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Once derided as “the poor man’s cocaine” methamphetamine is gaining popularity among Texas teenagers. The swath cut by drug-addiction through the center of the United States seemed to stop at the nation’s belly. However, reports show that despite federal efforts to cripple the “meth labs” by pulling easily accessible ingredients from pharmacy shelves, the trend continues and has spread south.
Street methamphetamine goes by many nicknames: meth, ice, glass, La Tina, or crystal and can be swallowed, snorted, injected or more popularly with teens, smoked.
The reasons for using it range from vanity to self-destruction. Teenage girls take it to suppress their appetites and keep their weight down. Other young adults take it to stay awake, so they can study or dance all night at rave parties. Others use it recreationally for the notorious euphoric rush.
Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Most teens don’t have to look far for a fix. In 2004, 6.2 percent of high school seniors said they had used methamphetamine some time in their lives, according to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study.
“It is usually sold to them by peers, or by some type of social contact they have, or they get it at parties,” says Dr. Andrew Harper, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and medical director of the UT Harris County Psychiatric Center.
Harper says more of the teens he counsels are admitting to experimenting with the drug.
A growing supply may be why. The availability of both Mexican and locally produced methamphetamine is increasing in the Houston area, according to the Gulf Coast Addiction Technology Transfer Center. Most methamphetamine is “cooked up” in home laboratories, using ingredients that can be bought at the corner drugstore.
In March of this year, all over-the-counter cold and allergy medications containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine were placed behind the pharmacist’s counter through the “Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act.” This federal bill is attached to the Patriot Act. Texas removed its cold preparations from shelves in August, 2005.
Other ingredients used in the homemade recipe are red phosphorus, lead, paint thinner, ammonia and lye – all poisons.
But few teens realize how addictive methamphetamine is, or the devastating and lasting effect the drug can have on their health and their futures.
Ingredients and equipment used to
manufacture methamphetamine are
displayed at
the scene of a drug bust,
Tuesday, July 20, 2004, near Lufkin, Tx.
The morning raid resulted in two arrests
and the
confiscation of drug paraphernalia
including a mobile meth lab trailer.
(AP Photo/The Lufkin Daily News, Joel
Andrews)
Regardless of the delivery method into the body, once meth hits the brain, the drug tricks it to release the chemical dopamine, which dramatically increases the sensation of pleasure. The drug also makes users feel hyper-awake. Users who smoke or inject the drug describe a heady rush. Other effects may include loss of appetite, irritability and aggressiveness. The effects of methamphetamine usually last six to eight hours.
Even small amounts of methamphetamine can be toxic. Releasing large amounts of dopamine damages nerves in the brain. High doses can raise body temperature to dangerous, even deadly levels and can cause convulsions that can lead to death.
The long-term effects of methamphetamine abuse are unclear. But animal research going back more than 20 years shows that high doses of methamphetamine cause severe nerve damage. Long-time users often feel paranoid and have hallucinations, and have homicidal and suicidal thoughts.
Users may also feel that they have bugs crawling under their skin. To get them out, they pick and dig at their skin, causing open sores that can become infected.
Methamphetamine also increases heart rate and blood pressure and can increase the risk of stroke. The drug can also cause respiratory problems, irregular heartbeat and extreme anorexia. It can even cause heart attack and death.
Teens who live through their first hit of methamphetamine often want to try it again.
Since last August, Texas has restricted the sale of cold
and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine or
ephedrine. Federal law to restrict sales went into
effect March, 2006. Retailers now must display all solid
forms of medicines containing pseudoephedrine or
ephedrine in locked cabinets or behind sales counters.
To purchase the medicines, consumers must be older
than 16 and show ID.
Sure, it’s a hassle, but lawmakers hope the new law
will stymie the people who illegally “cook”
methamphetamine using over-the-counter medicines.
After a similar law was passed in Oklahoma, seizures
of meth labs were reduced by 80 percent in two years.
Solid forms of the medicine include tablets, capsules
and powders. The law does not apply to gel-coated
tablets and caplets.
The law also limits each purchase to no more than six
grams or two packages. Retailers who violate the law
will be charged a penalty of $1,000 per violation per
day, with a maximum of $20,000.
