Methamphetamine

A powerful drug with an even more powerful addiction!

A powerfully addictive drug known as methamphetamine has a significant affect on the central nervous system. Using relatively inexpensive over-the-counter ingredients methamphetamine is made in clandestine laboratories. Methamphetamine is a drug with a high potential for widespread abuse because of these combined factors and without effective drug rehab, abuse of this drug seems to be spreading across the nation like wild fire.

The Effects of Methamphetamine Addiction

Methamphetamine is one of the most destructive drugs around. It is so hard on the body and mind that a person taking it can undergo such drastic physical changes and deterioration in just a few months that they can be almost unrecognizable. The mind is also deeply effected. The nerve damage to the brain can also be severe. It causes anxiety, violent behavior, confusion, and insomnia, and if the damage gets too bad it can be permanent.

If you know someone who’s taking meth, it’s important to get them into meth rehab as soon as possible. We can help you find a good meth rehab program.

About Methamphetamine

“Speed,” “meth,” and “chalk” are the common street names for methamphetamine. “Ice,” “crystal,” “crank,” and “glass” refers to the form that is smoked. Characteristics of methamphetamine are: white in color, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.

From its parent drug, “amphetamine” methamphetamine was developed and originally used as a nasal decongestant and in bronchial inhalers. With a chemical compound closely related to amphetamine, methamphetamine has a more pronounced affect on the central nervous system. With the dangers involved in the production of this drug the need for meth rehab and addiction treatment is becoming more of an issue.

As with amphetamines, methamphetamine increases energy, decreases appetite, and produces a general sense of well being. After the initial strong reaction, call the “rush,” the effects can last for 6 to 8 hours. Some individuals may experience a state of high agitation that can lead to violent behavior.

Classified as a Schedule II stimulant, methamphetamine creates a high potential for abuse and is available only through prescription that cannot be refilled. Use for medical purposes is limited to treatment of narcolepsy, attention deficit disorder, and - for short-term use - obesity. Even these uses are controlled by the FDA. Hope springs eternal for effective national drug rehab, meth rehab, education and addiction treatment.

Methamphetamine addiction is spreading across our nation!

Methamphetamine abuse has a long reported history of being the dominant drug problem in the San Diego area. Now the drug is developing as a major problem in the West and Southwest, and it’s spreading to urban and rural areas across the country. Past information reports methamphetamine was traditionally used by white, male, blue-collar workers. Now it affects a more diverse group that fluctuates with time and different geographic areas. Without effective addiction treatment and drug rehab to treat this problem the end seems nowhere in sight. Methamphetamine is now one of the most popular drugs in the country and only effective meth rehab can stem the tide of this growing epidemic.

How is Methamphetamine Taken?

The methods used to take methamphetamine differ in different parts of the country. Users in Hawaii prefer smoking methamphetamine at a rate of 95%. Percentages in San Diego run close at 35% for smoking and 38 % for sniffing. San Francisco stats reported 57% used injection, 27% sniffing, and 11% smoking. Depending on how meth is taken moods can be altered in different ways. The many forms of meth can be snorted, smoked, injected, or orally ingested.

A user experiences an intense “rush” or “flash” immediately after smoking or injecting the drug intravenously. This effect is described as extremely pleasurable and lasts only a few minutes. Oral ingestion or snorting produces euphoria – not an intense rush but a high. Within 15 to 20 minutes a person feels the effects with oral ingestion and it takes about 3 to 5 minutes when a person is snorting meth.

Users act in a “binge and crash” pattern in order to keep the effects of the high going. A tolerance for meth occurs within minutes, meaning the pleasurable effects disappear even before the drug concentration drops significantly in the blood. In order to try and maintain the effect of the high the users binge on the drug.

Nicknamed “ice” a smokeable form of meth came into use in the 1980’s. Ice is smoked in a glass pipe like cocaine. Ice is a large, usually clear crystal of high purity. Ice produces effects that may continue for 12 hours or more and the smoke is odorless and leaves a residue that can be resmoked. With so many options in how this drug can be used, a serious need for drug rehab options has developed.

At Drug Rehab Referral, we can help you find a drug addiction treatment center that is experienced with meth rehab.

Powerfully stimulating!

In regulating pleasure dopamine plays an important role. Within the nerve cells of the ventral tegmental area of the brain dopamine is manufactured and released in the nucleus accumbens and the frontal cortex. The drug appears to stimulate excessive amounts of dopamine releases, contributing to the effects of the user.

Even in small doses, meth is a powerful stimulant. Energetic physical activity, decreased appetite and sleeplessness will occur even when meth is ingested in small doses. An intense sensation or rush is reported by those who smoke or inject meth but only for a brief period. A longer lasting high rather than a rush is experienced from oral ingestion or snorting, and has been reported to last as long as half a day. Very high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine are released into the area of the brain that regulate feelings of pleasure are believed to be the result of both the rush and the high.

The long and the short of it!

High doses of the drug have been shown to damage nerve terminals in the regions of the brain containing dopamine, in animals. Meth creates toxic effects. The toxic effects on the nerve terminals in the brain are thought to be contributed from the release of large amounts of dopamine produced from the use of meth. Elevated body temperature, to dangerous, sometimes lethal levels and even convulsions can be caused from high doses of the drug.

