Misleading up to 100 Percent of Readers

According to the Canadian Press wire service, "Up to 50 per cent of users can be addicted after the first dose of crystal meth." The story, about a bill that would allow forced treatment of minors who use methamphetamine, presents this factoid without attribution. It's not clear what it means to "be addicted after the first dose." When someone who really likes a drug the first time he tries it eventually becomes a heavy user who has trouble stopping, it seems arbitrary to say that addiction began with the first dose, as opposed to the 10th or 100th. In any case, survey data indicate that the vast majority of people who try methamphetamine do not become heavy users. In the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, for example, about 6 percent of respondents who had ever used meth reported use in the last month, which does not necessarily equal addiction but surely is a minimum requirement. Strictly speaking, of course, "up to 50 percent" is consistent with fractions much smaller than a half. This estimate leaves so much wiggle room that it would still be literally true even if no one ever got hooked on methamphetamine.