BRATTLEBORO -- It'll get you high, and make you feel good.

Then it'll take you down and can make you feel so bad that for the next year, you'll be unable to feel pleasure.

The stimulant methamphetamine, or meth, is causing users to suffer long-term neurological damage at a level exceeding all other illegal drugs, according to health officials.

Unlike cocaine or milder forms of speed that cause a release of dopamine (the body chemical responsible for good feelings) to linger for a prolonged period in the brain, meth prompts dopamine to be "released and released and to keep on being released, depleting the body's dopamine levels," Vermont Police Academy Coordinator Cynthia Tayler-Patch explained during a meth awareness conference on Wednesday.

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