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Written by Marcel Gemme C.C.D.C

Methamphetamine Facts

When it comes to drugs that can be easily made, bought, and ingested, methamphetamines are at the top of the list. This drug is available in many different forms from liquid, to a crystal, to a powdery substance. Methamphetamine is a highly addictive synthetic drug that acts like a stimulant. This type of drug can be taken in many different ways from snorting, smoking, injecting, or in oral tablet form.

Methamphetamine was once an imported drug from different countries. However, because many people have become so addicted to this drug, there are plenty of illegal meth labs around the country today. These labs are dangerous in the fact that the different types of chemicals - everything from battery acid, to drain cleaner, to hydrochloric acid are used, are volatile and result in many explosions causing in hundreds of deaths each year.

People who use the drug also have several different names for it. It can be called crank, speed, meth, crystal meth, ice, chalk, redneck cocaine, biker's coffee, uppers, tweaker, and many other names according to the geographical location or crowd of people. Methamphetamine is not only sold in the cities, but in the suburbs and in rural areas of the country. Many people have become hooked to the feelings that they receive from using the drug. Meth is an epidemic which can be solved with two different procedures. One is getting to the source and taking the producers out, and handling the actual addicts with drug rehab treatment centers.

Used as a stimulant at the very beginning, usually by college students who are studying all night, and truck drivers who have long haul assignments, this highly addictive drug begins to take over the user's life so that their only thoughts are of the next time they can use it. With both short term and long term effects, methamphetamine use is dangerous in any type of dosage.

While a small dose can give a person a feeling of euphoria, a feeling of being alert, great stamina, and going periods without sleep it also begins to eat away at the nervous system from the moment someone starts using it. The heart rate begins to pick up, the body temperature heats up, and there is a very serious reality of stroke, heart attack, or convulsions. A large dose, over a period of several days, can lead to parts of the body shutting down, lifelong paralysis, handicaps, and even death. That's why it's especially important that a meth addict finds a drug rehab treatment in order to get off the drug before it's too late.

Treatment for meth addiction in Canada is not always as easy as simply going with a peer group. For people who have been addicted to methamphetamine, the road to recovery means a long term drug rehab  solution that includes both inpatient detoxification and outpatient counseling that can last from six months to two years depending on the patient. It is important that a person not only gets through the detox program, as this only addresses the physical aspect of addiction. In order to get better mentally, it's important to attend outpatient rehab or better yet, to check into a drug rehab treatment by professionals who can assist them in many ways.