New Worries About Meth Trends

reply to post by Walkswithfish


your ignorance amazes me,"kill them all" what a jack hole!, i bet your one of those ex addicts in between your next hit. becuze only someone as ignorant as one would say something like that,,hey if you cant kick drugs ,maybe you should kil yourself, ever thought of that, hu smart guy?

the reason i know you and what your all about, is for the true 5 and a half years i have CLEAN and sober off of meth and every single drug known to man on the street, and im not talking about smoking off of a piece of tin foil,im talking about strait shooting it into my vains,,to where i got so good and profitiant at it that i could do it literally walking down the street one handed, and that is not an embelishment, i got so far gone that i did so much i had to use bacardi or cap morgans even vodka as the water part in the spoon, becuse i did so much that it either A. christelized in the seringe or was just to strong ,needing the alchohol to dull the efffects, i would shoot so much dope that it would knock me out for a few seconds,and i would come to, coughing wich is your bodys way of telling you ,your about to over dose,i used to shoot going for that cough,
iv been in drug deals with the most insane tweakers, almost been shot ,almost died ,wached other people die, seen kids pute out on the street armed to sell drugs 10 years old, just becuse the hooker mother didnt have a place to live,

iv seen lives lost torn apart,thrown away,people lose everything,,but thats the thing PEOPLE,PEOPLE! thats what they all are,,so how have i come to this point you ask me , how have i gotten clean, im talking after almost my whole life like that,

well, i did it on my own. 100% cold turky,i simply looked around me and saw what i had become ,was tired of couch hopping ,and losing friends,family,stuff, just was soo soo tired of it all, so i said this has got to change "im so fed up with this crap,,got tired of going to jail ,wich is where i was having these toughts,,dont think it was years and thats how i got clean ,no it was just monthsm like 2 or 3, no biggie a vacation,but at that moment i thought im so over it,,i used those few days as my starting point ,and never looked back from that day on my life has only gotten better,
wife, kids, home, things ,all that stuff,, and dthere was a point when i was like you" kill all tweakers!" "kill all druggies!", but then i figured out why, it was becuse for the longest time that was still in me ,at any moment i could become them again, but then i realized that was just weakness , me being weak,,and i told myself "THAT NO INANIMATE BAG OF POWDER,PLANT,OR CHEMICLE WAS EVER GONNA CONTROLE ME AGAIN!EVER!! NEVER GONNA DICTATE WHAT I DO OR HOW I ACT! EVER!

so again i see you for who you are and your ignorant coment,.

and why do you ask am i so up about your comment,,is becuse being a drug addict is not who i really was,,for i am an artist ,paint,sculpt,carve,oil,pastel,clay,water,pencil,,i have illustrated many things books,graphics,,i have donated my work to benifits for cancer research, i have been part of things that have effectes all over even you,,i have had my hand in the music industry,effecting even you,i create and give back to society ,even you, i am a part of the human race trying to ad to its goodness and greatness,trying to be a part in a posotive way,,i have 3 beutifull children ,the oldest is an actor, the middle is my sports star qb and all that ,and my yougest is my daughter also an artist ,but mostly a dreamer,,me and the wife are going on ten years now,and still feel like we are dating,

soo with all these things i bring to the table of life, in a posotive way, thats who you wanna kill , do us a favor and do yourself!

I feel the need to add to the discussion of 12 step programs.

I personally was involved with such and it didn't help me.

What did help me was a female counselor who helped me to see that there are many facets of a persons personality and by identifying only with the addict you are fighting very hard against the part of you that is called the addict. When this happens the addict will fight back with a vengeance. You see, as explained to me the addict "drove the bus" for so many years that when you try to "kill" her off she fights back because she thinks she will die. Also there is a dynamic involved that in theory the addict part of you at some time may have kept you alive from personal pain.

What helped me and allowed me to free myself from addiction was to find a healthier facet of myself and allow her to "drive the bus" while acknowledging the addict as a part of me that could heal while not being the dominant personality trait. Just the knowledge that I was more that the addict that AA and NA drummed in my head somehow freed me and allowed me to find another facet of me that could "drive the bus" so to speak.

