Crystal meth addiction: can you manage it?
 

Why do some people act relatively normal on meth while others go nuts? Could it be that some people just can't stomach meth due to their body chemistry or something like that? I'd like to know...

regards

Sure...no I don't know...
but it certainly struck me as a wierd question. Are you jealous?
I've met people who didn't geek on crack, but geekin's one of the reasons I stay away. Wouldn't that suck if getting high was actually fun and felt good, lord I'd never get sober.

Larry

well if you don't mind having all this going through your body decaying every cell with each puff then, well, it's your choice. You can become a "human bomb".

Sodium hydroxide - aka, Lye

Classified as a corrosive, sodium hydroxide is one of the main chemicals in drain cleaner and is also used in aluminum etching and to create biodiesel. It’s also used by ranchers, serial killers, and city workers who must dispose of road kill to dissolve dead bodies. Carcasses are placed in a sealed chamber with sodium hydroxide and water, turning the body into a coffee-like liquid.



Anhydrous Ammonia

This substance, used in chemical fertilizer and as a commercial refrigerant, has extremely destructive effects on humans. Breathing the vapor can cause severe irritation and permanent damage to the lungs, throat, and eyes.

Because Anhydrous (meaning “without water”) Ammonia seeks out water and causes severe burns, any body part that comes into contact with it should be flushed with water for at least 15 minutes to remove the ammonia from the skin. One man even had his buttocks eaten away by improperly handling this stuff.



Iodine

Iodine is a natural element and helpful to the body in small amounts. But taken in large amounts, iodine can becomes toxic.

Extremely high does of iodine can limit the function of the thyroid. It takes roughly 4 bottles of iodine tincture to produce 2-3 grams of meth.



Matches - Red Phosphorus

By combining red phosphorus and iodine, you can easily create the highly controlled substance Hydriotic Acid which is an essential ingredient in making meth. Creating 2-3 grams of meth requires about 4 big boxes of matches. Here’s a better use of match sticks.



Ephedrine

The use of ephedrine in making methamphetamines is the main reason why many sinus medications like Sudafed, with active ingredient of ephedrine, are under lock and key at grocery stores and pharmacies now.

Ephedrine causes the brain to release dopamine, a chemical naturally produced by the body that evokes feelings of elation on the same level as sex, food, and other rewards necessary for species survival.

Ephedrine’s effect of releasing dopamine is thought to be the reason why people become so addicted to meth. The problem is that by artificially creating dopamine chemically, meth users eventually lose the ability to feel happiness at all.



Ether

Once called “sweet vitriol” because of its hypnotic effect, this highly flammable substance is used as an anesthetic agent - especially in third world countries where more expensive anesthesia is not available. While inhaling the compound, patients could undergo complete surgical procedures while otherwise awake without feeling pain or concern.



Drano

The product label warning says it all:

DANGER: MAY BURN EYES AND SKIN ON CONTACT. HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED. Avoid contact with body and clothing. TOXIC GAS MAY FORM IF MIXED WITH OTHER CHEMICALS. If gases are released, leave immediately and ventilate area. FIRST AID: Give Immediately: EYES AND SKIN: Flush with water for 20 minutes. Remove affected clothing. IF SWALLOWED: Rinse mouth and drink a glass of water or milk. Do not induce vomiting. THEN SEEK MEDICAL AID.



Brake Fluid

When working with brake fluid, be careful not to spill it on your car as it will eat away the paint and chrome. You’ve also got to be careful using brake fluid around other household chemicals because its high concentration of polyethylene glycol can cause it to ignite in a violent fireball. But meth users don’t mind putting it into their body for the tradeoff of a high.



Lighter Fluid - Butane

Starting to see why meth labs blow up so frequently? This highly flammable liquefied gas is used in the cooking process. When inhaled directly, butane can cause drowsiness, narcosis, asphyxia; cardiac arrhythmia and frostbite, which can result in instant death from Asphyxiation, Acute toxicity and ventricular fibrillation. When it’s ingested, lighter fluid causes gastrointestinal problems, lethargy, diarrhea, and in high enough doses, death.



Hydrochloric acid

This highly corrosive liquid is used to remove rust and iron-oxide from steel, leather processing, household cleaning and to produce organic compounds such as PVC pipe and polyurethane. It also makes up the majority of the gastric acid in human digestive fluid. In high concentrations, hydrochloric acid will literally eat away human flesh.

Batterlies

lithium taken out of batteries.

Really?

And I thought crack was bad,mmmm.

Jealous? Not really, meth habit is not something I'd want anyway...
Just wondering why some people hit rock-bottom or die within a couple years of meth use, while others manage their addiction for decades

Nobody manages an addiction, by definition it is unmanageable. Some people just progress much faster than others to the bitter end.

just unlucky I guess

it works different with each body.

I met a man in rehab that had been drinking a gallon of vodka every day for the past 20 yrs and decided just now that it had to stop.

Amazingly, his doctor told him his liver was not damaged, however, just about everything else in him was falling apart. He had to pee every 5 min, he walked with a cane, he had all sorts of other physical problems, but hey, his liver was ok.

I'm actually allergic to Ephedrine. If I take it, I can die. I feel pretty lucky, because knowing my addictive personality, I would be hooked after the first few times. If someone offers it to me, I can just wave it off and say, "Sorry, I'm allergic to it...can't do it" and they shut up about it.

It affects everyone differently.

I think there are just too many variables to say why some fall quickly and others manage to linger on. As for the manageability of meth...I see it more like "manage to stay alive" wile flooding their body with a deadly toxin.

It is amazing to me that a few of my tweaker friends lasted as long as they did before the hazardous effects of meth caught up with them. I know the effects caught up with me after about 25 or so years of on and off speed/meth (and constant other drug use) addiction.

My sponsor was like that. She used for 25 years, the last 9 of which she IV'd meth every day. Dude, I'd be dead within a year! I overdosed all the time. I always wondered how people managed to string their addiction along for so long. I used for 12 years, but used my DoC off and on for 5 years. I almost died a handful of times. Not sure I'd have made it much longer in active addiction.

It's funny you mention that. My sponsor was a meth addict and manufacturer. When she went to detox, her roommate was an alcoholic who kept insisting that "I don't know why people put [meth] in their bodies!" and "If you knew what [meth] was made of, you would never do it again!" Finally she was like "B*tch I manufactured the stuff, I KNOW what's in it!" haha yeah, it's made of some nasty stuff for sure, but you'd be surprised how many people know just what it is and do it anyway.

HAHA. Yes, because alcohol is SO MUCH BETTER. This lady was most likely a cigarette smoker, and cigarettes have way more chemicals in them than Meth. Oh the irony. Sometimes I think alcoholics need to get off their high horse.



:rotfxko

It's not so much about whether someone can "handle" addiction better or worse than anyone else. The end result is always the same. The only open variable is the level of destruction. Like Larry pointed out, addiction to hard drugs is thankfully not a good time, and gets the best of you quick. I'm grateful I could not manage my addiction to crack, and that it tailspinned me instantly. Every time.

Wow, the horror of somehow "managing" that addiction is scary to say the least...

that stuff is just damn NASTY!!!! why not just swallow a gallon of gasoline and light up a match in your mouth! you'll get the same "high" feeling.