Editorial: L.A., we’ve got to talk about your meth problem

Dr. Siddarth Puri, an addiction psychiatrist, center, and nurse practitioner Marie Eugenio, right, from LAC+USC Medical Center meet with a participant in contingency management, a treatment approach that offers rewards for avoiding drug use, at Skid Row Community ReFresh Spot in June 2022. Meth rarely matches fentanyl’s presence in news stories, aside from sporadic busts such as the story last month after a cleaning crew discovered 235 pounds of meth in an Airbnb home in Alhambra. L.A. has a serious meth problem, and it’s time to talk about it — frankly, clearly and publicly in a way that we have not yet done, at least not to the extent that we discuss fentanyl, mental illness, COVID-19 or even the measles. Or maybe it’s because officials recognize how poorly Los Angeles and other jurisdictions responded to the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s and are worried about repeating the same mistakes: fighting a dangerous public health crisis by investing too heavily and exclusively in arrest and imprisonment and too little in treatment and economic development, magnifying many times over the societal devastation caused by the drug. The Board of Supervisors last week approved Lindsey Horvath’s call for a report from public health, mental health and other officials on the response to meth use, and it’s a welcome step.