Methamphetamine

In the short term, meth causes mind and mood changes such as anxiety, euphoria, and depression. Long-term effects can include chronic fatigue, paranoid or delusional thinking, and permanent psychological damage.

Even speed drugs are not always safe. Giga-jolts of the well-known stimulants caffeine or ephedrine can cause stroke or cardiac arrest when overused or used by people with a sensitivity to them. An overdose of meth can result in heart failure. Long-term physical effects such as liver, kidney, and lung damage may also kill you.

What Meth Can Do

"I am meth" - A poem written by Judy West who passed away due to the use of meth.

This is a series of arrest photographs of the same individual taken over the course of 10 years.

Street names/slang terms:
Meth, speed, crank, crystal, ice, fire, croak, crypto, white cross, glass, chalk, G, G-Funk, tweak, spoof, lurp, smurf

Drug Type:
Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant drug that strongly activates certain systems in the brain. Crystal meth is a very pure, smokable form of methamphetamine.

What does it look like?
Meth is a crystal-like powdered substance that sometimes comes in large rock-like chunks. Meth is usually white or slightly yellow, depending on the purity.

How is it used?
Methamphetamine can be taken orally, injected, snorted, or smoked.

Short-term Effects:
• irritability, aggression
• anxiety, nervousness
• convulsions, hallucinations
• insomnia
• increased blood pressure
• loss of appetite

Long-term Effects:
• addiction
• extreme paranoia, toxic psychosis
• hallucinations, convulsions
• repetitive behavior patterns
• delusions of parasites or insects under the skin
• stroke
• heart and blood vessel toxicity
• long-term damage to brain cells similar to that caused by strokes or Alzheimer’s disease

Source: Partnership for a Drug-Free America, NIDA, DEA