Don't do meth

Meth is poison.

It's nasty stuff. I was still doing drugs when it started showing up, and it scared the old-timers. Long time junkies and potheads saw what it did to people and wouldn't touch the stuff.

If junkies think it's bad shit...

The difficulty with controlling meth is that it is so easy to make. There are some organized manufacturers and dealers, but more than half of it is homebrew, a sort of twisted entrepeneurial venture.

The only cure I see for meth abuse is REAL drug education. The problem with current "official" drug education is that it calls all drugs equally bad. Using ANY illegal drug just once will "ruin your life!" Kids read that, and then they see their friends try pot, and NOT turn in to raving potheads. So, it's natural for them to assume that, if that part was a lie, it's all lies.

Part of the problem is also WHY people do drugs. Young people try things. They play dangerous games like "space monkey", and experiment with drugs because they are curious about the world, and about their own sensations. There's no real cure for that. The best that can be done is to keep young people from becoming bored, by keeping them challenged in positive ways.

Other people turn to drugs as self-medication. They don't feel good. Drugs make them feel better. (or at least, feel nothing for a while) The solution to that is to find young people who have emotional problems and get them some proper medical help before they discover the pleasures of illegal drugs.

The problem with meth is that, unlike other illegal drugs, meth really IS instantly, aggressively addictive. Most people who try pot don't turn into addicts. Most people who try meth, DO. It's orders of magnitude more dangerous to play with.

A lot of the victims of meth had no idea what they were getting into. They thought it would be like sneaking a drink or a cigarette, or smoking pot behind the gym. These things produce a sense of intoxication that most people find pleasant.

Meth does something quite different.

Endorphins are our bodies' pleasure hormones. If you ride a roller coaster, and feel "up" afterward, that's endorphins. After sex, which produces one set of endorphins, if you lay around just grinning and feeling good, that's more endorphins. That satisfied feeling after doing some really hard physical work is endorphins, too. They are our reward for taking risks, working hard, and procreating.

Meth causes the body to produce vast quantities of almost every endorphin. Researchers were flabbergasted by the amounts they found in the blood of users. They didn't think the body could produce that much. The effect is short lived, and afterward, hormone production, exhausted, shuts down completely. Blood levels drop below the levels found in most sufferers of clinical depression.

So, it takes you to heights you never knew before (and can't get to any other way), then dumps you in a pit.

A young person seeking sensation, or a poor person seeking a brief respite from life, stumbles into this pit, and can't get out. Even if, intellectually, you know that you just have to wait a while for your brain to get working again, it's hard to just let yourself stay miserable when there is someone there with a crystal that will make you feel all better again. And, you tell yourself, "I'll just do a little bit... just enough to feel better... that's all...then no more..."

This is the one drug where never trying it at all is really the truth. I wouldn't advise anyone to try drugs in general, but if you do decide to mess around... don't do this one.

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