How Methamphetamine Differs from Other Abused Drugs

Life is full of mysteries, and I often find myself pondering them in between dreaming up ways to make life miserable for the clients that for some reason can't seem to arrive at the appropriate times for their meetings.

For instance, how is it that someone who can't follow the instructions on a stop sign, fill out his name and address correctly on a monthly report form, or remember to come see me at 10:00 AM on the second Tuesday of the month can manage to cook methamphetamine? Cooking meth is a fairly involved process involving doing a series of things in correct order with the correct amount of ingredients? It also involves using heat on highly flammable liquids and releasing poison gases, yet somehow people that can't walk down a straight hallway and open the only door at the end of it after repeated instructions and demonstrations manage to do it repeatedly without setting themselves on fire, fatally poisoning themselves, or blowing up anything important. You could easily say about several of my clients, "There's old Jimbo, he's too stupid to come in out of the rain, but he can cook some great meth."

We recently had a 16-hour training session on methamphetamine. Our normal meth training involves someone who probably wouldn't recognize a meth lab if he tripped over it showing us a video or a slide show and saying things like, "If you see 30 cans of draincleaner, you might be in a meth lab." This was better. A New Mexican law enforcement officer who was still very much active in the field conducted the training. He lead a very interactive class and taught us a lot about the history of methamphetamine, its spread, how it was made, what to watch for, and the reasons why traditional drug rehabilitation didn't work with it.

In the past, trainers have kind of glossed over many of the facts about this weird drug and I've had to take things on faith. This trainer actually tried to explain things to us. I now think I have a better idea of both what to watch for with my people, what to look out for in their homes, and a better idea of what has changed with meth and why it is different from other drugs. Here, for the curious is a little I learned.

First, all meth is not created equal. You see, I have always had trouble wrapping my head around 1 fact, and that is that meth seems to have exploded across the county in a massive wave of destruction in the 1990's, yet it has been around since at least World War II. Well, now I understand a little more about it. You see, methamphetamine was first made in 1887 in Germany. The first method of synthesis is attributed to a Japanese chemist in 1919. It was first used medically in a Benzadrine inhaler in 1932. Methamphetamine was widely used by the military forces on both sides in World War II as a stimulant to keep the men going. After the war, a lot of the surplus methamphetamine hit the market and started a wave of amphetamine abuse that resulted in the drug being included in the Controlled Substance Act of 1970.

The initial spread of homemade illegal methamphetamine involved outlaw biker gangs, and in 1980 the meth was produced using a method called P-2-P and required a chemical called phenyl-2-propanone which became a controlled substance, so the ephedrine reduction methods or producing the drug came into being.

The ephedrine reduction method of producing meth known as the Red P method reigned king through the 1980's then in 1990 another method attributed to the White Supremist movement called the Nazi method became more popular.

The reason this is important is that there are 3 different kinds of meth being produced. The meth used in inhalers is the original meth, and it is called l-methamphetamine. It is sold in the US in over-the-counter medicines. It does not give the euphoric high, and is not really addictive.

The second form of meth is called dl-methamphetamine. It is created in a process called P-2-P using the phenyl-2-propanone precursor. The high it gives is a gradual one, and it is addicting. It is limited in usage in modern times. This method of production is complicated and requires chemical laboratory equipment. The meth made this way was usually about 60% pure.

The final form of meth is called d-methamphetamine. It is the potent, highly-addictive stuff that makes the news. It is produced using an ephedrine reduction method using materials you can buy at the local Wal-Mart. Stuff produced this way usually has a purity level of between 80% and 95%. This is the stuff that gives the fast euphoric high.

That is why meth seems to have sprung out of nowhere. The original l-meth was used to give an energy boost or to keep going. The biker meth of the 60's and 70's was more recreational, but was not as addicting, nor did it produce the same kind of high. The new stuff causes the brain to dump all of its dopamine at once producing a strong feeling of euphoria. How quick and how strong the high is seems to depend on how the drug is taken.

Meth has a couple of other properties that make it different from most other drugs. For one thing, it is a social drug. Meth users like other users around when they take the drug, so if a user has several hits, he will usually have a party. This is very different from a cocaine or heroin addict, who would keep all the drugs for personal use.

Another difference has to do with how the addict needs to be treated to get off the drug. Meth addicts have two major problems. The first problem is that after regular, prolonged use of the drug, the addicts brain looses the ability to reabsorb dopamine so the addict literally can't feel pleasure without tricking the brain into thinking it has dopamine, and the only way to do this is with meth. It takes around 2 years for the brain to repair itself, and it almost never does restore more than 80% of the dopamine reabsorption ability. So antidepressants are used to help level out the addict.

The other problem is that it can take from 30 to 90 days for withdrawal symptoms to hit. Most drug treatment programs only last 28 days. So with a standard treatment program, the user has been released and is back on the street before the worse part of his recovery even starts. A successful meth treatment program generally need to last from 6 months to a year. Since the average in-patient treatment program usually costs between $2,000 to $5000, you can imagine what even a 6 month program would cost. So attempting to cure a meth addict is going to be expensive and require a long-term commitment.

I never understood this, I had no idea why a traditional treatment program didn't work on meth. I figure if I didn't know than other people might not either.