The Links and Cases on this page are to alert you to the legal dangers of speed. Hopefully, you will decide not to risk it all on speed after you read this. Don't be a sucker. Don't SPEED!
Here are a few examples of unfortunate individuals. These cases are public record taken from U.S. circuit court appeals. We will update this section as we come across interesting cases involving Methamphetamine. Check back often and Enjoy!
-BRIEF HISTORY OF METH:
1887: First Synthesized - (Made from the drug ephedrine, an organic substance used as a medicine in China for centuries.)
1932: Sold in the U.S. as a nasal spray for treatment of inflammation of nasal passages.
1937: Used in tablet form to treat Narcolepsy (Spontaneous Sleep Disorder)
1930s-'40s: First epidemic of Methamphetamine abuse (Used by Allied and Axis troops to improve soldiers' performance; major problem in Japan after World War II)
1960s: Second epidemic of Methamphetamine abuse
1970: Controlled Substances Act passed; Methamphetamine production regulated
Late 1980s: Smokable forms of Methamphetamine introduced. New epidemic started in Japan and Korea. Spreads to Hawaii and the western U.S.
1990s: Methamphetamine epidemic spreads eastward; heavy use and production in California, Arizona, Utah and western region.
Present day: Methamphetamine is the most widely used DANGEROUS drug in the United States.
-STORIES SUBMITTED TO US:
*I started last year when
i was 15 and in the 10th grade. now i'm 16 and it's almost a year later and
i'm still using speed. i have friends that have quit and continuously try to
talk sense into me but it just doesn't work. i'm still not sure why i do it. i
like the high it gives and a lot of the time girls do it because it makes them
lose weight. last week i was up fer over 100 hours and i hallucinated really
badly. i kept hearing voices, i thought i heard my cats talking, i was
talking to the figures and shapes that i was drawing, i kept hearing
conversations in my head, i thought i saw spies everywhere outside. it's
insane. kids or whoever who think it'd be cool to try this are wrong. you
get badly addicted to it, you spend all your money on it (like i do), you
began to lie a lot. your whole body just gets ruined. i constantly pick at
my nails and the skin around it on my fingers and my toes. i've got tons of
speed bumps everwhere, and some have never gone away. a lot of the times the
speed will cut up the inside of your throat. mine got cut up so bad one time
i couldn't even open my mouth. you'll lose massive amounts of weight from not
eating which will make you extremely weak. sometimes i go 6 days without
eating. i'm all bony now and my friends gave me the nickname "skeletor". you
get all hot and sweaty but at the same time you'll get chills. pretty soon
it'll be all you'll think about and all you'll want. it makes you so open and
honest that you can tell anyone anything and you don't stop talking. i talked
for 11 hours straight one time and i lost my voice for 3 days. it makes you
write a lot. when i first started i used to write all my best friends, like 6
of em, 24 page letters. it'll make you sick, you get highly irritated and
moody and everything will upset you. and worst of all your friends, the one's
who love and care about you the most, will feel helpless. my bestest friends
have given up lecturing me. they've been thru it and they know how getting
addicted to it is. but they don't know what to do anymore. it scares them
when they see me all spun out and incoherent, my eyes just spinning about not
knowing or understanding what's going on or where i am. they take care of me
but it hurts them to see me like this cuz they love and care about me so much.
so i just wanna say to those who are thinking of trying speed, DON'T. it's
just like trading your life in for drugs. it takes over your whole life and
it's NOT worth it. i know i sound hypocritical but i want people to know what
it's done to me, and while i've already screwed up my whole life, maybe others
won't do the same. thank you.
