Pubdate: Sun, 29 Feb 2004
Source: Duluth News-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2004 Duluth News-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribune/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/553
Author: Chris Hamilton, News Tribune Staff Writer
Series: link http://www.mapinc.org/source/Duluth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH USERS COURT DANGEROUS EFFECTS

Health Threats:

Meth Sends Users into Euphoric Highs, but the Lows Include Paranoia,
Delusions, Memory Loss, Seizures and Strokes.

Why would people take such tremendous risks to their mental and
physical health for a purely synthetic drug cooked up in someone's
kitchen with deadly corrosives like drain cleaner and ammonia?

St. Louis County probation officer Cheryl Harder said one
methamphetamine user explained it to her like this:

Think back to the first time you fell in love. Combine that emotion
with the sensation of intense orgasm. Then imagine experiencing both
while jumping out an airplane.

That's almost as good as injecting meth.

Meth gives people a euphoric "Superman-like sensation," said Dr. Bob
Zotti, an emergency room physician at St. Mary's Medical Center in
Duluth. "You feel stimulated, full of energy, have heightened sexual
arousal."

It's commonly used at dance clubs, raves and all-night parties or
during shift work, police say. Heavy users say they tend to shut
themselves indoors, high and wracked with a drug-fueled sense of paranoia.

Getting Started

Meth, a derivative of amphetamine, came on the market in nasal
decongestants and bronchial inhalers in the 1920s. Later, it was given
to soldiers suffering from fatigue in World War II and was even
commercially produced to pep up depressed housewives.

Almost all of the meth in the United States today is produced in
clandestine labs in California and Mexico federal and state
authorities say, with smaller amounts produced at labs throughout the
Northland.

The Federal Drug Administration designates meth as a Schedule II
stimulant, which means commercially produced meth has some medical
uses. But it can only be prescribed without refills. It is used to
treat attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy and obesity, health
experts say.

Harder has two female clients who started using illicit meth to lose
weight.

Some public health officials believe the rise in stimulant-related
drugs given to children, such as Ritalin, to treat ADD or attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder may be leading them to hard drugs.

"There are 5 million kids in the United States who take medications
for a learning disability. That's a lot of kids who are learning young
to take a pill to change their mood," said Carol Falkowski of the
Hazelden Foundation, a chemical-dependency treatment and research
center in Center City, Minn.

Paranoid

Experts and former addicts told the News Tribune that most users
usually start by snorting the powder form. Then they move to smoking
or injecting it for a more intense high. Casual use can, and often
does, form a habit.

The drug is smoked in modified light bulbs, glass pipes -- sold
legally in a Duluth head shop -- and rolled aluminum foil. Some people
"waterline" meth, in which the drug is mixed in a solution of water
and sprayed up the nose.

Binge users often start early in the morning and follow up the first
blast of the drug with doses every few hours, experts say. Then they
enter what is called a "tweaking" phase for the next four to 24 hours.

At that point, one local meth addict said, the drug laser-guides
concentration so much that he would see people take apart radios and
televisions, put them back together and repeat the process for hours.
Some people work on house-renovation projects for days straight, he
said.

Another recovering Duluth meth addict -- a teenager -- told the News
Tribune he once stayed awake for 18 days straight, although he might
have blacked out a few times. He wasn't sure.

When some meth users finally stop and crash, they sleep up to three
days.

Binge users, who are more prone to aggressive behavior, are the most
dangerous, police and health experts say. But even casual meth users
experience symptoms that include anxiety, confusion and insomnia.

Long-term use creates psychosis, paranoia, auditory hallucinations,
mood disturbances and delusions, experts say. Many describe the
delusion of insects crawling on the skin.

The corrosive household chemicals used in meth's "cooking" process can
secrete from the skin, causing "meth mites," or itching, members of
the Minnesota Multi-Agency Meth Taskforce told lawmakers in St. Paul
last month.

One recovering Duluth addict told the News Tribune he has seen someone
scratch their face until it was a bloody mess.

Men and women also lose their teeth and hair after extended use.
Police can spot female meth users by the bandanas they often wear,
said Investigator Tim Peterson, head of the Boundary Waters Drug Task
Force based in Virginia.

With their collapsed cheeks and emaciated appearance, addicts almost
look like the character in Edvard Munch's famous painting, "The Scream."

Prolonged use can result in homicidal and suicidal behavior, according
to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In the past year, several
violent criminal cases involving someone on meth made the news.

One was a five-person killing spree in Minneapolis and Long Prairie,
Minn., in April. One of the suspects, Jonathan Carpenter, 21, said he
was on meth when he and Christopher Earl killed their victims and
burglarized their homes. Carpenter also admitted to raping one of his
victims, a teenage girl. In an interview with WCCO-TV/Channel 4
shortly before he committed suicide in his St. Cloud prison cell in
July, Carpenter said meth had kept him awake for nine days at a time.

"I think I went insane," he said.

Hard to Deal With

When a meth user enters a hospital, their symptoms can be confused
with the severe psychiatric episodes associated with schizophrenia,
Zotti said. And users are notoriously furtive, making diagnosis much
more difficult.

"Someone might walk into a store and start yelling at people or
grandma might call because her grandson is acting strange, running
around the house," Zotti said.

Some police assume they are just dealing with a cocky drunk. Duluth
hospital staff frequently must use restraints in combination with
sedatives to subdue meth users, Zotti said.

Most people on meth don't wind up in the hospital the way alcoholics
or heroin abusers commonly do -- found face down in an alley or passed
out on a bathroom floor. They often arrive wearing handcuffs after
fisticuffs.

"They tend to be very tense and very alert," Zotti said. "These aren't
people who are sedated or look inebriated. They come in walking fast,
talking fast, appearing very anxious."

Unlike cocaine or heroin, severe meth overdoses are unlikely to be
fatal, says the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, a free online
medical-research service.

The typical meth user is young, usually from 16 to 35 years old, so
massive bodily system failures are less common, Zotti said. But chest
pains and strokes do happen with meth, he said.

Meth intoxication can often be handled by observation in a safe and
quiet environment, according to a 2002 article by Dr. Robert Derlet,
the University of California Medical Center's chief of emergency
medicine, whose San Francisco hospital is in one of the country's most
meth-inundated regions.

Not Instant Death

Studies on long-term meth use -- 10 years or more -- have found meth
users are much more prone to strokes, seizures and Parkinson's
disease-like effects, such as a loss of motor skills, Zotti said. The
drug creates spasms and ruptures in the brain's blood vessels, which
in turn causes brain damage, he said.

It also damages brain cells that contain serotonin, a neurotransmitter
that regulates depression, according to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse. The nerve cells do not die after meth use, but their nerve
endings are cut back and regrowth appears to be limited.

A 2002 study found that much of the brain damage done by meth --
including decreased motor skills -- can remain even years after rehab
and recovery. Loss of memory and cognitive functions can occur; so can
permanent psychological problems. People can become chronically
paranoid, Zotti said.

Meth use during pregnancy can result in miscarriage, Derlet wrote.
Current research says that meth use during pregnancy also can cause
congenital deformities.

Addiction is a chronic and relapsing disease, NIDA says, and more than
90 percent of addicts relapse. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake