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"Poor Man's Cocaine" is one slang term for Meth - for good reason. Meth
generally costs the same or less than crack cocaine (ranging from $25 to
$100 per gram) but because the user's body metabolizes it more slowly, the
high lasts much longer. Users tend to believe they get "more bang for
their buck" with Meth. An intense rush is felt almost immediately when a
user smokes or injects Meth. Snorting the drug affects the user about five
minutes later; it takes about twenty minutes for the rush to kick in if a
user ingests Meth.
"Honeymoon" on Meth
Meth
initially sends a message to the pleasure center in your brain. When you
first use Meth, you might feel alert, full of energy and self-confident.
Your brain is releasing dopamine - a brain chemical that carries messages
between brain cells. Dopamine is associated with feelings of pleasure,
usually after food or sex.
Hours after taking Meth, your brain cells release an enzyme that stops the
dopamine flow. If you keep taking Meth, you will potentially lose your
ability to experience pleasure.
Prolonged Use
Continued use
of Meth does more than destroy a person's ability to experience pleasure
naturally. Chronic use can create a tolerance for the drug, leading a
person to try to intensify the desired effects by taking increasingly
higher doses, taking it more frequently or changing their method of
getting high. To support their habit, Meth users often participate in
spur-of-the-moment crimes such as burglaries. Under the influence of
Meth, people become agitated and feel wired. Their behavior becomes
unpredictable from moment to moment. They may start doing the same thing
over and over, like taking apart and reassembling bits of machinery, or
continuously picking at imaginary bugs under their skin (Please see Meth
Mites).
Addiction
Meth
users suffer the same addiction cycle and withdrawal symptoms as do crack
cocaine users. Both drugs lead to binging - consuming the drug
continuously for three or more days without sleep. While cocaine binges
rarely last longer than 72-hours, Meth binges can last up to two weeks.
The user is then driven into a severe depression followed by paranoia and
aggression (known as tweaking). When heavy cocaine users experience
paranoia, it almost always disappears once the binge ends. With Meth,
severe mood disturbances, bizarre thoughts and behavior may last for days
- sometimes weeks - and the user loses a grip on reality.
Meth use causes
both short- and long-term affects, physical and mental. Some people
mistakenly believe Meth is less harmful than crack, cocaine or heroin, but
because of the ingredients used in its manufacturing, there is a greater
chance of suffering a heart attack, stroke or serious brain damage with
Meth than with other drugs. It is far more dangerous than the Meth that
was popular back in the 1950s and '60s. Today's ephedrine-based Meth can
kill you.
Information adapted from National Institute on Drug Abuse and Midwest
HIDTA |
Chemical Process
Meth History
Forms of Meth
Meth Ingredients
Meth Paraphernalia
Effects of Use
Signs & Symptoms
Tweakers
User Progression
Treatment
Community Costs
Fast Facts
Lab Overview |