Methamphetamine has long-term effects

Methamphetamine addiction is only one of many long-term effects of meth abuse.. A compulsiveness to seek and use methamphetamine is accompanied by functional and molecular changes in the brain. Chronic addiction to methamphetamine is a relapsing condition. Anxiety, violent behavior, confusion, and insomnia are included among the long-term effects of methamphetamine addiction. Persons suffering from this addiction may also display a number of psychotic characteristics including paranoia, auditory hallucinations, mood swings, and the sensation of insects creeping on the skin called “formication.” Suicidal thoughts as well as homicidal thoughts can result from the paranoia.

A tolerance for methamphetamine will develop after chronic use of the drug. To reach the desired effects of the drug a user will increase their dosage, take the doses closer together, or use a different method of ingesting the drug. A binge known as a “run” injecting as much as a gram of the drug every 2 or 3 hours throughout several days until there is no more drugs to be taken or until they are to disorganized to keep going. Usually when a user is on a binge they do not take in food and do not sleep during this time period. Psychotic behavior characterized by intense paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations and out of control rages coupled with violent behavior are all characteristics of chronic abuse.

There are no physical demonstrations of withdrawal conditions when methamphetamine use is stopped. Several symptoms that occur when a chronic user stops taking methamphetamine, can quite possibly experience depression, anxiety, fatigue, paranoia, aggression, and an agonizing craving for the drug. These severe symptoms are one of the reasons why the drug can be so hard to quit. Help from professionals experienced with meth rehab can get the person through it.

But it’s important to get into meth rehab as soon as possible. Long-term exposure to methamphetamine in animals has been cause for concern over its toxic effects on the brain. According to research as much as 50% of the dopamine-producing cells can suffer damage after low-levels of exposure to methamphetamine. Also, serotonin-containing nerve cells may receive even more extensive damage. Could this toxicity be related to the psychosis that is seen in some long-term methamphetamine users, still remains to be seen?

Does methamphetamine use have medical complications?

Yes! Most definitely! A variety of cardio problems are related to methamphetamine use. Rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and stroke producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain, are all methamphetamine use related medical complications. Some users may suffer irreversible effects. Methamphetamine overdoses cause an elevated body temperature (hyperthermia) and convulsion. These effects may result in death if not treated immediately.

Inflammation of the heart lining can result from chronic methamphetamine abuse. Skin abscesses and damaged blood vessels can result from users injecting the methamphetamine.

A good meth rehab program has to include focusing on getting the methamphetamine addict back into good health as much as is possible.

Episodes of violent behavior, paranoia, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia will also appear in methamphetamine users. Occupational deterioration and social withdrawal is an indicator of a heavy user. For months and even years after stopping the use of methamphetamine psychotic symptoms may exist.

Illegal production of methamphetamine use of lead acetate as a reagent. The use of this component creates the potential risk of lead poisoning for methamphetamine abusers. Documented cases of acute lead poisoning in intravenous methamphetamine users may be the results of production error.

Methamphetamine has a major effect on the unborn baby of a “meth mother.” Use of methamphetamine during pregnancy may result in prenatal complications. Increased premature delivery, altered neonatal behavioral patterns, such as abnormal reflexes and extreme irritability become a higher risk for these babies. It is also believed that congenital deformities may be linked to methamphetamine abuse during pregnancy.

It’s important to make sure that anyone you know who is taking meth and could get pregnant gets into a meth rehab program before they do. Otherwise, the baby’s life could also be in danger.

Is methamphetamine different from other stimulants, such as cocaine?

Amphetamine, cocaine, and methamphetamine are all classified as psycho stimulant drugs. Methamphetamine is structurally similar to amphetamine and the neurotransmitter called dopamine, but cocaine is quite different. While it is true that these stimulants have very similar behavioral and physiological effects, they still have some major differences in how they work at the nerve cell level. Stimulation and feelings of euphoria experienced by the user are results of an accumulation of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Excessive dopamine concentration results from both methamphetamine and cocaine.

Cocaine is quickly removed and almost completely metabolized in the body; in contrast to cocaine, methamphetamine has a much longer duration of action and a larger percentage of the drug remains unchanged in the body. Therefore, prolonged stimulant effects are present in the brain for a longer period of time from methamphetamine use.

Summing up the use of methamphetamine

Long-term effects of methamphetamine use are: strokes, repetitive motor activity, mood swings, paranoia, hallucinations, weight loss, addiction psychosis, and dependence.

Short-term effects of methamphetamine use are: decreased fatigue, increased energy, loss of appetite, euphoria and rush, increased respiration, and hyperthermia.

Methamphetamine vs. Cocaine: methamphetamine is man made, smoking produces a high that last 8-24 hours, 50 % of the drug is removed from the body in 12 hours, and has limited medical uses; cocaine is produced from a natural plant, smoking produces a high that lasts 20-30 minutes, 50 % of the drug is removed from the body in 1 hour, and it may be used as a local anesthetic in some surgical procedures.