I am not a counselor and didn't relate this the exact way the counselor did but maybe by sharing it can give some insight to those who identify themselves as only an addict. We are much more than that , it is merely a part of us we have allowed to dominate and to try to kill her off is to make her fight harder. The trick for me was to put her in the back seat and love and nurture her and thank her for attempting to help alleviate the pain.

kids need to be educated. Not the bull spit propaganda "drugs are bad, mkay" I mean they need to see a meth head flipping out, ignoring their kids, familes, responibilites, lives. I live in rural NC. Meth is everywhere. I can hit 3 golf balls from my yard and come close to hitting three different people who have thrown their lives away for that drug. I can still remember the very first time I heard about that drug. I was in Tech school USAF. A kid form Missouri was there and we were talking. I asked him if he ever smoked pot as I had done it. He said he never messed with drugs, but did some crank with his friends mom. Now that I know what crank is, it makes me wonder, how many other kids out there just don't know enough about it? I was scared away from coke (which was the only other drug around as a teen. I was told I would like it too much and I couldn't afford it. That was a blessing I think about every time I see another person ruined by addiction. I have yet to see someone use meth on a regular basis and not already lost most of not all they had and cared about. For those who try to help these folks, god bless you and I wish you success.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


I am glad that you have torn yourself away from your addictions and have been able to establish a productive life. Good for you.

I just wanted to point out however, in case you haven't already realized it, walkswithfish is actually on your side. He was unfortunately being facetious/ironic in response to another's negative comments by repeating their negativity to highlight it.
His post ended with :

It's too bad that some people look at addicts the way they do, because I can tell you from personal experience, it can happen to anyone... ANYONE!

which reaffirms his position that addicts are just people like everyone else; deserving of the same respect.

reply to post by Mason mike


Exactly! Just as showing car accidents to teach kids that driving irresponsibly looks like this. They should show a film and let them see exactly what the drugs do. Just the message, "Don't Do Drugs" does not work. The problem is that we live in pseudo sanitized society where people set their ideals as the truth instead of the truth as it is. This could work to combat many different problems.

I still really hate that it is more difficult to get over the counter medications now. I usually get seasonal chest congestion and used to pick up a certain over the counter medication that fixed me up in a day or two. Now I have to visit my family doctor and pay 100.00 for a visit and then pay 3x as much for a similar medication.

reply to post by SpookyVince



Curing an addict is not impossible, just extremely difficult. The addict has to genuinely WANT to quit. I speak from experience. Having spent more than 12 years with a straw up my nose and a strip of foil in my hand, I can honestly say this. This change must come from within.

For the first 5 or 6 years, I "toyed" with the idea of quitting, but was never seriuos about it. After the 12th year, I looked around, saw EVERYONE I knew on this crap, and finally said ENOUGH! I moved away from everyone I knew, to a place where I knew ONE person (that I knew didn't touch the crap) and proceeded to rebuild the life that I basically tossed out 12 years earlier. Now I am finally living again, am about to be married, have a good job (THANK GOD in today's economy!) and even the majority of the people that I used to party with have came to their senses (I can actually visit with them and not worry about that craving that use to come from just THINKING about that crap).

But the first step in recovering is the addict must WANT to get off the crap!

I got mixed up with meth for night fishing. It worked great,as you can imagine.
Eventually it took me to places I did not wish to go. Its a horrible drug.

The thing about Human nature, is we want to feel good, speed does this until addiction sets in. In high school it came in little white pills. Not nearly as pure.

My stepdaughter got into it for a couple of years, she is now a couple years clean and in school. Im so relieved!!!!!

In the drug world we allways used to say, you can trust a Heroin addict, but never trust an amphetamine addict.

I hope this drug just goes away.

What the hell ?

Why was I BANNED for starting a thread about my weird spiritual/time warp experience while on ecstacy ? And i only mentioned xtc ONCE, the rest was just about the weird experience....

Yet this thread talks about toking crack pipes and what not ?

ATS Staff seem like a bunch of hypocritical biggots to me right now...

The problem of meth is CAUSED by the war on drugs.

meth = moonshine.

