Judging by the title I thought this article was going to be about alcohol or tobacco.

Meth causes 500 deaths per year in the US (in 1998, the most recent year I could find statistics for), while alcohol and tobacco cause 100,000 and 400,000 deaths respectively.

Based on that, alcohol is 200 times as dangerous as meth, and tobacco is 800 times as dangerous as meth.

More people use alcohol and tobacco than meth, which is part of the reason those drugs are more dangerous.

To get a more accurate picture we can compensate for the number of people using each substance:

Number of meth users in US / number of meth deaths per year in US
731000 / 500
1462

Heavy alcohol drinkers in the US / Alcohol deaths per year in the US
48000000 / 100000
480

Cigarette users in the US / number of deaths per year in the US
45300000 / 400000
113

This means that the average meth user has a 1 in 1462 chance of dieing from meth each year.

The average heavy alcohol user has a 1 in 480 chance of being killed by alcohol each year.

The average cigarette user has a 1 in 113 chance of being killed by cigarettes each year.

Conclusion: Based on the number of deaths, the hysteria surrounding methamphetamine is unwarranted.