ever think you could get used to the feeling… [However], you do.”
Other users bring up the fact that MDMA also has an addiction factor, that many
only attribute to meth. “I like speed just fine,” says Benboy. “But I have seen
many speed freaks go out like that. And I’ve seen a few ‘E’ freaks buy the farm
too, even though I do think E is much safer). But a drug, whether it’s
strychnine, THC, caffeine or Prozac, is nothing more than an inert substance; as
dangerous as a head of lettuce in itself. It’s what you do with it that makes a
difference. But the difference between jonesing for a sugar fix and a speed fix
is only partially chemical and physiological. Most of it is social.” The drug
itself is not the problem, it’s the setting involved. The availability and the
motive to remain awake for long hours may compound the addiction of speed.
Still others attribute a great deal of positive qualities to methamphetamine.
“My brain was so clear when I used this, that I came up with answers to problems
that had been bugging me for months,” says an anonymous post to one of the world
wide web’s drug archives. “This stuff makes your brain work at 100% efficiency
and doubles processor speed. It makes you feel (and probably actually does) like
your IQ jumped quite a bit.” According to some medical journals, methamphetamine
does produce slight improvements in mental acuity, though performance of only
“simple mental tasks” is improved, although the amount of errors is not
necessarily decreased.
Still many would attribute “wonder drug” status to meth, enabling them to get
more done without sleep. Students, hackers and late-night workers rely on the
drug to keep them awake. “Sleep will never even occur to you,” the post
continues. “Do two hits in the morning before work, and you will never miss the
sleep from the night before. As a matter of fact, you will feel better than if
you had skipped the drug and slept all night!”
Speedlore and Methology:
“The American Speedfreak is not a lost soul. We know how to have fun between the
first ether gasp and locking ourselves in the closet. A twisted wisdom creeps
into those of us who manage to survive, a sort of collective unconsciousness, an
unspoken Crankster ideology:
It’s time to get some sleep when:
You’re out of crank
Your face is bouncing off the table
Your veins have completely disappeared beneath pasty goose flesh
Your shoes don’t fit anymore
24 simultaneous projects have stalled for lack of floor space suddenly
everyone is a cop
You’ve just set yourself on fire, again
You’re nodding out…
into glassware
15 minutes after shooting a 1/4g
at stoplights
in mid-sentence
in mid-shot
in mid-fuck”
(Speed Phreak)
Speed was created for a future world where everything moves at a faster clip, an
unsettling velocity. Seemingly synthesized as an accessory to a fast car, high
speed lifestyle, it has made mutations over the years to evolve for a new race.
The punk, cyber, industrial and rave scenes has exemplified their fetish for
speed. The desire for future frontiers — high gloss veneers and space travel–
is not inhuman, but the problem comes with the human limitation to handle the
extremes of rocket travel or the side-effects of re-entry. Like a space capsule
falling to earth, the destruction that comes from the come-down can be severe.
The come-down is what many users refer to as “the crash.” Usually symptoms like
chills, nervous twitching, sweats and exhaustion are prevalent. The “high”
produced is a result of extra activation chemicals in the brain. “The so-called
stereotypic behavior in animals (compulsive gnawing, sniffing) is associated
with dopamine release from reservoirs in neurons in the brain,” says Matt
Plunkett, an Organic Chemistry graduate student at U.C. Berkeley. “The increase
in motor activity involves the noradrenaline system. [The drug] mimics the
molecule noradrenaline (norepinephrine) at the receptors for this
neurotransmitter. Hence your body acts as if there were more of it around.”
Simply put, stimulants cause their effects by blocking re-uptake of
neurotransmitters at a pre-synaptic membrane. The cell secretes activation
chemicals, but cannot re-absorb them in the presence of cocaine or speed. The
user feels “wired,” full of energy, because their cells are receiving massive
stimulation. The more concentrated the drug is, the more intense the rush is,
and the more damaging the effects. In worst case scenarios, heart attacks occur
from over stimulation and energy depletion.
The come down is a result of the chemical being released all at once, making you
high, but then is subsequently degraded in the synapse. So once you come down,
there’s not as much as there normally should be, creating the “come-down blues.”
Prevalent discussion between users on either side of the methamphetamine
argument involves addiction. According to several studies, criteria for
addiction includes: unsuccessful attempts to quit, persistent desire and craving,
continued use despite knowledge of harm to oneself or others, taking the drug to
avoid or relieve withdrawal. While the social definition for addiction is
debatable, the chemical and physical activity in the body is founded in one of
several compounds in the brain. “Many drugs that are addictive, have primary or
major effects on the dopamine system (nicotine, amphetamine, cocaine, alcohol,
heroine),” says Plunkett. “Drugs that don’t have a major effect on dopamine
generally aren’t ‘addictive’ in the same way — Marijuana, MDMA, LSD, psilocybin,
etc. Although abuse potential is there, it doesn’t generate the same kind of
craving. Dopamine is normally involved with pleasure and reward, among many
other biochemical roles.”
