Methamphetamine, or meth, is a highly addictive synthetic chemical that acts as a stimulant. It is snorted, injected, smoked, or swallowed. Most of the methamphetamine abused in this country comes from foreign or domestic superlabs, although it can also be made in small, illegal laboratories, where its production endangers the people in the labs, their neighbors, and the environment.Methamphetamine enters the brain and triggers a cascading release of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. It is highly active in the mesolimbic reward pathways of the brain, inducing intense euphoria, with risk for addiction. To a lesser extent, methamphetamine acts as a dopaminergic and adrenergic reuptake inhibitor with high concentrations serving as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. Users may become hypersexual or obsessed with a task, thought or activity. Withdrawal is characterized by excessive sleeping, eating, and major depression, often accompanied by anxiety and drug-craving. Methamphetamine users may take sedatives such as benzodiazepines as a means of easing their "come down", anxiety or enable them to sleep.
Methamphetamine has medical uses as well as the potential to cause addiction. Methamphetamine addiction typically occurs when a person begins to use the drug as a stimulant, for its powerful enhancing effects on sex, mood and energy, alertness and ability to concentrate, and weight loss and appetite suppression, among its other psychological and physical effects. Over time tolerance develops, and users have greater difficulty functioning and experiencing pleasure than they did before, which persists indefinitely due to neurotoxicity produced by methamphetamine in long-term recovered addicts.
Risks
Increased respiration, rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and hyperthermia (when the body overheats) / Unhealthy weight loss / Severe dental problems / Anxiety, confusion, insomnia, mood disturbances, and violent behavior / Psychotic features, including paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and delusions (for example, the sensation of insects "Meth Bugs" creeping under the skin)