If you’re lazy like I am, it can be difficult to know the truth about what’s really going on in this country. The media lemmings always seem to head for the same cliff and jump off together. On the way down, the scream that we’re all in serious trouble and need to Do Something™. Then they hit the ground, dust themselves off, and find a new cliff. One wonders if the cliff even exists at times; perhaps they made it themselves.
While methamphetamine isn’t as popular to talk about these days as it has been, its effects are still with us. Whether you call it meth, crank, ice, or hillbilly heroin, the fact of its existence gets in our way every time we try to buy medications containing epinephrine. The powers that be got their marching orders from the media to Do Something™ and they did. You cannot buy more than a fixed amount of those medications in any one purchase. I doubt it has changed anything other than to inconvenience people who are sick. If you’re single like I am, and you are sick and need meds, you either end up going out every day to get more, or you get to hit a bunch of stores to buy enough to get you through. The meth manufacturors can do the same.
I avoid stimulants, so it never appealed to me. I have enough of a temper as it is; there is no need to be even worse. I have known people who have known users, but no one in my circle uses drugs all that much. I stick to alcohol these days, and it’s been pretty much my drug of choice my whole adult life. However, meth has hit me peripherally. I have a cousin doing hard time for dealing meth. He was old enough to know better (busted in his late 30s). I haven’t seen him since the early 90s, so I have no idea how he ended up in prison. Most likely it was the lure of easy money, coupled with stupidity. I don’t feel all that sorry for him.
If you click around the t.v. stations enough, and have cable, you’ll eventually hit one of those shows which features former and current meth users. The common feature seems to be rotting teeth. That’s enough right there to put me off it. Yikes. Also, apparently it ages you significantly, but one wonders whether that has to do with not getting proper nutrition. And, like most hardcore stimulants, it isn’t going to do your heart any good. I don’t think long-term meth use has been thoroughly studied yet, but since it’s sexy enough to get funding, there are probably studies going on right now. I’m sure if you’re interested you can provide your own googled linky-love. As I said at the start, I’m too lazy.
I know that crank has been around for a long time. The one-percenter bikers (the true biker gang members) have, for decades, often supplemented their incomes by selling it. That means someone has to have been buying it. The question I have is, is meth use really on the rise, or is it just the reporting of meth use that’s on the rise? Or is the increase in use, if it exists, overblown?
I’m interested in information that you know, personally, that indicates a rise in meth use. Perhaps your kids tell you what’s going on out there. Perhaps you’re in health care or law enforcement. Maybe you know people who use it, or have quit using. I don’t want to hear anything incriminating. I just want to know if this is yet another over-hyped issue, or if it’s a serious problem.
Update: Damn, I don’t know why I typed epinephrine when I meant pseudoephedrine as the over-the-counter substance that is now restricted. Thanks to ThomasD for pointing out my error. BTW, epinephrine is also used to alleviate asthma attacks (or it used to be), and I was given it one time in that situation. Coming off that stuff was very bad.
Hmmm…
A post om meth use by “cranky-d”…
Nah. Too easy.
Oh, come on. Give it a whirl.
Cranky,
I can only report that in our upper-middle class office, we’ve had homemakers with their kids in private Christian school hooked on meth. Why? They can “get more housework done” and it “keeps me skinny”.
I might add that they look like death-warmed-over within a year.
Is it prevalent? No. Is it surprising to see it in this demographic? Yes.
Actually, it’s not epinephrine that has recently been restricted. Epinephrine (Adrenalin is actually the original brand name for epinephrine BTW) has long been a prescription item and is generally too potent and short acting for use as a nasal decongestant (it’s also ineffective taken orally.) Pseudoephedrine is the oral nasal decongestant that has become like hens teeth recently due to it’s easy use as a chemical precursor for meth. Yeah, I’m a pharmacist, and yeah I’m really friggin tired of having to play drug police.
My 18-y.o. daughter has been struggling with it for the past year. She is now free of any addiction, but this stuff is so cheap, it’s difficult for any person experimenting with drugs to not be exposed to it. I’ve talked with family after family, and each one has had a kid exposed recently to this drug, with some awful results.
I have a friend who is a youth corrections counselor for the county, and he has noted that meth use in the teens he sees has always been significant. And unfortunately the number is going up.
All I know is that when I went to buy Infant’s Tylenol for Cold, I had to swipe my California driver’s license. Not to vote, but to buy cold medicine for the baby. Fucking tweakers and legislators.
I work in a border state prison, and meth is an Aryan Brothers and Mexican Mafia thing here (I wish I could say was, but prison has more drugs than many high schools.) I think it’s probably become more common in some areas, but that’s because it’s cheaper than cocaine and easier to make locally (though, since recent laws made the local drugstore get turned into suspicious-narc central, production has shifted to Mexico.)
Like all stimulants (especially tobacco), there is the skinny woman demographic. As Melissa mentioned, the ability to do all the housework is a big meth-use factor among working mothers with children in daycare/school and husbands that aren’t there or doing their share of the housework.
And the teeth thing is a combo of poor diet and hypertension, which is why many inmates have these lovely seven-ten splits in their front grills.
Yes, I know the inconvenience of dealing with these new restrictions. I use an over the counter broncholidator (sp) tablet for my occasional asthma, in addition to albuterol. It’s a nightmare; I feel like I’m buying hard drugs on a dark corner.
