Meth Still No. 1 Drug Problem, Study Finds

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
What they should do is legalize it and make it cheap so these low life junkies can do it tell they OD. Reduces crime and cleans up the gene pool.

Except they'll still break into your house/car and steal your crap to sell so they can buy more.

you missed the part about making it legal and cheap i guess. Reading comprehension FTW.

I comprehended it just fine, chum. While they're on their benders, they're not gonna be going to work, which means they'll lose their jobs. Some of them can't hold jobs in the first place. It's much easier to just steal your crap and sell it than go to work anyway.

Crimes are crimes. Not all meth addicts are criminals, and not all criminals are meth addicts. The tired old argument that the War on Drugs reduces crime is not only a fallacy, it's complete and utter bullsh!t.
You want a serious statistic? More than half of all murders are committed under the influence of alcohol. Shall we bring back prohibition? Oh snap, we tried that and it didn't work.

Okay... what's your point? All I'm saying is that legalizing it won't change anything.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
What they should do is legalize it and make it cheap so these low life junkies can do it tell they OD. Reduces crime and cleans up the gene pool.

Except they'll still break into your house/car and steal your crap to sell so they can buy more.

you missed the part about making it legal and cheap i guess. Reading comprehension FTW.

I comprehended it just fine, chum. While they're on their benders, they're not gonna be going to work, which means they'll lose their jobs. Some of them can't hold jobs in the first place. It's much easier to just steal your crap and sell it than go to work anyway.

Crimes are crimes. Not all meth addicts are criminals, and not all criminals are meth addicts. The tired old argument that the War on Drugs reduces crime is not only a fallacy, it's complete and utter bullsh!t.
You want a serious statistic? More than half of all murders are committed under the influence of alcohol. Shall we bring back prohibition? Oh snap, we tried that and it didn't work.

Okay... what's your point? All I'm saying is that legalizing it won't change anything.

No, it will change everything. It will allow the issue to be treated as the health problem that it actually is instead of the criminal problem that it is not. Also, just like with other illegal drugs, a considerable amount of the dangers involved in the abuse and manufacture of meth are due to the fact that it is illegal and unregulated.

 

[UNCjigga]

Is meth like the white trash version of crack cocaine? It seems to be a big problem in trailer parks here in NC.

 

[Atheus]

Why all the fuss? I did this drug before everyone started getting worked up about it. I honestly didn't find it that powerful or addictive... it sure keeps you awake, but coke and ecstasy beat it for pure stimulant rush hands down. As for addiction, yes, if you have a bag you will consume that entire bag, but I never felt the need to go buy another one straight away. Coke is worse. Heroin is apparently much worse. I've never done heroin (not my style), but I hear it's about as addictive as cigarettes.

If the people committing crimes for meth were in another time and place, they would be committing crimes for crack, or smack, or whatever the current cool drug is. There's nothing especially evil about meth.

Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Is meth like the white trash version of crack cocaine? It seems to be a big problem in trailer parks here in NC.

Meth is kinda 'crack speed' in that it is the purified crystalline (smokable) form of the drug, like crack cocaine is the purified crystalline form of cocaine.

 

[randay]

A house in my neighboorhood got busted one day for some kind of lab. A few years later to this day there are still a whole lot of people parking on the street and going in and out of that house.

 

[TheGizmo]

yea its getting bigger and bigger..... ive known far too many die-hard meth addicts (RIP guys <3 )... Seen much too many people go down with that stuff... while it may not be as addictive the first few times you do it, if you have an ounce of this stuff you're going to go downhil really fast. Not to mention how stupid you get. Ugh.. I wish meth was not so easy to make, it would have saved the lives of many of my friends, not to mention the thoasands nationwide. A truely terrible drug. What ever happened to eating some LSD and laying in the grass watching the clouds melt?

 

[OrganizedChaos]

seems to be a non issue here about 25 miles outside of boston. when i graduated highschool in 2005 heroin was the trendy new drug in school.

 

[alien42]

i have a feeling the problem is going to be drastically reduced soon. when i bought sudafed at kroger last night i had to provide them with my drivers license, they took all of my info and i had to sign for it. afaik this is a new federal law.

 

[tweakmm]

I live in a somewhat big city so it's not so bad, but there are some country ass places 50 miles to the north,west south and east of me.

