What is Meth, Crystal Meth Or Methampetamine?
Methamphetamine, also known as “meth”, is a very addictive stimulant drug. The drug can be snorted, smoked, injected, or ingested orally. While the color can vary, it generally comes as a white or yellowish crystal-like powder. Street names for the drug include "speed," "meth," "chalk," "ice," "crystal," "glass," and "tina."
The chemicals used to make meth are extremely toxic. They include acetone, brake cleaner, ether, rubbing alcohol, drain cleaner (sulfuric acid), methanol, lithium from car batteries, farm fertilizer, lye, red phosphorus, muriatic acid and iodine.
Because methamphetamines are highly addictive, people can have great difficulty controlling their use of the drug. Over time, heavy use of methamphetamines can cause permanent damage to the brain. Use of the drug often results in feelings of anxiety and paranoia along with hallucinations, delusions, and violent behavior.
Low-intensity abusers swallow or snort methamphetamine, using it the same way many
people use caffeine or nicotine. Low-intensity abusers want the extra stimulation the
methamphetamine provides so that they can stay awake long enough to finish a task or a
job, or they want the appetite suppressant effect to lose weight. These people frequently
hold jobs, raise families and otherwise function normally.
Even though a law enforcement officer is not likely to encounter low-intensity abusers,
these individuals are one step away from becoming binge abusers. They already know the
stimulating effect that methamphetamine provides them by swallowing or snorting the drug,
but they have not experienced the euphoric rush associated with smoking or injecting it
and have not encountered clearly defined stages of abuse. However, simple switching to
smoking or injecting methamphetamine offers the abusers a quick transition to a binge
pattern of abuse.
Binge abusers smoke or inject methamphetamine and experience euphoric rushes that
are psychologically addictive.
The rush is the initial response the abuser feels when smoking or injecting
methamphetamine and is the aspect of the drug that low-intensity abusers do not experience
when snorting or swallowing the drug. During the rush, the abuser's heartbeat aces and metabolism,
blood pressure, and pulse soar. Meanwhile, the abuser can experience feelings equivalent to
ten orgasms. Unlike the rush associated with crack cocaine, which lasts for approximately
2 - 5 minutes, the methamphetamine rush can continue for 5-30 minutes.
The reason for the methamphetamine rush is that the drug, when smoked or injected,
triggers the adrenal gland to release a hormone called epinephrine (adrenaline), which puts
the body in a battle mode, fight or flight. In addition, the physical sensation that the
rush gives the abuser most likely results from the explosive release of dopamine in the
pleasure center of the brain.
Methamphetamine drug rehab programs are most successful with the treatment component that
detoxes the body thoroughly. This is only done in those methamphetamine drug rehabilitation
centers that employ the bio-physical component of treatment. Without this component the user
will feel depressed and lethargic for months upon months and his likelihood of using the drug
again, at higher does, which leads to continued addiction. If one chooses to attend a program
that does not have a bio-physical component, they are likely to be in a program that subscribes
to the disease model of addiction which promotes the idea that they have a chronic and
progressive disease that will be with them the rest of their lives and they will need to
attend support-group meetings (like the 12-steps of N/A) to help them from succumbing to
the urges of continued use.
In investigating the successful outcomes of drug rehab with programs that subscribe to
the disease model versus those that use the bio-physical approach, one finds that disease model
program are fortunate if they get 10% of their graduates living free of drug use for a
sustained period of months and years, compared to nearly 80% success rate for bio-physical
model programs. One should do whatever possible to seek out those programs with the highest
success rate since living under the idea that one has a disease is limiting in more ways
then just relapsing. This model of treatment does not enforce self-determinism and strength,
but fosters a weaker position that will lead one to being reasonable with their continued use.
What Should I Do If I am Addicted to Methamphatimes?
First of all, you are headed in the right direction if you are reading this information. There are things that you can do TODAY that will start reversing the effects of your meth addiction and curb your desire or cravings to use again. Remember that the TRUTH will set you free! You have heard that all of your lives but that doesn't mean that it isn't as true now as it ever has been. If you understand the truth about methamphetamines, how this drug is made, what it does to you physically, emotionally and spiritually and are wanting to change, this information can trun your life around!
However, we have found that in many cases, the drug has taken away the enthusiasm and drive to better oneself and replaced that natrual human trait with a desire to feel fulfilled without any effort to create that environment. If you feel that it will be fine to continue to use meth as long as it doesn't "get out of hand", that meth has been good for you, physically, mentally and socially, then you need more data before you can undertand that thoughts of these type are part of the delusion caused by embellished feelings from the drug itself. These types of justifications are common for someone on crystal meth and are basically insane since they seem like "rational" ways to better your survival, when they are really killing you. It may be hard to believe, but the rational thinking that you were proud to have before you started using meth, may be on a temporary hold until you can get some distance between you and the drug.
If this information rings true for you or a loved one, there are immediate actions you can take to start handling this problem. Call us and we will help you or help you help another to end this poisoning of our society. Meth addiction, especially in Texas, is ruining our futures and is hurting all of us daily. In many parts of Texas it is nearly impossible to find employees that can pass a drug test. Many young people feel that selling methamphetamines is a "get rich quick" plan that can't lose. Call us at 877-444-1137 now and we will help you see a way out.
