What makes crystal methamphetamine

Crystal meth abuse and addiction. Chronic, long-term use of crystal meth results in:. Crystal meth overdose can result in hyperthermia, seizures or death. Speak to an Expert About drug addiction. Continue Learning About What is crystal meth and meth? Drug withdrawal Symptoms By Caron Staff. These diseases are transmitted through contact with blood or other bodily fluids that can remain on drug equipment.

Methamphetamine use can also alter judgment and decision-making leading to risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex, which also increases risk for infection. Studies indicate that HIV causes more injury to nerve cells and more cognitive problems in people who use methamphetamine than it does in people who have HIV and don't use the drug.

In addition, continued methamphetamine use causes changes in the brain's dopamine system that are associated with reduced coordination and impaired verbal learning. In studies of people who used methamphetamine over the long term, severe changes also affected areas of the brain involved with emotion and memory. Although some of these brain changes may reverse after being off the drug for a year or more, other changes may not recover even after a long period of time.

Researchers don't yet know whether people breathing in secondhand methamphetamine smoke can get high or have other health effects. What they do know is that people can test positive for methamphetamine after exposure to secondhand smoke. Yes, a person can overdose on methamphetamine.

An overdose occurs when the person uses too much of a drug and has a toxic reaction that results in serious, harmful symptoms or death.

In , about 15 percent of all drug overdose deaths involved the methamphetamine category, and 50 percent of those deaths also involved an opioid, with half of those cases related to the synthetic opioid fentanyl. It is important to note that cheap, dangerous synthetic opioids are sometimes added to street methamphetamine without the user knowing. Because methamphetamine overdose often leads to a stroke, heart attack, or organ problems, first responders and emergency room doctors try to treat the overdose by treating these conditions, with the intent of:.

Yes, methamphetamine is highly addictive. When people stop taking it, withdrawal symptoms can include:. Methamphetamine is a synthetic man-made chemical, unlike cocaine, for instance, which comes from a plant. Meth is commonly manufactured in illegal, hidden laboratories, mixing various forms of amphetamine another stimulant drug or derivatives with other chemicals to boost its potency. Common pills for cold remedies are often used as the basis for the production of the drug.

These dangerous chemicals are potentially explosive and because the meth cooks are drug users themselves and disoriented, they are often severely burned and disfigured or killed when their preparations explode. Such accidents endanger others in nearby homes or buildings. The illegal laboratories create a lot of toxic waste as well—the production of one pound of methamphetamine produces five pounds of waste.

People exposed to this waste material can become poisoned and sick. We stored the toxic chemicals in our refrigerator not knowing that the toxins would permeate [go into] the other food in the icebox. I was too stoned on meth to notice, until twelve hours later, that my son was deathly ill. But then I was so stoned it took me two hours to figure out how to get him to the hospital five miles away.

By the time I got to the emergency room my boy was pronounced dead of a lethal dose of ammonia hydroxide — one of the chemicals used to make meth. Learn the Truth About Drugs, enroll in the free online courses.

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