Law enforcement experts don’t expect new legislation
restricting the sale of cold and allergy medicines to
solve the meth problem, since an increasing supply of
meth is being manufactured in Mexican “super labs.”
But it may reduce the number of local labs, which are
frequently the source of contamination from toxic
chemicals and fires. Also, neglected children are
sometimes found living in the dangerous conditions of
meth labs.
The new law covers products including:
“It is a powerfully addicting drug,” says Dr. Marianne Marcus, a professor specializing in addiction at The UT School of Nursing at Houston. “The initial high is what makes it so addicting. However, that feeling of the first high it is never quite the same again. Users get to the tolerance phase quite quickly.”
Users must take bigger and bigger doses to achieve the high, launching the cycle of addiction.
The drug takes a rapid and visible toll on the body. Before-and-after pictures on websites for recovering methamphetamine addicts tell the ugly story of addiction. Before-pictures show attractive and healthy teenage girls and boys with bright eyes and shiny hair. The after-pictures show teens with sunken eyes and cheeks, rotted teeth, limp hair and open sores on their skin.
That’s the tragic irony of using methamphetamine, say recovering addicts. In the beginning the drug makes you feel beautiful and full of energy. Later it robs you of your looks and youth.
“I started at 15 and remember feeling alive and beautiful,” says Debbie, who posted her 17-year struggle with addiction on the website crystalrecovery.com. “I thought how wonderful to not eat and lose weight, the main reason women do it in the first place (my opinion)... I was a beautiful girl, when I look back at sober pictures of myself – I was like wow, but the sad part of it was I never realized it at the time.”
“I have never met anyone that hasn't tried it,” says an 18-year-old male recovering addict from Indiana. “But the results of this drug are without a doubt the worst. I lost over 50 lbs this summer and went to the hospital for over 3 weeks... It’s all not good (sic).”
Methamphetamine eventually affects every aspect of a user’s life. “Kids skip school to use drugs, so it is distracting them from their academic development, and they tend to be involved in more impulsive behaviors, aggressive behavior and violence including criminal behavior,” Harper says. “It also causes them to engage in more impulsive sexual activity, which can increase risk for getting HIV, hepatitis and for unplanned pregnancies.”
Meth is more of a problem in the northern half of Texas. According to the 2005 Gulf Coast Addiction study, 55 percent of all the drug items examined by the Department of Public Safety in Abilene were meth-related while in McAllen and Laredo, less than one percent was related to meth production.
Because methamphetamine is so addictive, the best treatment is through a drug addiction recovery program. Successful programs include one-on-one and group counseling, to help patients increase their coping skills. Some patients may also be prescribed antidepressant medications to help with the serious depression that comes with withdrawal from methamphetamine.
Currently, there are no medications to treat methamphetamine addiction itself. Researchers supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse are investigating medications to treat methamphetamine addiction and an antidote to treat methamphetamine-related overdoses.
But by far, the best way to avoid a methamphetamine habit is to never start.
“There is not a good awareness of the risk (of methamphetamine) among teens,” Harper says. “Many think, ‘I can do this and get away with it. If I really wanted to, I could stop.’ They minimize the risk.”
UPDATED: 6-01-2006
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Dr. Andrew Harper is associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the UT Medical School and medical director of UT Harris County Psychiatric Center.
See Dr. Harper also at:
Dr. Marianne Marcus is the John P. McGovern professor of Addiction Nursing at the UT School of Nursing.
See Dr. Marcus also at:
Microwaves and 'Erupted Hot Water Phenomena'
Hot-water eruption can occur if you use a microwave oven to super-heat water in a clean cup. ("Super-heated" means the water is hot beyond boiling temperature, although it shows no signs of boiling.)
A slight disturbance or movement may cause the water to violently explode out of the cup. There have been reports of serious skin burns or scalding injuries around people's hands and faces as a result of this phenomenon.
Adding materials such as instant coffee or sugar to the water before heating greatly reduces the risk of hot-water eruption. Also, follow the precautions and recommendations found in microwave oven instruction manuals; specifically the heating time.
