An epidemiological evaluation of a public health measure aimed at reducing the availability of methylamphetamine

Abstract

SynopsisThis paper attempts to show how a public health measure, by reducing production and withdrawing methylamphetamine (Methedrine) from retail pharmacists, dramatically affected the prevalence of its abuse in a provincial population. This measure coincided with the midpoint of a four-year survey into drug abuse which was being carried out in that area. This opportune timing created a natural experiment whereby it became possible to observe and measure the short- and long-term effects of a single social factor on one form of abnormal behaviour.