sincerely, -L
*Nice info page! Here's the Q= Some time ago I was offered an amount of yellowish, sugar-looking substance. Said it would "keep me going". Supposed to sniff it, but the offerer said that she mixes it up with say, juice or some other liquid beverage to ingest it. Says it's "safer", and you don't have to worry about the effects it has on the inside of your nose. #1. What was this stuff? #2. If it doesn't eat up the membrain in her nose, is it eating up her stomach lining? Thanks for taking time to respond. CG
*Your webpage is Straightforward and honest. It seems to answer alot of my questions, and will (hopefully) help tempted people think twice. I wondered if you are speaking from personal experience, and how you became so knowledgeable about this fairly new drug epidemic.Ive done lots of looking, but find little documentation on the physiological and psychological ramifications of Meth addiction. I have had experiences with it...and lots of people who are daily users. in all cases, the people are miserable and lifeless...yet very few get clean and STAY clean. that's a scary thought -are our kids going to experiment at age ten, then have to struggle with this misery their whole lives??? Meth robs users of their ability to CARE about their own lives. How can there be such loyalty to a substance that will turn you into a pathetic loser? this is only my opinion, but Im scared for our future. Anyway, thanks again, and please let me know if you find info. that shows successful rehab or recovery from meth addiction. I want to help, but dont know just how... God bless.. -E
*Hi! It's definetly cool of you to e-mail me back. Believe it or not, you are one of a few people I have shared my story with. I don't even bother talking about my past drug addiction with half the people I know.
*My son has been involved with this drug for several years and yes, he is in prison now after comitting several felonies by stealing motor vehicles. He will be due to come out in August of 1999. I would like him to come home and away from the state he is in as there are no "real" friends just his druggie friends. I came upon your site and felt it had more information than any of the others online. Thank you and please do not stop updating it as I know I will need to refer to it in the future. If there are any places in upstate NY that you know about to help with him staying off the drug, I would appreciate an email about them. Again, thank you
*I have a very good friend that has been using off and on for about 4 months and at times has a terrible skin problem. It's as if this crystal meth stuff comes out of her skin through her pores and makes terrible sores. Is this possible? Just the skin thing would be enough for me to never use it, but your web page is great. My support 100%.. It is one of the most disasterous new drugs there is and I have seen the ill effects it has taken on alot of peoples lives. -BK
*I am a narcotics officer. I am trying to put together a class for new officers. I was wondering if you had actual pictures of meth in sizes that they are sold I.E. a teener, an 8 ball, an ounce, a gram and so on. I was also wondering if you have current prices in the midwest. Thank you in advance for your help
*thank ou for all of the info...it helped greatly with a research project I have due on this topic......Thanks for all of the hard work and time...keep it up
*I started using meth to wean myself off of heroin, it seemed pretty effective. At the time I was a single mother or three girls ages five and under, and I had just graduated college. One of my friends brought over some "crank" and offered to smoke it with me. I liked the high so much that when that quarter paper was gone I was looking around for something to sell in order to buy another. I became psychologically addicted immediatly. I found less of a desire for the heroin (I had been an addict for three years) and when I learned that I could break down the crank in water and inject it I found I didn't get such bad withdrawals from heroin and could pretty much substitute what I thought was a less dangerous drug for the heroin, I have been clean from heroin since this January. BUT. I just found a new monkey, and the crank seemed to be worse. It wasn't very long until I had sold all of my valuables and was injecting up to a gram a day or more. I would stay up for two weeks or more at a time, I became a connection for other crank addicts to find their dope through (I would get my fix when I'd score them dope). I put my little children in jeapardy, I almost lost them. The police were watching my place (they may not have been, Really, but I thought they were in trees, on my phone line, in my closet ect.) my friends were getting arrested leaving my apartment. I had my apartment broken into, I had my FURNITURE stolen while I was on a drug run. I had two of my cars stolen by dope heads. I moved in with the only junkie I knew with a habit as big as mine and we together would go through an eight ball or more. We'd inject 90 cents at a time (half a teener) a piece, a dosage that just barely took the edge off of the dopesickness. I found I got more dopesick from methamphetamines than I ever did with the heroin. I wanted the crank even more than I wanted the heroin! They say that heroin is highly addictive, but nobody says much about methamphetamine and it's addictive properties. I have tried my hardest to stay clean since June, with very occasional slips and daily desire for the drug- methamphetamines are so much more addictive than any drug, in my opinion. I have tried every drug I could get my hand on, only methamphetamine has controlled me to the point where I probably would have lost my children if someone else hadn't have stepped in and pulled the plugs on my connections (my husband, the bigger junkie that I moved in with, we married and he has been the strength in our recovery). The long term effects of my one year addiction to methamphetamines has been that now I have Hepatitis C, and I do not know what the other long term problems I will face because of my use will be. I am also very worried about my now eighteen month old child, whom I breastfed during the worst part of my addiction (until I realized she was not sleeping well or eating- then I weaned her.) she has behavioural problems and I wonder if it is associated to the drug in my milk. Thank you for listening to my story, email me back if you have any questions, comments, or need any more details, I will be very glad to answer.
