the city\u2019s homelessness crisis. <\/p>\n
While both of his opponents on stage, Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman, touted progress<\/a> addressing street homelessness, Pratt said neither of them is addressing the crux of the issue, which he believes is drug addiction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth, they are on fentanyl,\u201d he said during Wednesday\u2019s forum.<\/p>\n While a link between drug use and homelessness has long been noted, the term \u201csuper meth\u201d may have raised some eyebrows. Experts, however, say not only is it real, it\u2019s become increasingly common in recent years. <\/p>\n What they\u2019re mixed on, however, is whether the substance is particularly overlooked or prevalent in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n What is \u2018super meth\u2019?<\/p>\n Methamphetamine is a stimulant that increases a person\u2019s heart rate, respiration and body temperature when used, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration<\/a>. High doses can cause convulsions, cardiovascular collapse, stroke or death. <\/p>\n \u201cSuper meth\u201d is P2P meth, short for phenyl-2-propanone methamphetamine.<\/p>\n Meth has traditionally been made from ephedrine and pseudoephedrine \u2014 substances that can be found in over-the-counter cold medications that address nasal congestion and runny noses, said Terry Church, director of the Institute for Addiction Sciences Education Committee at USC.<\/p>\n This potential for abuse is why such medications can be purchased only by adults, and only in limited quantities.<\/p>\n What researchers have found in more recent batches of meth, starting around 2021, is that ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were swapped out for phenyl-2-propanone, Church said. <\/p>\n With this new ingredient, \u201csuper meth\u201d became cheaper and easier to produce \u2014 so it started to be made in larger quantities. <\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s much more addictive because it\u2019s about 97% pure methamphetamine, whereas the old model was roughly about 75% to 80%,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n That means the high that users experience can last up to 24 hours, roughly twice that of formulations with ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, Church said. <\/p>\n The side effects of super meth are similar to regular meth. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot more brain damage, liver damage and cardiovascular damage that occurs because it\u2019s so potent,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople who become addicted to it and become long-term users, they\u2019re using more and more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Does L.A. have a \u2018super meth\u2019 problem?<\/p>\n In 2021, methamphetamine accounted for nearly three-quarters of drug seizures by the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, according to the most recent data from the county public health department<\/a>.<\/p>\n The number of reported methamphetamine doses seized increased gradually from 2011 to 2020, then spiked notably in 2021.<\/p>\n While those data do not specify a prevalence of super meth, the L.A. County Department of Public Health officials said they are not \u201cseeing significant amounts of phenyl-2-propanone methamphetamine in the drug supply through the available drug checking data.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe can indicate that this is not a common form of methamphetamine here in Los Angeles,\u201d public health officials wrote in an email to The Times. <\/p>\n Church said the data may not be entirely complete because it can be difficult to distinguish super meth from regular methamphetamine when it metabolizes in the body. <\/p>\n \u201cWe can track some of it if [a person has] done phenyl-2-propanone within the past two hours,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s on their 12th hour of being high, [it\u2019s] not as easy to track because they have already metabolized it and it started to change chemically.\u201d<\/p>\n