As tens of millions of dollars worth of federal grant funding continue flooding New Hampshire to battle the opioid epidemic, addiction and mental health counselors in Nashua said the city faces an escalating problem with methamphetamine.

This human-made stimulant drug is more commonly known as simply meth. It also goes by the names “crystal meth,” “ice” and “speed.”

“I would much rather deal with someone on an opiate than on meth. It’s terrifying,” Nikki Casey, director of Revive Recovery Center in Nashua, told our reporter.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, meth use can cause severe dental problems, intense itching, anxiety, confusion, sleeping problems, violent behavior, paranoia, and hallucinations.

Overdosing on methamphetamine can lead to stroke, heart attack and kidney failure. These conditions can result in death.

However, officials at Revive believe the injection process many meth users employ leads to even more health problems.

“When people are shooting meth, it’s much more acoustic to your veins,” recovery coach Jess Parnell said. “I think that you could correlate the increase in abscesses and infections with the increase in meth use.”

Information from NIDA shows meth can rapidly release high levels of dopamine in the brain, which gives the user a rush. Its use also leads to an increased sense of alertness.

This is in contrast to opioids, such as heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil, hydrocodone and oxycodone. These drugs are pain relievers that also produce a sense of euphoria within the user.

Local officials are also concerned that because most of the federal funds New Hampshire receives to fight drug abuse are specifically designated for the opioid battle, the door to meth problems is open even wider. Nashua Public Health & Community Services Director Bobbie Bagley said she hopes some future funding will be more readily available to combat meth.

“I think that probably the more strategic way that we could have done things, and that we need to look at doing things moving forward, is just SUD, substance use disorder – not naming the substance, so that we don’t tag the money to marijuana, or opioids, heroin and fentanyl,” she said.

While certainly maintaining their focus on the opioid battle, officials must combat Nashua’s burgeoning meth problem. We call upon local, state and federal leaders to acknowledge and address this issue to the best of their ability.