*Hi. Im really sorry to bother you, but I have been searching the internet for information about crystal because my bestfriend just tried it for the first time. He told me that he smoked it, and the worse part is that a friend of his just gave him a quarter of a gram to do all by himself! I found out the following day at school when he got a drug test that morning. Now I know that he will probably get suspended and it was just his first time. I dont want him to use this stupid drug while he is out of school, and I dont know what to do. He told me that he did it on Sunday from 1-4 AM (ALL OF IT!) and tries to reassure me that he wont get busted because he drank more than 2 liters of water, as well as a couple of glasses of ice tea, etc. But his urine was a pale white. I dont want him to go down for this. I have seen too many of the other kids in school fall to crystal. Please tell me how to help him and, if he does have a chance of being suspended what I should do to keep the drug away from him. Thankyou so much for your time. PLEASE help me
*I quit using speed about 6 months ago and have had chronic fatigue and sore muscles and joints ever since and have been to the emergency room 5 times for high fevers and sore joints with no solutions or answers to what is causing this condition. I was snorting speed for about 8 months constantly. I guess what I need to know is could this still be side effects or permanent damage caused by speed
*Do you guys have the current statistics on who is using crystal meth and the number of deaths or crimes committed while under the influence for 1997.
*I need advice on how my husband I should deal with other addicts. I am raising my stepchildren because their mother is an on and off again user. The worst part is that we live next to her sister (married to my husbands brother) and some other in-laws and EACH one of them is a heavy tweeker. They sell it to my stepkids mom and know she picks the kids up high and with it on her. They are all so heavy into drugs that they see absolutely nothing wrong, even as they sit there and pick at the scabs on their faces, have rotting teeth and are skeletors. Their own children are raised around this and go without decent care and they have even done it while pregnant. We are the only family members other than my mother in law who do not use drugs. We have tried talking with them about it, giving them info on the dangers and have recently told my mother in law in the hopes that she would have them move rather than us having to sell the house we worked so hard to build. This is all hopeless, they will never quit and we seem to be the ones with a 'problem'. My husband loves his family and doesn't know what to do, we have contemplated calling CPS or turning in the dealers they get it from--but this is his family. I am getting increasingly angry and want nothing to do with them, even though my mother in law does not understand and will be devastated by OUR behavior. We feel totally alone in this and don't know what to do. We are planning on selling our home and getting away from them but this will not cure any problems. We thought that if they hit rock bottom they would change--but they live at rock bottom and see nothing wrong with it because they simply have no goals or desires anyway. They are killing themselves and one has already been in the emergency room in the last year. His 3 brothers have all been arrested in the last year for possession but it does not get through to them at all. Should I talk with the school? Turn them in? What would anyone else do? Has anyone else been in this position? My mother in law does not believe us and refuses to see it even though she DOES know that the situations with the grandkids is terrible. My stepkids know about their relatives here and see it for what it is, they are disgusted by it so hopefully if nothing else comes good out of this maybe they will never be tempted to try this crap.
