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Dangers of Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is also referred as methamphetamine. It has street names such as crank, chalk, fire, crystal, meth, speed or crypto. The drug can be injected; swallowed, snorted or else smoked. There are three main ingredients that are used to make crystal methamphetamine. These include iodine crystals, red phosphorus and pseudoephedrine. These chemical can be harmful to the victim using the drug and the environment to which it is produced. The prolonged use of the drug may result to violence, brain damage; aggressive behaviors and psychosis. It may also induce self esteem and sexual disorders and intense delusion such as a feeling insects crawling in the body. The Use of meth is dangerous to the user, their families and the community. The drug offers a short life span leading to high cases of death within the society. Because of its nature of highly addictive, the abuser may spend a lot of money buying the drug. Whether it is smoked, injected, snorted or taken orally, it directly affects the user healthy thus interfering with the normal operating system. The effects may be short term or long term.
For instance, when methamphetamine is smoked or injected, it immediately releases the high intensities of dopamine within the brain thus affecting the normal operating system of the brain. Even in cases when it is taken in small amounts, it regulates the body temperature, appetite, attention, blood pressure and the emotional responses that are associated with alertness. The drug increases heart rate and blood pressure through constraint ion of the arteries walls and hyperglycemia. Other effects may produce symptoms such as confusion, Increase of wakefulness, anxiety, tremors, prolonged insomnia, irritability, aggressiveness and paranoia.
The long term abuse of methamphetamine may result to suicidal thoughts, mood disorders, psychotic behavior, violent behavior, auditory hallucination and delusions. The short period use affecting the operating system in the brain may damage blood vessels within the brain causing stroke and in some few cases epilepsy. The overdose may result to physiological deterioration, eventually leading to heart attacks or stroke and sudden deaths. The overdose may produce an unusual rapid sweating, increased heart rates and kidney failures. The addicted user may result to physical trust on the drug due to never ending cycle. In effort of intensifying the effects, the user may overdose or change the method of using the drug eventually, making the situation worse.
Although there no specific manifestations of a withdraw syndrome when meth use is stopped, there are several signs that occur when the abuser stops using the drug. These include lack of sleep, abnormal sweating, shaking, nausea and palpitations, irritability, depression, fearfulness and an extreme craving for the drug. In scientific studies, a concern has risen on its toxic effects on the brain. Scholars have reported that, 50% of the dopamine producing cells can be damaged after prolonged exposure of the drug. Researchers have argued that serotonin that contains nerve cells may be damaged extensively (Spalding, 2006).
The use of Methamphetamine does not only harm the user but hurts their friends and families. In addition to affecting people leaving where the drug is produced. The ingredients used are highly volatile, thus making the manufacturing process dangerous for every individual involved and living near the illicit laboratory. In conjunction to this, the spread of HIV along with hepatitis can occur due to the widespread sharing of needles as a means of meth intake. The society opinion regarding meth abuse is a concern. Due to its highly addictive nature and the effects it has to the user, prevention has been viewed as the best weapon to fight the drug.
References
North Carolina Department of Justice, Fighting crime of Methamphetamine use. Retrieved from www.ncsbi.gov on 26th February 2011.
Spalding F, (2006). Methamphetamine: The Dangers of Crystal Meth. New York. Rosen Publishers
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