Meth is making a comeback, according to the latest study of drug use in the Twin Cities.

A record number of people in the metro region were treated for methamphetamine addiction last year and police seizures netted substantial amounts of the drug in 2014 compared with the previous year, according to a report released Monday by Drug Abuse Dialogues, a Minnesota-based business that offers workshops about drug abuse.

The annual report, Drug Abuse Trends in Minneapolis-St. Paul, said 2014 numbers resemble the peak of meth use in the region in the mid-2000s.

“The next methamphetamine surge isn’t looming around the corner — it is here right now,” said Carol Falkowski, the report’s author.

Falkowski, founder of Drug Abuse Dialogues, is considered one of Minnesota’s leading experts on drug abuse trends. She is the former drug abuse strategy officer of the Minnesota Department of Human Services and has been part of a nationwide drug abuse epidemiology network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse since 1986. She also is former director of research communications at Hazelden and author of the reference book, “Dangerous Drugs.”

For the report released this week, Falkowski looked at mortality data, addiction treatment data, drug seizure records, poison center data and prescription drug data in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.

Numbers are down for cocaine, synthetic marijuana and other synthetic drugs, while numbers are up for MDMA, or Ecstasy.

Most notably, the use of heroin and opiates continues to be a growing problem, and meth use has shown the biggest upward trend, the report said.

“Meth use has reached the level it was back in 2005 at the peak of the epidemic,” she said.

Public safety data show similar upward swings.

According to annual reports by the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, there was a 19 percent increase in the number of people sentenced for methamphetamine offenses in Minnesota between 2012 and 2013, following a few years of increases. (The commission’s 2014 figures are not yet available).

Meth possession cases peaked in 2006, with 2,076 people sentenced. The numbers dipped to 1,255 in 2010 and began slowly rising again in 2011. In 2013, there were 1,932 people sentenced for meth-related crimes.

Methamphetamine cases represent the bulk of prosecutors’ caseloads statewide. In 2013, meth users represented 51 percent of all drug offenders sentenced in Minnesota; heroin users represented 6 percent.

In Ramsey County, meth cases made up 40 percent of all sentenced drug cases in 2012, and that rose to 46 percent in 2013. Cocaine is the county’s second-largest category, making up 33 percent of 2012 drug sentences and 26 percent in 2013.

In Hennepin County, meth cases represented 17 percent of those sentenced in 2012 and 25 percent in 2013. During the same time frame, cocaine cases dropped from 46 percent of the caseload to 35 percent.

Heroin cases remain part of the “other” category, which includes opium, hallucinogens and synthetic drugs, and represents a smaller portion of cases.

“We’ve always had problems with drug addiction,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said, noting that more than half of prison and jail inmates are diagnosed with some sort of addiction. “Historically, I think for quite some time, methamphetamine in Ramsey County has been a big problem and it remains today as the largest problem.”

Likewise, meth has been a persistent issue in Anoka County, according to Bryon Fuerst, commander of the Anoka-Hennepin Narcotic and Violent Crimes Taskforce.

Meth use dropped substantially after the 2005 ban on sales of over-the-counter pseudoephedrine products (Sudafed is one brand), a substance used in meth labs, Falkowski said. “That was immediately followed by a reduction in meth labs and in people coming in to treatment for meth,” she said.

Meth continued to decline until 2009, when the substance started making its way back to the United States from Mexico.

“The DEA reports that seizures of methamphetamines at the U.S.-Mexican border have quintupled between 2009 and 2014,” Falkowski said.

Fuerst said the international supply stream has replaced meth manufacturing that previously took place at sites across the state.

In the early 2000s, Fuerst estimated that deputies uncovered 10 to 15 labs a year operating in Anoka County. Last year, deputies came across about three.

“And they were more the shake-and-bake labs … 2-liter bottles with some chemicals in them … not the labs of the past … not the ‘Breaking Bad’ labs,” he said.

The price of meth also appears to have dropped in recent years, potentially bulking up the amount recovered in recent seizures, Fuerst said.

Meth, opiates such as heroin and marijuana likely have the largest following in Anoka County, Fuerst said.

“Meth is a little bit of a different animal,” he said. “Obviously, we have issues with people on meth and violent acts and crimes, but we don’t see the direct fatalities from overdoses that we see from heroin.”

The Hennepin County sheriff’s office, which partners with area police on drug task forces, reports an uptick in sales of meth in recent months.

“Enforcement is important and the law enforcement community is working hard to go after the dealers, but we can’t let our guard down on prevention,” said Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek.

There were 2,465 meth admissions for treatment in the Twin Cities in 2005, according to Monday’s drug trends report. Those numbers declined, hitting 1,168 in 2008, then began to climb again.

By 2014, there were 2,593 meth admissions for treatment.

As a percentage of total drug treatment admissions in the region in 2014, meth made up 11.8 percent of cases, compared with 10 percent in 2013 and 5.7 percent in 2009, according to the report.

At the same time, law enforcement in Ramsey County seized 128 pounds of meth in 2014, compared with 16 pounds the previous year.

And while meth-related overdose deaths declined in Hennepin and Ramsey counties in 2014, the use of opiates increasingly has caused fatalities and continues to be a major concern for law enforcement and health officials.

Opiate-related overdose deaths rose 13.5 percent from 2012 to 2014 in Ramsey County, according to the report. There were 37 in 2013 and 42 in 2014, the report said. Those who died ranged in age from 22 to 70 years old. At least 11 of these cases involved heroin (26.2 percent), 14 involved methadone (33.3 percent), six involved oxycodone.

In Hennepin County, there were 102 opiate-related deaths in 2014, compared with 132 in 2013 and 84 in 2012.

Last year, more people in the Twin Cities than ever were treated for heroin addiction, the report said. “Heroin accounted for a record-high 14.6 percent of total treatment admissions in 2014, compared with 14.0 percent in 2013. This compares with 7.8 percent in 2010, and 3.3 percent in 2000,” the report said.

Choi said there needs to be a focus on prevention along with the existing law enforcement efforts.

“If people have addiction issues, we should be doing everything we can from a public policy standpoint to make sure treatment is available,” Choi said. “But we always have to consider whether or not we have enough resources.”

Katie Kather contributed to this report. Sarah Horner can be reached at shorner@pioneerpress.com. Elizabeth Mohr can be reached at emohr@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5162.

Follow her at twitter.com/LizMohr.