*Hi, I came across your page because I was doing research for a class. I am writing a paper on the addictive process to crank, speed, or whatever you want to call it. I am currently taking classes to become a social worker in the state of Alaska. However, I am not sure as to whether I want to go into substance abuse or domestic violence at this point. I became interested in this whole line of work because of my child hood and teen age years. I would like to remain anonymous because I am going to share my story with you. My mom and her boyfriend did alot of crank. In the beginning she did not do it herself but it wasn't long before she did. I believe at this time I started to realize that my life was not 'normal' I was about 12. I remember once telling my mom that her boyfriend had beat the crap out of me while she was at work. He had told her I got beat up by a girl down the road. She had told me I was lying that Jeff (her boyfriend) had already told me the story and I had no reason to be jealous of him. The reason I got beat up was because my brother at the time, 6 months old was hungry. It was about 2 in the afternoon and I decided to sneak out into the living room and get him and myself something to eat (we had not had anything to eat all day). I knew Jeff* was asleep, so I was very quiet, but not quiet enough. I woke him up. My little brother started crying which just made his anger grow. Things proceeded like this for about 6 months, when my mom told me she was pregnant again. I loved the idea when she was pregnant with my first brother, but this time is scared me. Jeff* had started beating on my mom by the time she was about 5 months pregnant. I thought forsure we would be moving after that had happened, but it didn't. He mostly beat one her when he was mad at me, my older little brother, or we didn't have money. I know now that we didn't have money because why else would of the electricity or phone be turned off. all of there money went for crank. From the time I was 12-16, I can remember living in 16 different apartments and going to about 8 different schools. We were always being evicted. Things got really bad, by the time I was 14, I was being beat for being a slut and doing crank. Which at this time I hadn't. After awhile of being beat for it I decided I was being punished for it, so I might as well do it. One thing that really makes me angry is I hear alot of people say my son plays football or my daughter is a cheerleader so I know she doesn't do drugs. Let me tell you people something, I was a cheerleader all through high school, I was homecoming princess and nominated for homecoming queen. That does not mean crap. Every single girl on my cheer leading squad my junior and senior year tried it at least once, with the exception of one, and it wasn't my upbringing that made me do it, I will say it influenced me, but it didn't make me. Most of these girls had lives I had always dreamed of. Parent's who were well to do, a nice house, their own phone, you name it they had it. Anyway, when I was 16 my mom finally left Jeff*. I remember going down the highway and we ran out of gas, both my brother's in the back seat balling their heads off. They were 4 and 2 now. We had no money, we did not know where we were going, but all I knew and cared was we weren't going to be beat anymore. We were finally safe. Then the car ran out of gas, I thought for sure that this was it, my mom was going to cower and run back to Jeff, when a man pulled over. We did not know this man, he gave my mom 5 bucks and took her to the gas station, all I can say to remember him was that he had said if it was my wife stranded on the side of the road with no money and out of gas, I pray someone would pull over and help her out. We went on our way, my mom got off the drugs for awhile, as for me, I didn't. We lived in our car for a couple weeks and eventually got a motel room. Personally, I think the car was nicer than this motel, but the motel had a/c. My mom, my brothers, and I got our own place. I dropped out of school to stay home and watch my brothers, while my mom worked. It isn't easy supporting 3 children on minimum wage. My mom had a really good job for awhile working for the government, but Bush made sure all the senators had their limo's so my mom was laid off and forced to go back to work for minimum wage. After my mom was laid off, she was depressed and ate alot, so she gained alot of weight. She turned back to crank to lose her weight. Myself however, I was looking really good, so I thought, I was all of 110 pounds and I had all the time in the world, so I still did my 'miracle' drugs. Shortly before I turned 17 my mom met another man. They ended up getting married after they lived together for a few years. I was scared, I thought here we go again. However, I will say in the end he proved to be both our night in shining armor, as with the man I am married to now. We moved in with him, and by this time my mom and I were doing the drugs together. It never failed either she had it or I did. My step-father put me back in school, and I was happy to be cheer leading once again. I loved cheer leading, but the drugs didn't stop. I would get up in the morning for school, my mom would wake me and tell me 'coffee's in the downstairs bathroom'. I would get up go downstairs and on the counter was a perfect line, laid out just for me. Of-coarse my step-father knew nothing of this. I feel in love with this wonderful guy, who I later married. He