Effective Drug Rehab - Meth ( methamphetamine ) and addiction

What is Methamphetamine?

Methamphetamine is easily made with inexpensive over-the-counter ingredients. Meth is a powerful stimulant that dramatically affects the central nervous system. These factors combine to make methamphetamine a drug with high potential for widespread addiction. Commonly known as "speed", " meth ", and "chalk" or in its smoked form it is often referred to as "ice," "crystal," "crank," and "glass", it is a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.

Like amphetamine, it causes increased activity, decreased appetite, and a general sense of well-being. The effects of methamphetamine can last 6 to 8 hours. After the initial "rush," there is typically a state of high agitation that in some individuals can lead to violent behavior.

How is methamphetamine used?

Methamphetamine can be smoked, snorted, orally ingested, or injected. Immediately after smoking the drug or injecting it intravenously, the user experiences an intense rush or "flash" that lasts only a few minutes and is described as extremely pleasurable. Snorting or oral ingestion produces euphoria -- a high but not an intense rush. Snorting produces effects within 3 to 5 minutes, and oral ingestion produces effects within 15 to 20 minutes. As with similar stimulants, meth, is usually used in a "binge and crash" pattern. Tolerance for methamphetamine occurs within minutes causing the pleasurable effects disappear even before the drug concentration in the blood falls significantly. As result, users try to maintain the high by binging on the drug.

What is the extent of Meth use in the U.S.?

According to the 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, an estimated 4.9 million people (2.3 percent of the population) have tried methamphetamine at some time in their lives. In 1994, the estimate was 1.8% (3.8 million), and in 1995 it was 2.2% (4.7 million). Drug abuse treatment admissions reported by the CEWG in December 1996 showed that methamphetamine remained the leading drug of abuse among treatment clients in the San Diego area and was second only to marijuana in Hawaii.

Medical consequences of Meth use

Methamphetamine is toxic to the body. In animals, a single high dose of the drug has been shown to damage nerve terminals in the dopamine-containing regions of the brain. High doses can elevate body temperature to dangerous, sometimes lethal, levels, as well as cause convulsions. Meth is highly addictive can cause violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, insomnia and paranoia. The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts. Rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and irreversible, stroke-producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain are effects of long-term use.