Who needs meth though, there's a nice bottle of amphetamines with my name on it waiting for me at the pharmacy every month. :laugh:
/yeah, drug laws sicken me

 

[atybimf]

I live in Missouri, yeah its a big problem here lol.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I've heard of a few Meth house being busted here in the Denver area. I think it's a huge problem with our homeless population.

Cocaine and pills seem to be the drug of choice for the white collar crowd around here. Pot seems to be mostly used by the students....just my observations.

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
What they should do is legalize it and make it cheap so these low life junkies can do it tell they OD. Reduces crime and cleans up the gene pool.

Last time I checked meth is legalized.

You just got to know what to say.

 

[SophalotJack]

Why worry about meth when marijuana causes all the problems for our society?

/sarcasm

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
alot of people take methamphetamines, such as aderall. I wonder if they took that into account when they were doing the study

Aderall is not a Methamphetamine, it IS an amphetamine however.

Methamphetamine Chemical Name: S)-N,a-Dimethylbenzene-ethanamine; dN-methylamphetamine

Aderall Chemical Name: Dextroamphetamine (the dextro prefix refers to the shape of the molecule, as opposed to the levoamphetamine derivative. both molecules have the same atomes, just different shapes).

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: RedArmy
Big problem here in Upstate NY. Were on some list for being a really bad area but I forgot what specifically.

We are?

<---Lives in Camillus

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
What they should do is legalize it and make it cheap so these low life junkies can do it tell they OD. Reduces crime and cleans up the gene pool.

Except they'll still break into your house/car and steal your crap to sell so they can buy more.

you missed the part about making it legal and cheap i guess. Reading comprehension FTW.

I comprehended it just fine, chum. While they're on their benders, they're not gonna be going to work, which means they'll lose their jobs. Some of them can't hold jobs in the first place. It's much easier to just steal your crap and sell it than go to work anyway.

Crimes are crimes. Not all meth addicts are criminals, and not all criminals are meth addicts. The tired old argument that the War on Drugs reduces crime is not only a fallacy, it's complete and utter bullsh!t.
You want a serious statistic? More than half of all murders are committed under the influence of alcohol. Shall we bring back prohibition? Oh snap, we tried that and it didn't work.

Okay... what's your point? All I'm saying is that legalizing it won't change anything.

No, it will change everything. It will allow the issue to be treated as the health problem that it actually is instead of the criminal problem that it is not. Also, just like with other illegal drugs, a considerable amount of the dangers involved in the abuse and manufacture of meth are due to the fact that it is illegal and unregulated.

I don't really agree. I also believe the drug war is one of the worst domestic policy regimes around today, but I think meth needs a more complicated response than legalization.

By its nature meth is an extremely dangerous psychoactive. As a previous poster pointed out meth is more dangerous an addictive substance than crack or powder cocaine because smoked meth can keep one up for many hours (versus 1/2 or 1 hour with cocaine) and is cheap enough to keep one awake for over a week with a standard retail unit. The same amount of $ spent on cocaine will barely keep a coke head up for 12 hours. A week without sleep often leads to heavy duty psychological problems, and emergency room visits.

My personal theory concerning meth addiction is that it is a result of the scarcity of cocaine in many areas, which is why it is overwhelming the public health and criminal justice systems of rural areas that are not near traditional cocaine distribution channels. Living in florida, a state with plenty of access to cocaine, the only people I've known to get into meth are cocaine addicts who've run out of coke (or money for coke) and have turned to meth because it is cheap. A hard core stimulant abuser wants cocaine, not meth, but will do with meth in a pinch.

I do agree that we have to change the fundamentall focus of our drug policy, treating it as a public health issue first and a criminal justice problem second, but I can't really see any reason to supply a clean source of meth to addicts. I do, however, think we should supply cocaine to hard core stimulant addicts with a comcomitant requirement that they be enrolled in some type of treatment program. I think heavy doses of methamphetamine should remain proscribed.

And the meth epidemic isn't a myth so much as it is potentially a media scare that will probably lead to some really bad policy decisions by Congress. Meth counteraction $ will potentially go to states and municipalities as pork and not reach those areas most in need of support.

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the biggest problem with meth is that now you can't just walk in and buy sudafed... regardless of the fact that you would have to buy up all the sudafed at every CVS in town in order to make some meth, the state thinks it's a big problem :roll:

It only takes about maybe 2-3 boxes of Psuedoephedrine to make a Gram of Meth (I don't know from experience, I did a term paper on drugs for a Public Policy course).