didn't know about the drugs either. When I turned 18, my husband moved to Alaska to start a life for us (get an apartment and a job then I was going to move up and we were going to get married). I broke up with him and moved in with another guy, he did crank and always had it. So, my choice was drugs over love, but I had to have the drugs and love was something that I thought I could make myself do. This guy I moved in once actually accused me of while we were making love my boyfriend crawled out from under the bed and did other sexual things to me. This is absurd, I never cheated on him, but then again we had been up for about 6 days, and the mind pays horrible tricks on you when you get no sleep. In the end, I left him. Only because my husband had set it up with my mother, (she was clean then and has been ever since) hey flew down to my boyfriend's got me and said we need to talk. I agreed because I loved him, he took me to the airport and put me on a plane with him. I complained and yelled the whole way to Alaska. I was seriously very angry. After we got to his apartment, we had a long talk. After that, he left for work (he worked as a deck hand on a tug boat at that time). He was gone for 3 weeks. He lived 10 miles from town, I did not know anyone and did not have a vehicle. There was snow everywhere and I had no drugs and didn't have the slightest clue where to get them. That was 5 years ago, I am clean now and have been for 5 years. When I did the drugs I was skinny, but looking back at photographs I looked like a zombie. I had huge dark circles under my eyes and my skin was pale. I can't understand now, why I thought I looked so good. I have been offered the drugs recently by people who I thought were friends. However, obviously they are not my friends, because they have heard my story. I can taste it occasionally and even smell it. I still experience withdrawals, and the 'I WANT IT NOW!' I will say though that it was the best thing that ever happened to me. My husband and my child are the things that keep me from this devil in an angels costume. Crank messed with my mind, my body, and my whole life. The thing I can do now is try to help others that are in the situation I was in. I do want to add something to my story though, I have other family members that are were very active in the distribution of drugs. This person has been in jail several times and I think this time this person will get their life together, or at least I hope. *The names of the guilty have been changed* Signed, Anonymous
*I found something strange that belongs to my sister. Im very concerned because she has a history of meth abuse. It looks like a glass tube with a hole in the side near the bottom. I can tell it has been burned and also looks somewhat cloudy inside. Before I ask her about it I want to know if it sounds suspicious, what does meth smell like. Please give me some advice. She says she is not using anymore. Signed, luv my sis.
*How can I get help for someone I know who has admitted to using "crank" and says they can stop on their own, yet in the next sentence, tells me they have to go because it's time to go do their "line"?
*My husband has been using crank for about 3 years. A few months ago he started smoking it. I was using crank with him for a couple of years until he started smoking it, started staying out all night, moved into his office with a drug whore and asked for a divorce. Our life is in ruins now, my 2 teenage children and I are attending Alanon and Alateen. I have completely discontinued use. My husband (of 14 years) is willing to break up our family rather than quit and I don't know what to do. I love him or I'd have taken the kids and split by now, this situation is killing me. My husband weighs about 290, therefore thinks that he has super-drug capabilities and that he is not at the same risk as all the skinny tweakers around him. Another factor leading to this belief is that he was diagnosed ADD as a child, therefore thinks its ok, since he read somewhere that it evens him out. You tell me, he's crashed his truck, living in his office, abandoned his family. Sounds very not-normal doesn't it? I can't, of course, make him see. During the time I was using it, I was bitchy and mean so all he can think of are the past couple of years, not the 12 that came before that that were although not ideal, not worth divorcing over. His parents have begun then put on hold an intervention because they can't get anyone else to substantiate what I'm saying. All his friends anymore are tweakers. Any advice? Thanks in advance.
*Thank you for all the great info on your methamphetamine site. I was searching for info for a report and could barely find anything and then I found your site. It was very informative and to the point and game me much information. Thank you for having this site.
*i know someone whom i think is using meth. what my question is, he has sores all over his body, and he picks at these sores, are these sores caused form meth use? he tells me they are infected hairs, but nobody could have that many infected hairs. he picks very slowly with a tweezers, all over his body. i'ver tried to educated myself, but i haven't found anything that went into detail about sores, caused from meth. any information would help.
*Just wanted to thank you for all the information on your site. I have a sister in law that is into this and just wanted to find information out on it. Is a sad thing for sure. Thanks for your site....
