STIMULANTS: AMPHETAMINES AND METHAMPHETAMINES

Stimulants do just that: they stimulate the brain. They increase alertness, relieve fatigue, make the user feel stronger and more decisive and are often used for euphoric effects or to counteract the “down” feeling of tranquilizers or alcohol. The most commonly abused are cocaine, amphetamines, and methamphetamines. Cocaine, addressed earlier, is also considered a narcotic.

Amphetamines are sometimes prescribed by doctors for medical problems. This doesn’t make them any safer. Stimulants increase heart and respiratory rates, elevate blood pressure, dilate pupils, decrease appetite. High doses may cause rapid or irregular heartbeat, loss of coordination, or blurred vision, dizziness, an intense feeling of restlessness, anxiety, profuse sweating and delusions.

Street methamphetamine is called “speed,” “meth,” and “chalk.” Methamphetamine hydrochloride, clear chunky crystals resembling ice, which can be inhaled by smoking, is called “ice,” “crystal,” “glass,” and “tina.”

Because methamphetamine can be made with easy to find, inexpensive materials, the final product sold as "methamphetamine" may not be methamphetamine at all, but a highly altered chemical mixture with some stimulant-like effects. Uncertainties about the drug’s sources and ingredients make it especially difficult to determine its toxicity. There’s no way to predict the medical consequences and symptoms of overdose -- or poisoning.

Recently, law enforcement officials have seized new methamphetamine chemical “mixes” being used by drug dealers whose latest targets are new users 10 year olds and up. Today, drug pushers are mixing methamphetamines or heroin with flavored drink powders creating “starter drugs” with cute, harmless-sounding slang names. I mentioned “Strawberry Quick” earlier; however, flavors and colors they use vary: strawberry, chocolate, even candy ground up and mixed with dangerous illegal drugs. These Kiddie Killers are all finding their way to our youngest and most impressionable and most helpless children. Repeat: Ten years old and up. No matter what they are mixed with, methamphetamines and heroin are still highly dangerous, addictive, life-threatening drugs.

According to one of the most finite government annual surveys of school drug use, past year and past month methamphetamine use decreased among 10th-graders from 2005 to 2006. It decreased from 2.9 percent to 1.8 percent for past year; and decreased from 1.1 percent to 0.7 percent for the study’s past month.

Among 12th-graders, perceived risk of harm from trying crystal methamphetamine -- “ice” -- increased from 54.6 percent in 2005 to 59.1 percent in 2006.

In 2004, 1.4 million persons aged 12 or older (0.6 percent of the population) used methamphetamine in the past year, and 600,000 (0.2 percent) used it in the past month.

In 2004, an estimated 318,000 persons were new users of methamphetamine, having used it for the first time in the 12 months before the survey.

And The Worst News There is emerging evidence that methamphetamine is being administered increasingly via the intravenous route. Injecting this drug increases the user’s risk for indulging in both sexual and non-sexual acts that could increase his or her chance of contracting HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases.

Myths and facts about Methamphetamine

Myth: Using methamphetamine is like using diet pills. Everyone knows they are safe.

Fact: Not true. First of all, even diet pills whose production is monitored by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) can be very dangerous. Giga-jolts of the well-known stimulants caffeine or ephedrine can cause stroke or cardiac arrest when overused or used by people with sensitivity to them. Further, there is no way you can know what chemicals are in meth produced by an illegal drug lab. Methamphetamine is dangerous and addictive. From 1998 to 1999, deaths due to meth rose 38 percent.

Myth: Methamphetamine is less harmful than crack, cocaine, or heroin.

Fact: Not true. Some users get hooked the first time they snort, smoke, or inject meth. Because it can be made from lethal ingredients like battery acid, drain cleaner, lantern fuel, or antifreeze, there is a greater chance of having a heart attack, stroke, or serious brain damage with this drug than with other drugs. In 2002, meth led to 17, 676 emergency room visits.

Myth: Meth is the same as amphetamine.

Fact: Not true. Methamphetamine is chemically related to amphetamine but, at comparable doses, the effects of methamphetamine are much more potent, longer lasting, and more harmful to the central nervous system.

Myth: “Speed” makes you “sharp”.

Fact: Over “amping” on any type of speed is pretty risky. Creating a false sense of energy, these drugs push the body faster and further than it's meant to go. It increases the heart rate, blood pressure, and risk of stroke. It can also cause you to become paranoiac and violent.

Meth is extremely addictive - sometimes with just one use! It can cause convulsions, heart irregularities, high blood pressure, depression, restlessness, tremors, and severe fatigue. An overdose can cause coma and death. When you stop using meth, you may experience a deep depression. Ice causes a very jittery high, along with anxiety, insomnia, and sometimes paranoia.

In the short term, meth causes mind and mood changes such as anxiety, euphoria, and depression.

Long-term effects can include chronic fatigue, paranoid or delusional thinking, and permanent psychological damage.

Meth use can cause irreversible damage to blood vessels in the brain. Meth users who inject the drug and share needles are at risk for acquiring HIV/AIDS. An overdose of meth can result in heart failure.

Long-term physical effects such as liver, kidney, and lung damage may also kill you.

Recent studies in chronic methamphetamine abusers have also revealed severe structural and functional changes in areas of the brain associated with emotion and memory, which may account for many of the emotional and cognitive problems observed in chronic methamphetamine abusers.

Meth can cause aggression and violent or psychotic behavior.




Sources: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, (NIDA), Monitoring the Future Survey,