My Way News – AP IMPACT: Meth fills hospitals with burn patients.
Only about 10 percent of meth heads have health insurance, so when they cook themselves while trying to cook their methamphetamine, the burden of care falls upon the hospital. The average cost of care for a meth burn patient is said to be $130,000 dollars. The financial burden of non-recovered hospital expenses has closed down at least 7 burn wards in the U.S.due to insolvency.
The most common means for self immolation among meth heads is the shake and bake method. Opening the 2 liter reaction vessel too soon or having an unplanned leakage can cause an explosion. About 70 injuries related to meth cooking have been reported in Indiana in the last two years, but who knows the real number? The burn victims aren’t too eager to tell the truth about how they were burned.
David Greenhalgh of the University of California, Davis, Burn Center says that 25-35% of the patients there test positive for meth.
But it's a victimless crime, right? Meth cookers and user IQs are inversely related to the occupational field hazard