*hello.....im 18 years old right now...and i had just turned 14 the very first time i tried crank. i remember i did a line and smoked some out of foil..thats horrible to smoke it out of foil, but i was a rookie and i didnt know what i was doing...but time went on...i started doing it everyday...and i still abuse methamphetamines, not because i want to, or because i feel like it....its because i need to feel normal, i need the taste....freshman year of highschool i was doing crank and coke..i barely went to school...i was failing every class...i stole money from my parents for it...then sophmpore year i got kicked out of my highschool and got enrolled in continuation...i was still tweeking...and thats when i started getting heavily into it....i started to get greedy..because when your all spun out, you feel so nice and want to give and make people smile (also you dont want to be the only one twacked out of your brain in class at 9am)..i used to share my crank with friends...but then i started being greedy...i wouldnt share..the only people i shared with was the people that shared with me...i used to smoke it once in a while...then i got introduced to my own "g" (glass pipe used for meth)...off the hook....i packed fat rocks in there and smoke it all to my head...then i remember it was one of my relatives birthdays and i had been up for 3 weeks straight and i had smoked an eightball went to there house so twacked out i didnt hear anything...but now i know im addicted and i know i have a problem....its hard to admite it..but you have to admite it sometime in your life...i can tell my life story in 10 minutes....i was up for 2 weeks then finally last night i crashed..my friends fan was on and every two seconds i thought it was a car....we put blankets over her window the other day because everyone thought the FBI was watching us...so we stayed in her room the whole day smoking crank and doin rails...but it screws your life up...screws up your brain...your emotions..the way you live life...makes you look at everything in a whole new perspective...i get paranoid alot..say people will be watching tv and talking...ill think there talking about me and ill be like oh shit i didnt know that they knew that and ill get all sad, but its the drugs...they make you think wack...i dont eat alot at all...drugs also make you lie..ALOT..thats all i did with my parents...id make up the best lies...everything was a lie....it became normal with me and my parents...i rememeber about 2 weeks ago i was up for a few days and we were all chillin, spun out, listing to music and talking, and i chewed up the inside of the lower part of my lip.....i grind my teeth like theres no tormow....but just because you lose weight....thats no excuse to do meth...thats one of the most pathetic excuses i've ever heard....alot of kids tweak for trends and because they think its so cool to lose weight and stay up all night...your beginners...you dont know what the fu*k your doing to yourself...your plan old stupid kids...meth is such a dangerous game...you think your soo cool at school in the bathrooms doing lines with your friends with money you have for lunch money your mom gave you earlier that morning, then you back to class with the sniffles and the leg twitches and the bugged out eyes...your DUMB!! STOP NOW!!!!!!! ITS NOT COOL!! ITS STUPID!! ive been doing crank for 5 years....im addicted to methamphetimines...and like others who understand how hard it is, and are just so deep into it to stop, know what im talking about....i love meth...i love it so much...but sometimes i hate it..thats when im coming down and i dont have any left...but kids who are all getting into or who are thinking about trying crank, stop before its to late or dont even try it...enjoy highschool with your friends and stuff...instead of worrying where your going to get the next 20,or 40, or 80 bucks...i used to always be called the tweeker chick and all that bs....but its not that cool...but life goes on..some people goes on clean...some not...thanks :o)
*For all the yonger people who might recieve this story. I am 19 years old and I learned pretty quick not to mess with these types of drugs. I once thought that doing crank and staying up for days was cool until I found myself in the hospital on my deathbed.I had overdosed on crystal or crank. My heartbeat was 194 beats per minute and my whole body was numb and cold.The docters could do nothing but flush my system and wait it out. Luckily I survived and had no longterm effects on my body or vital organs. But feeling that sense of death and seeing my mother suffer was enough for me. Although not everyone gets off the hook as easy as I did. Most people under these circumstances would have died. But thanks to the good lord I did not. So my message to everyone that is influenced by this drug is. Life is more important than a good feeling and dont be like me and be hard to break. Because like I said not everyone can be as lucky as I was. Amen and Amen
*Thank you for posting the meth warning page under a link related to the making of crystal meth. I am a substance abuse counselor working with IV drug users. I was looking for posts related to meth recipes since many of my clients say they found recipes over the web. It's nice to see that concerned people are attempting to get the word out in creative ways!
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