PHOENIX — A more powerful, cheaper version of methamphetamine is growing in popularity, but a Valley clinical director is more concerned with a different problem — addiction.

Eboni Fields, clinical director for Valley-based addiction center A Better Today Recovery Services, said addiction to “meth 2.0” and other drugs is more pressing than the type or severity of drugs that are ingested.

“It makes me angry because the people who are making it probably aren’t the people who are doing it and dealing with the effects of it,” Fields told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

Meth 2.0 has caused concern recently because of its 97% purity and effect on the rate of fatal meth overdoses.

More than 10,000 people died from overdosing on meth in 2017 in the United States, up from about 2,500 in 2012, according to numbers from the Center for Disease Control.

Fields’ special concern with meth addiction is the way it affects the user.

It’s a slow, painful ordeal that could end in death despite a withdrawal process that isn’t as long as other drugs.

Fields said the facility has recently seen an uptick in meth patients.

“With meth, there’s not a long-term withdrawal, but there’s a lot of other effects,” Fields said.

“It affects your brain and it affects how you think. It makes you paranoid.”

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