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A Reason For Hope
by Jessica Wilson
                Methamphetamines: the reason you can no longer go to the drug store to pick up the “good” kind of cold medicine without seeming to sign your life away.  It could be the reason the house next to you suddenly explodes or why your friend has strange scabs on his or her skin. Its effects are far reaching both to individual users, their families and our society.
                Meth is a drug that is being cooked in garages and homes and in backyards all across the country, but nowhere more than in Missouri. In 2005, there were more than 22,000 meth labs seized in Missouri, making the Show-Me State the number one state for meth lab seizures. 
                While making meth is dangerous, it’s a cheap drug to manufacture because it includes pseudoephedrine, an ingredient commonly found in over-the-counter cold medicines. Not only is it cheap to make, it’s cheap to buy.
                The products used in making meth produce dangerous byproducts. Studies show that for every pound of meth made, more than five pounds of toxic waste is produced.
                Cooking meth produces hazardous vapors that can cause respiratory problems, severe burns, eye and noise irritations and has even caused death.  In addition, the gasses produced in the cooking of meth are highly flammable. It’s estimated that 20 percent of meth labs were found when the flammable materials used to cook meth exploded. 
                In the last several years, meth has become prevalent among people ages 18 to 25 and it’s become even more popular among high school students who have easier access to meth than they do other drugs, like cocaine. 
                Meth is also known as speed, ice, crank and glass. It can be smoked, snorted, swallowed or injected.  People often take the drug to increase alertness because it produces chemicals in the brain that simulates euphoria.  Women often take the drug to lose weight because meth suppresses a person’s appetite.   
                The downsides to meth far outweigh the perceived benefits. Many people who use meth develop sores that become infected because they pick at them. Meth can also cause tooth rot because meth decreases the body’s natural production of saliva, which helps protect teeth. Many meth users also experience kidney and lung problems, impaired speech, immune system problems and malnutrition. Taking meth causes the heart rate to speed up, which can result in heart attacks, strokes and high fevers that lead to the shutdown of major organs. The most serious side-effect of meth is, of course, death.
                Added to the problems associated with the use of methamphetamines is how to “kick the habit,” which is proven to be a very difficult undertaking for most meth users.  Local St. Louis author and former meth used Clyde Novella has written a compelling book about his experiences as a meth user in the 1960s.  Novella explains many of the aspects of “using” that makes meth difficult to give up (see side-bar), but his book also provides hope for users and their families that meth is a habit that can be broken, and more productive lives can be achieved. 
                Getting off meth takes help from friends and family and from medical professionals.  Ron Feldman, the outpatient supervisor for St. John Mercy Medical Center’s Edgewood Program, says the psychological addiction is the hardest part of overcoming meth addiction.  He says kicking the meth habit is about much more than getting clean, it’s also about training the brain how to think without meth. 
                Cognitive behavioral therapy helps modify how the brain deals with situations that previously triggered meth cravings. One such method is the Matrix model, which is an outpatient therapy program first developed in the 1980s to treat cocaine addition.  The program includes multiple therapy sessions a week, family therapy, drug testing and 12-step programs similar to Alcoholics Annonymous.  Clinical trials have also shown that the antidepressant Wellbrutron can help meth addicts who are low or moderate users.
                While kicking the meth habit is difficult, there is hope that users can get “clean.”  But it can take up to a year until the effects of meth addiction subside—effects such as fatigue, depression, hallucinations, paranoia and tremors. But with professional help and the support of family and friends, meth addiction can be overcome.