Impact of Crystal Meth Use In Texas
Methamphetamine, or Meth addiction and abuse has three patterns: low intensity, binge,
and high intensity. Low-intensity abuse describes a user who is not psychologically addicted
to the drug but uses methamphetamine on a casual basis by swallowing or snorting it.
Binge and high-intensity abusers are psychologically addicted and prefer to smoke or
inject methamphetamine to achieve a faster and stronger high. Binge abusers use
methamphetamine more than low-intensity abusers but less than high-intensity abusers.
Methamphetamine use is a serious statewide problem. According to the 2004 Texas School Survey of Substance Use:
2.5% of boys and 2.4 % of girls reported using uppers including methamphetamines.
8% of Texas high school students tried meth at least once in their lives.
Nationally, 2.5 percent of 8th-graders, 5.2 percent of 10th-graders, and 6.2 percent of 12th-graders reported using meth.
Although methamphetamine is more of a problem in the northern half Texas, it is anticipated that as the source of methamphetamine shifts to Mexico, the problem will increase along the border and in southern Texas. Statewide, the purity of methamphetamine has dropped from 56% in 2004 to 47% in 2006 because it is cut with methylsulfonylmethane (MSM).
Meth has afflicted rural Texas for the same reason it has ravaged much of the nation's heartland: Anyone with inclination, a few hours and an Internet recipe can turn a vile brew of over-the-counter cold medicines, hardware-store solvents and farm chemicals into methamphetamine.
Experts say that the drug's psychological hook is more powerful than crack cocaine. One "bump" smoked, swallowed or injected induces a long, manic high that ends with an equally intense crash and craving for more. Paranoia is common, and regular users can suffer temporary psychosis and permanent brain damage.
Child-welfare workers, judges, doctors and cops talk about meth's impact with the weariness of combat veterans: babies born weekly with meth in their bloodstreams; 10- and 12-year-olds using meth; girls barely in their teens prostituted to support parents' habits; a cheerleader and homecoming princess coping with a mother on meth.
Arrests for drugs and violent crime in Henderson County have nearly doubled in the last seven years, even as statistics indicate such arrests have dropped in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. For the last two years, property thefts reported to the Sheriff's Department have averaged $250,000 a month.
"It's behind the assaults, the child abuse," said Judge Tarrance, adding that the drug has fueled an outlaw economy reminiscent of the moonshine era. He said meth and its users are behind "90 percent" of all felony cases that come before him.
"They're burglarizing. They're writing hot checks. You see women with multiple cases of forgery, and it's a meth problem."
Though many users are blue-collar, meth has claimed businesswomen, an $80,000-a-year construction manager, little league moms and entrepreneurs. The biggest lab busted in the county was in a quarter-million-dollar lake house.
Probation officers say they find used needles every time they check the county court parking lot, and addicts regularly show up high for court even though their freedom and even keeping their kids hinges on staying clean.
State-funded treatment of the county's meth users has jumped sevenfold since 1999, outstripping rehab admissions for alcoholism for the last several years.
HISTORY OF AMPHETAMINES
Amphetamines were not new drugs to America in the expansion of drug abuse of the 1960s, but their appearance on the street had been relatively recent. Having been synthesized in Germany during the 1880s, the first use among Americans had not come until World War II. Thousands of servicemen in all of the military branches had been issued Benzedrine, Dexedrine, and a variety of other amphetamines as a matter of course to relieve their fatigue and anxiety. After the war, amphetamine drugs became more readily available, and they were put to a wider assortment of uses, such as aid in helping students cramming for exams, for truck drivers and other who needed to be alert for extended perionds of time, in weight-control programs and as a nasal decongestant. Since they had pharmacological effects similar to those of cocaine, in time they became popular drugs of abuse.
As the 1970s began, the amphetamines were the first item on the government's agenda for drug reform, with Indiana Senator Birch Bayh conduting hearings to establish the need for government intervention. There was a parade of witnesses, and the worst fears about the drugs were confirmed.. so it seemed 1 Bayh and his committee heard the horror stories of the "speed freaks" who injected amphetamine and methamphetamine, who stalked the city streets suffering from paranoid delusions and exhibiting episodes of violent behavior at the onset of their psychotic states. They heard of the hundreds and perhaps hundreds of thoughsands of children and teenagers stoned on speed. By the time systematic surveys of the general population had begun, empirically documenting that amphetamines use and abuse were indeed widespread.
Almost immediately, new legislation was proposed. Tighter controls were placed on the prescription and distribution of amphetamines and legitimate production was ultimately cut by 90 percent. In so doing, it was thought that the drug problem, at least in terms of amphetamines, whould be measurably solved. However, it wasn't long before it was discovered that meth could be made in homemade labatories and today we have a problem far exceeding any which was seen in the 1970s.
This hystory was taken form the "The Handbook of drug control in the United States by James A Inciardi. For more information on this and other subjects, go to: http://books.google.com/books?id=Je3IC_PZHkgC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=james+incardi&source=bl&ots=VSId0LVj6n&sig=ZtyaU_fIcX-I1zE5AEX6j7sAaYc&hl=en&ei=QcJCSri_LoyntgfP-42aCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5
A comprehensive site for meth is located at our Colorado site: http://www.drug-rehab-colorado.com/CrystalMeth.php
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