E.S.C.A.P.E......Life "is" pain and suffering. Without, there would be no life. Escape is pleasurable due to this fact. Our basic desire is that of pleasure because it affirms the fact that we are still alive. Unfortunately, we remember, and therefore compare our present state of pleasure with that of our past pleasant experiences and expect the new experiences to be more pleasurable than the ones before. It has been this way for all of history. Like I tell my children, "The moment you get these drugs into your body, you will understand what happens when they leave your body. and then you will know what addiction is. The only way is to never start. Period. Those of you who have started know what I mean. It doesn't matter where you are or what you've done, tell your children to never start. You can see the "junkie's" patterns and behaviors in the children of our society even with a substance as harmless as Sugar! Wake Up World! Jesus don't eat fried chicken, he ain't no Baptist, and D.A.R.E. is just a Front.

reply to post by odd1out


Well said and I have the highest respect for your recovery .

I would like to add that I work as a pharmacist and see a lot of meth heads . We have some control over the sale of pseudoephedrine and it is getting stricter here in Texas. However,much of it comes from the Mexican Mafia and Ms13 and ,therefore needs to be addressed in a more vigilant manner in Mexico itself.

When I swipe a driver's license for sale of PE it is shocking to see what the person may have looked like before the meth use. They often look like they have aged 20 years in that short period of time. The Dea is actually supportive in that if the license is cracked or warped we can refuse the sale. The "cookers" have black stains on their hands that cannot be washed off.

I agree it is the most insidious drug out there so the more information that is propagated the better.


edit for additional content

[edit on 27-1-2009 by seabisquit]

ill put it to you all in simple terms

meth is because of the drug war

end the drug war
end meth

its pure and simple

and to those who think otherwise... too bad you're wrong

the drug war creates crimes, violence, power, and control

we end the drug war, we end all the things mentioned above, plain and simple

no if ands or buts about it


end the drug wars, take the power from the criminals and people on the streets, make all drugs a regulated and taxed industry

and then pretty much end a large portion of the world's problems


doing this would open up and free unfathomable resources to focus on the remaining problems in society, in turn curing all of societies ills, making this truly a living paradise

until then, let the meth flow, let the dirty heroin and coc aine infect, let the peaceful potheads be martyred and allow the religious hippies to be persecuted for their mycological and acidic beliefs all while condoning abuse of prescription drugs all because they have medical reasons for existing

edited to add that

the reasons we have "banned" drugs is because of their "negative" effects

i guarantee if you took a small percentage of what we spend throughout history to fight these things and invest them in making them safer, we could easily, efficiently and quickly make them safe, profitable and industrial, creating jobs and improving the way of life rather then doing what we are doing now; going nowhere fast


if we did that, no longer would drugs be dangerous, they would be simply medical and recreational, and instead of poisoning and imprisoning our youth, we would better our way of life


its plain and simple with opened eyes that deal with realisticness (i used poetic license for that word)

it is a war we will never win, if you cant beat them, join them

legalize, study, and better the drugs to change the world

[edit on 27-1-2009 by Dramey]

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
reply to post by Walkswithfish

 

your ignorance amazes me,"kill them all" what a jack hole!, i bet your one of those ex addicts in between your next hit. becuze only someone as ignorant as one would say something like that,,hey if you cant kick drugs ,maybe you should kil yourself, ever thought of that, hu smart guy?

the reason i know you and what your all about, is for the true 5 and a half years i have CLEAN and sober off of meth and every single drug known to man on the street, and im not talking about smoking off of a piece of tin foil,im talking about strait shooting it into my vains,,to where i got so good and profitiant at it that i could do it literally walking down the street one handed, and that is not an embelishment, i got so far gone that i did so much i had to use bacardi or cap morgans even vodka as the water part in the spoon, becuse i did so much that it either A. christelized in the seringe or was just to strong ,needing the alchohol to dull the efffects, i would shoot so much dope that it would knock me out for a few seconds,and i would come to, coughing wich is your bodys way of telling you ,your about to over dose,i used to shoot going for that cough,
iv been in drug deals with the most insane tweakers, almost been shot ,almost died ,wached other people die, seen kids pute out on the street armed to sell drugs 10 years old, just becuse the hooker mother didnt have a place to live,

