10 Things You Didn’t Know About Meth

Methamphetamine, also known as meth, is a dangerous, damaging, and highly addictive drug. Anyone who is using drugs or hanging out with people who use drugs should know its dangers. They’ll eventually be offered meth, and they need to be prepared.

In the last few decades, meth has gone from a small-time problem to a national crisis. When methamphetamine became popular in the 1980s, the primary manufacturers were West Coast motorcycle gang members. Then manufacturing shifted to small rural labs scattered across the country. In 2006, Mexican drug cartels developed a new recipe and manufactured large quantities of this drug. Several years later, they began to obtain precursor chemicals from Asia and set up huge manufacturing facilities. They used established drug trafficking channels to move the finished product into the U.S. By 2012, nearly all the meth in the U.S. was made using this new recipe and was being trafficked across the U.S.-Mexico border.

As manufacturing moved to these huge labs capable of quickly producing hundreds of pounds of the drug, there were dramatic changes in both the drug and its impact on Americans. Here are 10 things you didn’t know about today’s methamphetamine that you really need to know.

1. Methamphetamine trafficking and use have seen huge increases in the last two decades. Seizures of meth at the border rocketed up from only 23 pounds seized in 1998 to almost 131,000 pounds in 2022.

2. The new methamphetamine on the market is incredibly pure. Methamphetamine being trafficked in the U.S. in 1998 was typically 30% to 50% pure. By 2022, seized samples of this drug averaged more than 93% purity. The purer it is, the more addictive and damaging it is.

3. Starting in July 2021, methamphetamine has been involved in more than 30,000 drug overdose deaths every twelve months. In 2015, it was involved in only 4,500 deaths within twelve months. By June 2020, the number had climbed to 20,000 deaths, and it continued to climb rapidly after that.

4. The ingredients used to make meth are toxic chemicals you would never want to put in your body. The chemicals involved in the manufacture of methamphetamine are known for their damaging and hazardous characteristics. They are typically poisonous, corrosive or explosive. These ingredients include:

• Lithium: explosive
• Hydrochloric acid: causes burns and respiratory damage
• Toluene: found in brake fluid; it has toxic effects on the nervous system
• Sodium hydroxide (lye): corrosive to skin and eyes
• Methanol: toxic if inhaled or ingested
• Acetone: highly flammable
• Anhydrous ammonia: releases toxic fumes
• Red phosphorus: flammable

Exposure to the residual chemicals in the methamphetamine sold on the street is part of the reason for the damaging effects of this drug on the skin, mouth, nervous system, internal organs, and brain.

5. Meth causes immediate dangerous and damaging effects on the body. These effects include:

• Difficulty breathing
• Very high body temperature
• Kidney damage
• Irregular heartbeat
• Seizures
• Coma
• Abscesses and boils on the skin
• Chronic and repeated infections

Some of these effects can result in serious harm with long-term repercussions, such as brain damage, kidney failure, muscle breakdown, paralysis, heart attack, and stroke.

6. Methamphetamine use can be deadly. Meth causes death through hyperthermia (high fever), stroke, heart attack, convulsions, cardiovascular collapse, and organ breakdown. Methamphetamine use is also strongly associated with an increased risk of suicide.

7. Methamphetamine can have severe, permanent, and damaging effects on the mind. In addition to the euphoria and energy that users seek, methamphetamine use can result in:

• Anxiety
• Impaired memory
• Confusion
• Paranoia
• Aggression
• Violent behavior
• Visual and auditory hallucinations
• Delusions
• Homicidal thoughts
• Psychosis
• Depression

Some of these effects can last for years after meth use stops, or even be permanent.

8. Methamphetamine use can be devastating during pregnancy. When methamphetamine is used during pregnancy, the drug is passed along to the baby. This can result in serious and even fatal effects for the baby. If the baby survives the exposure to this drug, they may still suffer long-term damage.

Harm to the pregnancy:

• Greater risk of preterm delivery

• Higher likelihood of pregnancy-induced high blood pressure

• Higher risk of miscarriage

Harm to the fetus:

• Poor growth

• Low birth weight

• Neurodevelopmental abnormalities including learning difficulties and deficits in attention and memory

• Birth defects to limbs, mouth, central nervous system, heart, or gastrointestinal system

9. The newest form of meth on the illicit market is even more dangerous and damaging than the meth of years past. The newest formulation of methamphetamine is called P2P meth. P2P is short for phenyl-2-propanone, which is a chemical used in its manufacture. This new formula makes a cleaner and more potent form of the drug, which is associated with more rapid and severe mental illness. Hallucinations, schizophrenia, and paranoia all occurring at the same time isolate the user. They can quickly become unable to function in a home or a job and may lose everything.

10. Meth use is increasingly associated with homelessness. This point is closely related to point #9. As hallucinations and paranoia disable a person, they may wind up on the street, homeless. The drug is so addictive that even when a person is forced into a homeless encampment, they are unable to stop using methamphetamine. Without any care or support, a homeless, addicted person may succumb due to an overdose, violence, or exposure.

Successful Treatment for Addiction to Methamphetamine

The solution for methamphetamine addiction is long-term residential care as soon as possible. Meth is such an addictive substance, and there is so much mental and physical damage that a short-term or outpatient program is very likely to be inadequate. Rehab needs to provide a solution for the physical damage as well as a restoration of life skills and self-respect.

Addiction to meth can be overcome with a proven, successful drug rehabilitation program. If someone you care about is addicted to this devastating drug, contact Narconon for information on our long-term rehabilitation program.

Why the Narconon Program Has Been the Choice for Tens of Thousands

Since 1966, the Narconon program has been helping those who are addicted break free from drugs and alcohol for good. Families who are tired of the revolving door of drug treatment, where their loved one goes from one rehab center to another, have chosen Narconon for lasting recovery. This program is an innovator in holistic rehabilitation in that it helps a person recover not just from addiction but also from the need to use drugs.

The Narconon Program

This is a precision program, with carefully laid out steps that guide each person through a tolerable, well-supported withdrawal and a deep sauna-based detoxification. Vitamins and minerals aid detoxification and help repair the body from the damage done by meth. The next step helps each person emerge from the trauma and loss of the past so they can finally live in the present. A life skills component then restores their essential ability to maintain integrity, rebuild relationships, and meet challenges.

Why Is Narconon Different?

This is not a short-term program. It is long-term and residential. No drugs are administered as part of the rehabilitation program. The emphasis is on recovery, not teaching anyone that they have an incurable disease for life. Nearly sixty years of success proves that recovery is possible and can last the rest of one’s life.

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