About Crystal Meth
Methamphetamine , also known as metamfetamine , dextromethamphetamine, methylamphetamine, N-methylamphetamine, desoxyephedrine, and colloquially as meth or crystal meth, is a psychoactive stimulant drug. It increases alertness, concentration, energy, and in high doses, can induce euphoria, enhance self-esteem, and increase libido. Methamphetamine has high potential for abuse and addiction by activating the psychological reward system via increasing levels of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain. Methamphetamine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and exogenous obesity, under the trademark name Desoxyn.
Methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine in Japan in 1893 by chemist Nagai Nagayoshi. In 1919, crystallized methamphetamine was synthesized by Akira Ogata via reduction of ephedrine using red phosphorus and iodine. In 1943, Abbott Laboratories requested for its approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of narcolepsy, mild depression, postencephalitic parkinsonism, chronic alcoholism, cerebral arteriosclerosis, and hay fever. Methamphetamine was approved for all of these indications in December, 1944. All of these indication approvals were eventually removed. The only two approved marketing indications remaining for methamphetamine are for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and the short-term management of exogenous obesity, although the drug is clinically established as effective in the treatment of narcolepsy.
One of the earliest uses of methamphetamine was during World War II, when it was used by Axis and Allied forces. The German military dispensed it under the trade name Pervitin. It was widely distributed across rank and division, from elite forces to tank crews and aircraft personnel, with many millions of tablets being distributed throughout the war. From 1942 until his death in 1945, Adolf Hitler may have been given intravenous injections of methamphetamine by his personal physician Theodor Morell. It is possible that it was used to treat Hitler's speculated Parkinson's disease, or that his Parkinson-like symptoms that developed from 1940 onwards resulted from using methamphetamine.
In Japan, methamphetamine was sold under the registered trademark of Philopon by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma for civilian and military use. Similar to the situation in the rest of the world, the side effects of methamphetamine were not well studied, and regulation was not seen as necessary.
After World War II, a large Japanese military stockpile of methamphetamine, known by its trademark Philopon, flooded the market. The Japanese Ministry of Health banned it in 1951; since then, it has been increasingly produced by the Yakuza criminal organization. On the streets, it is also known as S, Shabu, and Speed, in addition to its old trademarked name.
In the 1950s, there was a rise in the legal prescription of methamphetamine to the American public. In the 1954 edition of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, indications for methamphetamine included "narcolepsy, postencephalitic parkinsonism, alcoholism, certain depressive states, and in the treatment of obesity."
The 1960s saw the start of significant use of clandestinely manufactured methamphetamine as well as methamphetamine created in users' own homes for personal use. The recreational use of methamphetamine continues to this day.
In 1983, laws were passed in the United States prohibiting possession of precursors and equipment for methamphetamine production. This was followed a month later by a bill passed in Canada enacting similar laws. In 1986, the U.S. government passed the Federal Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act in an attempt to curb the growing use of designer drugs. Despite this, use of methamphetamine expanded throughout rural United States, especially through the Midwest and South.
Since 1989, five U.S. federal laws and dozens of state laws have been imposed in an attempt to curb the production of methamphetamine. Methamphetamine can be produced in home laboratories using pseudoephedrine or ephedrine, which, at the time, were the active ingredients in over-the-counter drugs such as Sudafed and Contac. Preventive legal strategies of the past 17 years have steadily increased restrictions to the distribution of pseudoephedrine/ephedrine-containing products.
As a result of the U.S. Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005, a subsection of the USA PATRIOT Act, there are restrictions on the amount of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine one may purchase in a specified time period and further requirements that these products must be stored in order to prevent theft. Increasingly strict restrictions have resulted in the reformulation of many over-the-counter drugs, and some, such as Actifed, have been discontinued entirely in the United States.