iv seen lives lost torn apart,thrown away,people lose everything,,but thats the thing PEOPLE,PEOPLE! thats what they all are,,so how have i come to this point you ask me , how have i gotten clean, im talking after almost my whole life like that,

well, i did it on my own. 100% cold turky,i simply looked around me and saw what i had become ,was tired of couch hopping ,and losing friends,family,stuff, just was soo soo tired of it all, so i said this has got to change "im so fed up with this crap,,got tired of going to jail ,wich is where i was having these toughts,,dont think it was years and thats how i got clean ,no it was just monthsm like 2 or 3, no biggie a vacation,but at that moment i thought im so over it,,i used those few days as my starting point ,and never looked back from that day on my life has only gotten better,
wife, kids, home, things ,all that stuff,, and dthere was a point when i was like you" kill all tweakers!" "kill all druggies!", but then i figured out why, it was becuse for the longest time that was still in me ,at any moment i could become them again, but then i realized that was just weakness , me being weak,,and i told myself "THAT NO INANIMATE BAG OF POWDER,PLANT,OR CHEMICLE WAS EVER GONNA CONTROLE ME AGAIN!EVER!! NEVER GONNA DICTATE WHAT I DO OR HOW I ACT! EVER!

so again i see you for who you are and your ignorant coment,.

and why do you ask am i so up about your comment,,is becuse being a drug addict is not who i really was,,for i am an artist ,paint,sculpt,carve,oil,pastel,clay,water,pencil,,i have illustrated many things books,graphics,,i have donated my work to benifits for cancer research, i have been part of things that have effectes all over even you,,i have had my hand in the music industry,effecting even you,i create and give back to society ,even you, i am a part of the human race trying to ad to its goodness and greatness,trying to be a part in a posotive way,,i have 3 beutifull children ,the oldest is an actor, the middle is my sports star qb and all that ,and my yougest is my daughter also an artist ,but mostly a dreamer,,me and the wife are going on ten years now,and still feel like we are dating,

soo with all these things i bring to the table of life, in a posotive way, thats who you wanna kill , do us a favor and do yourself!

just quickly browsing the replies on this thread after posting my reply, i needed to look no farther then the page my reply is on to find the exact reason the drug war has failed

just reading this story proves the drug war has failed, why kick a dead horse?

we MUST try something new

that is if we TRULY want change

I think New Zealand's story on drugs is a classic example of what not to do. Note: I had spent considerable time in Asia before the 90s and had seen what ICE could do to a community.

We had a unique situation in N.Z. were these hard drugs were not found. Now without the moral aspects involved , this is why we are now in trouble....

E was huge , it was easy to get but kind of expensive , which was a restriction in itself.

They came down hard on the gay guys importing and selling E in the 90s to the dance party market . Now these guys had no gang affiliations , no violent criminal history , they just wanted to get laid and be popular.

At the time the local gangs were making straight speed at home , but it was crap. So not much was being moved. Their money was in Grass.

No one was dying or being killed.

After the E market was hammered to extinction , which was easy to do because it could not be made locally ( way too hard ) the gangs finally got an increase in demand for their stuff. Which gave them not only the experiences needed , but the push to go into P ( meth ) .

Our Police were warned this was a possibility by the Hawaiian police.

The arrogant losers obviously thought they could do what no other law enforcement agency in the world had done , get rid of ALL drugs on the market.

They were wrong , now society is paying a heavy price.

The fact is the people in power should be smart enough to think 5 yrs ahead and actually picture a realistic situation were drugs are around , like it or not. And force the supply and demand ratio towards a more favorable outcome.

Scientists and policy makers need to sit down now and talk. With a 5 yr plan to work out a best case scenario that is realistic. No "Just say No " or " Just say Yes " idiots allowed. If we created this extreme I believe it can be reversed using the known trends.

I have done meth and it's some pretty nasty stuff, unfortunately my drug of choice was no drug but the more socially acceptable beer, It damn near killed me. Delirium tremens is a very scary experience and to do it more than once, Doh! I am an alcoholic and in my early 30's. 6 months 27 days since my last drink.

At any rate, pills seem to be the big rage around here now. I know of several people lately that have died from taking oxycotten. I also know around here all the grocery stores will not sell a certain amount of substances that are used in making meth. Painkillers are found in just about every home it seems nowadays or are very easily obtained by just about anybody.

