The use of methamphetamine as a stimulant drug keeps police officers, doctors and social workers busy trying to deal with its impact.

This summer, Salt Lake City will play host to those seeking to combat the problem at the Science and Response in 2005 Conference. The event, scheduled for Aug. 19 and 20, bills itself as the first national conference on methamphetamine, HIV and hepatitis.

Conference organizers will bring in scientists from Yale and Harvard medical schools, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and law enforcement and social workers from around the country.

"It's time we took a serious look at how our communities are responding to this issue," said Luciano Colonna of Salt Lake's Harm Reduction Project, one of the conference sponsors.

Some suspect meth use may be leading to higher rates of HIV and hepatitis because one way of introducing it to the body is through injection. It is also a drug that is used to bring about heightened sexual activities, said Robert Heimer, associate professor of epidemiology and public health and pharmacology at the Yale School of Medicine.

"The epidemic is changing its face," said Heimer, also one of the organizers.

Just Friday, New York City health officials announced they had discovered a man infected with a rare strain of HIV that is resistant to nearly all anti-retroviral drugs used to treat the infection, and made stunningly swift progression from infection to full-fledged AIDS. Investigators believe the patient may have contracted the virus in October when he engaged in unprotected anal sex with multiple partners while using crystal methamphetamine.

Largely used in rural American communities, meth has found its way to cities and to new users, particularly among minorities and women.

"This is a rainbow drug and it doesn't matter what color you are, it doesn't matter what your ethnicity is," Colonna said.

Organizers will talk about prevention of the drug's use, but also activities to minimize the harm to those who use it.

Heimer said no one really knows the prevalence of meth, but its use is on the rise.

"It's becoming more dispersed in many communities . . . making inroads as a party drug, a widespread drug in gay, Native American, white rural communities throughout the West and Midwest. We really don't know all those emerging drug trends."

Edwin Espinel, ethnic health coordinator with the Utah Department of Health, said the conference will be an opportunity to address the problems arising in the state.

"We're going to have the latest information available," he said. "We need to know how to confront this problem because there is much more misinformation, myths. Those myths lead to danger, including death."

Colonna said law enforcement will be included in the conference but the problems methamphetamine is causing, along with its connection to HIV and hepatitis, need to be solved in a variety of ways.

"We can't arrest our way of this problem," he said. "It's not something criminal justice can solve."

For more information, contact the Harm Reduction Project at 355-0234.