With long-term abuse, the effects of methamphetamine become much more severe.
Tolerance is an issue, like in most drugs, where more of the drug is needed to
get “high.” Psychosis, specific to methamphetamines usually sets in after a time
which is said to include “suspicion, anxiety and auditory hallucination.” Though
reportedly, much more acute are the changes in lifestyle and eventually in
personality that manifest. Users exhibit an affective disorder and subtle change
in psychological temperament. Apparently, these symptoms can last up to five
years. Many who have witnessed the changes in habitual users report the shift to
aggressive or non-affectionate behavior which may also be attributed to
methamphetamine. Also apparent is some nerve damage in habitual users (primarily
crystal smokers) — jaw clenching and facial ticks.However, how much can be
attributed tot the drug and how much to sleep deprivation is unclear.
Meth is one of the most addictive drugs of today’s commonly used drugs.
According to one study that appeared in In Health magazine (Dec. 1990), the
addictive potential inherent in the drug, methamphetamine, taken nasally ranks
over cocaine, caffeine and PCP (angel dust) in addictive qualities. MDMA,
marijuana, psilocybin and LSD ranked at least 50 points lower than meth on a 100
point scale, nicotine being the highest above both crack and crystal meth. Talk
of “addictive personalities” have recently been founded valid, involving
individual physiology, psychology, social and economic pressures to suggest a
person’s vulnerability to drug dependency. Therefore, it does rely greatly on
the person when talking about their potential for abuse. Still, many theorists
contend that stimulants — lumping in caffeine, nicotine and amphetamines — by
their nature are addictive and must be reconsidered by society.
Ethnobotanist, drug theorist and author Terence McKenna calls the “dominator”
drugs — synthetic drugs that have been refined and concentrated, therefore
losing their natural link to the planet and to human-kind. He equates them with
the religious fundamentalism and beige fascism of the post-industrial, Western
world — the center for ego-dominator culture. McKenna considers the natural
psychedelics, psilocybin and even LSD, to be more intuitive and based upon the
natural human spirit.
“Dominator” drugs have been established and validated by “dominator culture,” a
culture interested in the mass consumerism of these legitimate substances –
sugar, nicotine, caffeine. He relates the emergence of drugs like
methamphetamine back to the institutionalized abuse of these substances. “The
history of commercial drug synergies — the way in which one drug has been
cynically encouraged and used to support the introduction of others — over the
past five hundred years is not easy to contemplate,” he writes in his book Food
of the Gods.
“The hypocrisy of dominator culture as it picks and chooses the truths and
realities that it finds comfortable,” he continues. Some drugs like alcohol and
nicotine have long been legal and subsidized by dominator culture, however their
qualitative separation from drugs like cocaine or speed is still unclear.
“[These drugs] are still at the depths of drug depravity especially considering
the violent or illegal acts that the craving may induce [because of their
illegal status], however tobacco addicts (smokers) might kill for their fix too
if they had to, but instead they simply walk out to a 7-Eleven and buy
cigarettes.”
While I am no proponent of speed or drug abuse, I have become glaringly aware of
the hypocrisy prevalent in mainstream and underground culture regarding the
legitimation of certain drugs. When finger-pointing, it is important to remember
the glass houses we all live in. Addiction is a problem, but the bigger problem
is sweeping it into a closet, pretending it isn’t real, pretending that our own
addictions are more manageable.
Speed is a potentially dangerous substance. It can be used as a tool, like late-
night coffee drinkers. It can also be used as a recreational drug. However, it
can also be abused and exploited to the point where the need for it besides
soothing a craving is the only point. And then, there is no point. Some may
argue that there is an aesthetic, a qualitative high, however, by
methamphetamine’s nature — as a refined, concentrated addictive substance — it
only perpetuates the cycle for needing more.
There is very little factual information about amphetamines and their dangers
available to the lay person. Research on the subject, aside from medical
journals, is virtually nill. There is however a great deal of dangerous
propaganda — hear-say, lies, rumors. Misinformation sometimes is more dangerous
than no information and real answers are only found through communication.
Many other drugs have been part of the rave community over the years — nitrous
oxide, Special K (ketamine) and especially ecstasy (MDMA) but none have
exhibited the burn-out or addiction rate associated with methamphetamine. While
meth (or any drug) is an inert substance that we cannot attribute blame to, by
its nature it has raised the question “Are we really built for speed?” It seems
that the human body, while naturally resilient to much self-inflicted abuse, may
not be a reliable container for the soul at high speeds. Methamphetamine may
have the ability to chemically fuel the ride, physically it may just prove the
limitations for human society.