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: Quasmo
alot of people take methamphetamines, such as aderall. I wonder if they took that into account when they were doing the study

Aderall is not a Methamphetamine, it IS an amphetamine however.

Methamphetamine Chemical Name: S)-N,a-Dimethylbenzene-ethanamine; dN-methylamphetamine

Aderall Chemical Name: Dextroamphetamine (the dextro prefix refers to the shape of the molecule, as opposed to the levoamphetamine derivative. both molecules have the same atomes, just different shapes).

The methy group attached the the amphetamine molecule does nothing but increase the strength and duration of the drug.
If one were to take rougly twice the amount of adderall roughly twice as often one would feel about the same as if they had taken meth.

The real problem arises with the fact that street meth in it's most common form lends it's self to ingestion methods that increase addictiveness. One can't just grind up an adderall or dexedrine pill and shoot or smoke it withouth serious consequences. It takes a fair amount of chemistry knowledge to seperate the binders and fillers from the active drug.
Meth in HCL salt form is ready for whatever you want to do with it.

(also, you as a soon to be chemistry tech should know that Adderall is a compound of four different amphetamine salts, both of the dextro and levo variety)

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: OrganizedChaos
seems to be a non issue here about 25 miles outside of boston. when i graduated highschool in 2005 heroin was the trendy new drug in school.

I would say for my school (class of 2006), that it was Oxycodone and Ecstasy at the time.

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: OrganizedChaos
seems to be a non issue here about 25 miles outside of boston. when i graduated highschool in 2005 heroin was the trendy new drug in school.

I would say for my school (class of 2006), that it was Oxycodone and Ecstasy at the time.

Meth is a desperation drugy, the lowest of illicit drugs. College kids don't do it, just as they don't smoke crack. Meth and crack weren't anywhere near my college, but coke could be found.

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: tweakmm

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: Quasmo
alot of people take methamphetamines, such as aderall. I wonder if they took that into account when they were doing the study

Aderall is not a Methamphetamine, it IS an amphetamine however.

Methamphetamine Chemical Name: S)-N,a-Dimethylbenzene-ethanamine; dN-methylamphetamine

Aderall Chemical Name: Dextroamphetamine (the dextro prefix refers to the shape of the molecule, as opposed to the levoamphetamine derivative. both molecules have the same atomes, just different shapes).

The methy group attached the the amphetamine molecule does nothing but increase the strength and duration of the drug.
If one were to take rougly twice the amount of adderall roughly twice as often one would feel about the same as if they had taken meth.

The real problem arises with the fact that street meth in it's most common form lends it's self to ingestion methods that increase addictiveness. One can't just grind up an adderall or dexedrine pill and shoot or smoke it withouth serious consequences. It takes a fair amount of chemistry knowledge to seperate the binders and fillers from the active drug.
Meth in HCL salt form is ready for whatever you want to do with it.

(also, you as a soon to be chemistry tech should know that Adderall is a compound of four different amphetamine salts, both of the dextro and levo variety)

As to the last part, yes I know that its different isomers, but its mainly the Dex isomer. Also, saying that because amphetamine is the same as methamphetamine without the Methyl group is like saying Morphine is the same as Heroin just without the Acetyl group. After all, Heroin is the same as morphine, only more addictive.

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: newParadigm
As to the last part, yes I know that its different isomers, but its mainly the Dex isomer. Also, saying that because amphetamine is the same as methamphetamine without the Methyl group is like saying Morphine is the same as Heroin just without the Acetyl group. After all, Heroin is the same as morphine, only more addictive.

Now you're getting it!


As an interesting note, did you know that diacetylmorphine is available pharmaceutically in pretty much every country except this one?

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: tweakmm

Originally posted by: newParadigm
As to the last part, yes I know that its different isomers, but its mainly the Dex isomer. Also, saying that because amphetamine is the same as methamphetamine without the Methyl group is like saying Morphine is the same as Heroin just without the Acetyl group. After all, Heroin is the same as morphine, only more addictive.

Now you're getting it!


As an interesting note, did you know that diacetylmorphine is available pharmaceutically in pretty much every country except this one?

Yep. BTW, I was being somewhat sarcastic. I see what you're saying, but don't completley agree that they're the same. That's the reason why meth isn't used for ADHD. Although yes, they both do affect the brain in almost the same exact way.