The County of San Diego Methamphetamine Strike Force (MSF) released its 2008 Meth Report Card late last month showing a downturn in county meth use.

“The tide is turning on meth,” said County Board of Supervisors Boardmember Dianne Jacob. “Most of the key indicators on the fight against [crystal methamphetamine] clearly show that our efforts to eradicate meth from our communities are having positive results.”

The Methamphetamine Strike Force is a coalition between 70 government and nonprofit organizations started in 1996 to reduce meth use in San Diego County. When it began, the strike force developed an action plan including a series of recommendations covering prevention, intervention and treatment of meth use. Since then, the coalition has focused primarily on implementing and coordinating its recommendations.

The report presents and compares a series of indicators on meth use in San Diego County, including overdoses, calls to hotlines and drug treatment admissions between 2000 and 2007.

The report found the following indicators dropped between 2006 and 2007:

• Meth use identified in emergency room visits is down 29 percent.

• Meth addict enrollees in drug treatment programs declined by 3 percent.

• Adult and juvenile arrestees with meth in their system are down (adults 7 percent; juveniles 2 percent).

• Arrests because of meth are down 25 percent.

• Meth lab seizures are down 40 percent.

Less encouraging, the report found that meth deaths in San Diego County increased from 174 in 2006 to 184 in 2007. Authorities cleaned four more meth labs in 2007 but far fewer than at the beginning of the decade.

The report did not include information on MSM meth users, nor does the MSF collect such information.

“Unfortunately, the data sources we rely on for information about individuals do not gather or keep reports on sexual orientation,” said MSF facilitator Angela Goldberg.

As a result, on a countywide level, the condition of MSM meth users isn’t well known.

What local information is available comes from “side-walk” surveys or questionnaires distributed in front of gay bars or venues.

In the venue surveys, about 14 percent usually report using meth at least once within a six-month period, said Jim Zians, project director of the Edge Project at University of California San Diego.

The most-recent survey on MSM meth use in San Diego County, a 2007 study conducted by San Diego Association of Governments and funded by Family Health Centers of San Diego, using multiple data collection outlets including traditional “side-walk” and the Internet, provides the most up-to-date information.

Out of the 192 surveys analyzed, more than75 percent reported currently using meth or using the drug at least once (50 percent reported being current users). The study also found that meth users were 3.8 times more likely to be HIV positive. Sixty-one percent reported having multiple sex partners and 67 percent reported using condoms only “sometimes,” “rarely,” or “never.”

Researchers such as Zians ask, “Is that high, is that low, how do you compare?” But data that would enable researchers to compare MSM meth use over time is still on the drawing board.

“There is some movement at the state level to require counties to collect LGBT information, and we have been waiting for that policy; [but] there is no consensus or requirement yet,” Goldberg said.

Getting Off: A Behavioral Treatment Intervention will serve gay and bisexual men who use meth and are interested in stopping. The group will launch in April and be held three times per week for eight weeks at Jewish Family Service’s Integrated Services Program offices at 2700 Adams Ave., Suite 102, San Diego CA 92116. For more information, call 619-325-0522, ext. 401.