crystal meth
Savanna
“Meth Isn’t Worth Messing With”
Daly, Melissa. "Meth: Isn't Worth Messing With." Current Health 2 35.1 (2008): 26-29. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. 28 May 2014.
"I didn't think it was a big deal," says Jose, now 17, of his first time trying crystal meth. When Jose was 13, a girlfriend offered him some, saying it would give him a good rush. He figured, why not — it would just be a one-time thing. "I'd smoked marijuana before, but I didn't know how to deal with this high," says Jose, from California. "I was tripping out, grinding my teeth, biting the inside of my mouth, shaking a lot." But by the next weekend, he wanted to do it again.
Jose's experience has become all too common. While the majority of teens still steer clear of drugs, among those 12 to 17, one in 33 say they've tried methamphetamines, according to a GFK Roper survey. However, that's not the scariest statistic to come out of the study: 33 percent of teens say there is only slight or no risk in trying meth once or twice, something Jose now knows couldn't be further from the truth.
Wasting Away
Methamphetamine (commonly called meth, speed, chalk, ice, crystal, and glass) is a stimulant that can be swallowed, snorted, smoked, or injected; it is intended to make users feel more awake and energized. Stronger than other stimulants, though, meth is highly addictive — one or two tries may be enough to get a person hooked. "It triggers . the release of dopamine, a brain chemical that's normally produced when we eat something good or listen to music we like," explains Gayathri J. Dowling, deputy chief of science policy at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, Md.). However, meth floods the brain with dopamine, boosting the user's mood to an unnatural high and making him or her want to use again and again.
But along with that high can come serious problems. Anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, rapid or irregular heartbeat, aggression or violence, and heat illness
“Meth Isn’t Worth Messing With”
Daly, Melissa. "Meth: Isn't Worth Messing With." Current Health 2 35.1 (2008): 26-29. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. 28 May 2014.
"I didn't think it was a big deal," says Jose, now 17, of his first time trying crystal meth. When Jose was 13, a girlfriend offered him some, saying it would give him a good rush. He figured, why not — it would just be a one-time thing. "I'd smoked marijuana before, but I didn't know how to deal with this high," says Jose, from California. "I was tripping out, grinding my teeth, biting the inside of my mouth, shaking a lot." But by the next weekend, he wanted to do it again.
Jose's experience has become all too common. While the majority of teens still steer clear of drugs, among those 12 to 17, one in 33 say they've tried methamphetamines, according to a GFK Roper survey. However, that's not the scariest statistic to come out of the study: 33 percent of teens say there is only slight or no risk in trying meth once or twice, something Jose now knows couldn't be further from the truth.
Wasting Away
Methamphetamine (commonly called meth, speed, chalk, ice, crystal, and glass) is a stimulant that can be swallowed, snorted, smoked, or injected; it is intended to make users feel more awake and energized. Stronger than other stimulants, though, meth is highly addictive — one or two tries may be enough to get a person hooked. "It triggers . the release of dopamine, a brain chemical that's normally produced when we eat something good or listen to music we like," explains Gayathri J. Dowling, deputy chief of science policy at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, Md.). However, meth floods the brain with dopamine, boosting the user's mood to an unnatural high and making him or her want to use again and again.
But along with that high can come serious problems. Anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, rapid or irregular heartbeat, aggression or violence, and heat illness