"Amphetamines (which includes amphetamine and methamphetamine) positivity continued its year-over-year upward trend, increasing more than eight percent in urine testing in both the general U.S. and federally-mandated, safety-sensitive workforces compared to 2015. Throughout the last decade, this rise has been driven primarily by amphetamine use which includes certain prescription drugs such as Adderall®.

"Increases in methamphetamine indicators reported in 2012 continued into 2013. These increases reversed a mostly declining trend since 2007. All CEWG area representatives reported increasing, stable, or mixed indicators in 2013, compared with 2012. Twelve of 19 CEWG area representatives reported increasing methamphetamine indicators in the 2013 reporting period; these were Atlanta, Cincinnati, Denver/Colorado, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, South Florida/Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, and Texas.

"It is estimated that 12.3 million adults in the European Union (aged 15-64), or 3.7% of this age group, have used amphetamines at least once in their lifetime. Figures from the 26 countries that report a survey between 2014 and 2018 suggest that 1.4 million (1.2%) young adults (aged 15-34) used amphetamines during the last year, with national prevalence estimates ranging from zero in Portugal to 3% in Finland (Figure 13). The available data suggest that over the longer term, prevalence levels have been relatively stable in most countries.

"In 2018, 205,000 people aged 12 or older initiated methamphetamine use in the past year (Figures 26 and 30), which averages to about 560 people per day who initiated methamphetamine use (Table A.3A). The number of past year initiates in 2018 for methamphetamine use was similar to the numbers in 2015 to 2017. In 2018, an estimated 31,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 used methamphetamine for the first time in the past year (Figure 30). The number of adolescents in 2018 who were methamphetamine initiates was similar to the numbers in 2015 to 2017.

"In 2018, approximately 1.9 million people aged 12 or older used methamphetamine in the past year (Figure 10). This number of past year methamphetamine users corresponds to 0.7 percent of the population (Figure 15). The percentage of people aged 12 or older in 2018 who used methamphetamine in the past year was similar to the percentages in 2015 and 2017, but it was slightly higher than the percentage in 2016 (0.5 percent)."

"What is methamphetamine?
"Methamphetamine is a stimulant drug usually used as a white, bitter-tasting powder or a pill. Crystal methamphetamine is a form of the drug that looks like glass fragments or shiny, bluish-white rocks. It is chemically similar to amphetamine [a drug used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy, a sleep disorder].

"Other common names for methamphetamine include chalk, crank, crystal, ice, meth, and speed.