But I also work in the court system. Meth is a pervasive and ungodly drug, Ted Haggard notwithstanding. As was mentioned, it is fairly easily available. Most of it these days comes from Mexican superlabs, so I don’t see why preventing law-abiding American citizens from getting cold meds is a solution.
The problem seems to be that it is not just cheap, but hyper-addictive like crack cocaine. Prostitutes can’t stay clean, so they can’t quit the biz. Inhibitions get lowered, so people commit more brazen crimes. Plus, tweaked people seem to have herculean strength, so the cops can’t subdue them without violent means.
More and more people coming into the court system are meth users or meth-addicted. We call them “snaggles,” because their teeth can be truly awful. They are physically, emotionally, and mentally rotting away. What a way to go.
There is an Ex-Mrs.Lee because of Meth. She started using it for for a dietary suppliment, and it got ugly fast. That was in 1985.
Took her four years to stop, and it aged her twenty.
From what I understand, bad teeth, dead hair, parched skin, it’s because of all the poison(!) being ingested. Sure there is an unhealthy lifestye that generally goes with it, but the chemicals getting pumped into the body destroys all kinds of shit.
Bad teeth are the most noticable trait of a crankster. ~Ugh~
When I moved to San Diego in the early ‘90s, the surrounding desert towns were the meth capitol of the freaking word. You could drive down the streets of El Cajon at 3 AM, and you’d think it was 7 PM from the number of homes completely lit up. And it might as well have been Night of the Living Dead from the number of skeletal zombies you’d see roaming the streets.
There’s a woman whose destruction from meth has been documented over a decade through mug shots. You might recognize her from the “Beer Goggles” flash that has been floating around the net for a while.
Meth is the devil, plain and simple.
Here’s a link to the aforementioned photos. The PW software has it blacklisted because of the word drugs, so you’ll have to take the space out and paste into your browser.
http://www.stargazettenews.com/newsextra/dru gs/032804_effects.html
My sympathies, Lee and Dogtown. I can’t imagine what you have gone through, and I pray I never will. You can only do what you can, but this shit is nasty and it escalates quickly.
CrankyD, I hope you got your answer. It’s really out there. In a way, that’s the only good point for my bad habit: my teenage daughter is so disgusted I drink wine (eww), she has sworn off ever touching any mind-altering substance. I hope and pray that’s the case.
pablo, that’s a bad link. at least for me… And I would like to see the pictures…
Epinephrine is the active ingredient in Primatene, which is available OTC. And yes, it is extremely different from pseudoephedrine.
Although I am and have always been disgusted by the “war on drugs” and it usually seems that the media and our society make a bigger deal out of something than it really is – I mean, do we REALLY need tobacco free community colleges??? Meth is one of those that seems to do more physical damage than the risk is worth. Then again, being an alcoholic can do alot of perceivable physical damage. It just takes longer. I know on first hand basis.
Fuck it, legalize it. I am sorry if your kids or someone you know has done it and is in trouble with it, but that is human nature isn’t it? Did the fact that it was illegal cause any of these people with the problem to do it?
Some people will show their throat to the wolf no matter how many times they have been shown it to be stupid.
Anyway, for those of you that want a bit of conspiracy, Alexander Shulgin, who also invented STP – invented Meth. Alexander is also a lifetime member of the Bohemian Grove. Make of that what you will.
A little reading:
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/interview/index.html
The guy also “invented” ecstasy.
Whatever else Shulgin has done, he didn’t “invent” either meth or MDMA. Both have been around longer than he’s been alive.
Thus the quote marks around the word invent.
I should have done the same for Meth. So he “invented” Meth, he didn’t invent Meth.
Thanks to everyone who said something. I was talking to a friend tonight on this topic and he has a cousin who’s hooked on meth. So, apparently, with the weight of evidence that I’ve seen so far, this is not a problem that has been made up.
I really appreciate the response. There’s a huge difference between what we hear from the media and what we hear from actual human beings who don’t have an agenda.
BTW, I was not interested in anything other than information, and if anyone else has something to offer, I would welcome it. I am not trying to recommend drug policy at this time. That’s a whole other issue.
Cynn, I can’t post it in working fashion. The site software is blacklisting it. You’ll have to copy and paste it. Copy the clickable part into your browser and then add the line below…
Or, I could just Shorlify it and you could click right here. Which probably would have been easier than typing that last paragraph out….
Better yet, did that fact that it was illegal stop them?
crankyD: I don’t think the media has any idea what to do with this issue. I guess filthy, dangerous meth labs with contaminated children aren’t sexy enough for public consumption. I’ve gone on rides with the North Metro Task Force when they busted some labs in my neighborhood. They actually wear hazmat gear, and they have to treat the kids like they were exposed to what amounts to radiation. Meth’s production creates toxins that are deadly, and the flammable gasses can quickly ignite an entire house.
Sorry to go on about this, but I see the casualties day in and out. Mark my words, the casual use and easy availability of meth will just fuel the nastiness, and probably exacerbate the AIDS epidemic. Meth is a pretty poison, and it kills the pain while wreaking destruction.
Oh, and Republican on Acid, you are on crack. Legalize it? Meth? Fine, as long as I can make IED’s in my basement and deploy them at the middle school.