A Skeptical View of the Meth Epidemic

In Slate. Meth is Crack II, says Jack Shafer, in the sense that it is a problem oversensationalized by the media.  Here's his piece on meth mouth.

I'm going on the record now: Meth has peaked.  For an epidemic to grow, more new people have to come in--of the current users, some will die or stop using.  Just like being a heavy crack user (the "crack whore" phrase has persisted as a slang term), being a heavy meth user seems obviously and extremely unpleasant, so non-users looking for a drug will go elsewhere.  I understand from people who've studied it that that's what happened to crack.  [Jack Chin]