Methamphetamine Facts

Street terms: meth, speed, ice, crystal meth, poor man's cocaine.

Methods of usage are injecting, snorting, smoking, oral ingestion.

In 2002, over 12 million people in the US aged 12+ reported trying Methamphetamine at least once in their lives.

In 2002, over 590,000 of those surveyed aged 12+ reported having used meth in the past month.

Effects include addiction, brain damage and psychotic behavior.

Chronic use can cause confusion, anxiety, violent behavior, delusions, paranoia, insomnia, and hallucinations.

Damage to the brain caused by Methamphetamine usage is similar to stroke, Alzheimer's disease or epilepsy.

Snorting meth affects the user within 5 minutes. Oral ingestion takes about 20 minutes for the effects to take hold.

Side effects include convulsions, high body temperature, shaking, stomach cramps and cardiac arrhythmia.

Chronic use can also cause inflammation of the heart lining. For those injecting the drug, damaged blood vessels and skin abscesses.

Overdose can cause hyperthermia and convulsions. If left untreated, it can result in death.

Injection also causes a raised chance of contracting the HIV/AIDS virus from an infected needle.

In 1995, over 15,000 reports of Methamphetamine related visits to the ER was reported by hospitals.

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/methamph/

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/methfact01.html

http://store.health.org/catalog/facts.aspx?topic=6

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