Was reading this earlier.

world's largest consumer of coc aine (shipped from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean), Colombian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana; major consumer of ecstasy and Mexican methamphetamine; minor consumer of high-quality Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine; money-laundering center

CIA The World Factbook

I would also like to add that I have not procreated.

Oh and I remember Nancy Reagan too.

Back to lurking now.

Originally posted by odd1out
reply to post by autowrench

 

Unfortunately, ALCOHOL IS THE MOST DANGEROUS DRUG in the world. ALCOHOL HAS KILLED MORE PEOPLE directly and indirectly than ALL OTHER DRUGS combined. ALCOHOL is more responsible for violent crime than METH AND CRACK combined.
Shouldn't we prohibit the use of DEMON ALCOHOL????

And there is a reason for this. Alcohol is CONSUMED MORE than ALL OTHER DRUGS combined. If something else was that popular instead of alcohol you'd be saying ______ IS THE MOST DANGEROUS DRUG.

All other things being equal, alcohol isn't any more dangerous and is certainly much less dangerous than meth.

I think we are making a mistake by comparing different choices of drugs and the addictions that they can create.

Alcohol has destroyed many families and people, as well as been involved in violent crime.

As far as meth goes how many college students tried it to stay up all night studying for exams and came out with the idea that it is a wonderful asset?

Hitler used it to make his soldiers more efficient killing machines.

I even read in the Kansas City Star that the military tried using it with fighter pilots to see how it effected their responses in crucial situations.

As I said earlier, Meth............like many drugs that will change you from the person you were often begin with a payoff, only to later suck you dry of all that has meaning to you. Family, health, position is society, etc.

When I was very young I was told that pot was bad and people would force me to smoke it, then as a young teen I tried it and liked it. This sent me a message that the people (adults) telling me drugs were bad were full of it. We need to get the message out there in a more believeable way to save our families from this life stealing drug.

I realize I veered from just the meth discussion but I do think it fits together.

I could tell you all so many sad meth stories as I live in Independence Mo and it is usually said on tv specials as the meth capital of the world. And you can see it to be true to some extent. Families selling their food stamps to buy the drug. Young children playing outside after dark while parents are inside the house twisting the pipe. People ripping each other off with guns and home break in. It does change a person completely and there doesn't seem to be an answer. As a poster said, the person has to want to change and yet they fight their own mind and the addict will usually win. They say it takes an average of 7 rehabs to be effective.

Meth is the only drug I did not do, and I expereinced the same sadness and despondence the video was talking about.
Which leads me to say that all drugs, and even marijuana are bad.
You know, I've heard people say things like "I wonder how someone knew to smoke a plant thousands of years ago?" or "How is something like meth discovered upon?". I wonder if these drugs were "put" here by someone or something. Another conspiracy theory? Maybe.
But seriously. The pain that is experienced from drugs altogether is manifold. So much pain is created from them.
I have suffered and still am from my past actions almost 15 years ago when I decided to smoke my first doobie. It lead me to the rock bottom of life; something I am experiencing at the moment.
As Wayne Static said is a song: "This is not my life, this is not my home, this is not me - I hate this!" That's exactly how some of us feel (not to speak for everyone, but I've had alot of friends who got high with me)
while in the throes of addiction.
I swear, it's like I would not even be in control - It really feels like something else is controlling you.
And yes, like I said, I never did meth, but was heavy into opiates (will not mention which one).
It's almost not fair. You're fighting something you can't see - only feel. It's awful.
I've had about 5 friends over the years die from Od's. 2 were by best friends. One just died recently.
My x-gf and I are the only ones left from our clique. She's still out ripping and running. Sorry to say, but I don't expect her to live much longer.
Then that makes me the only one left here who is still alive for the most part (i've been clean from the stuff for 3 years, but I'm still affected from my past actions - like legal repurcussions, not being able to forgive myself and let go, etc). I really screwed my life up, and something won't let me (it seems) to forgive myself.
I am a good person inside. A really good person. And definetly intelligent. A majority of us addicts really are. But like I said, if feels like we are controlled by some force that (no matter how much we fight it) seems to dominate. It will make you steal, and do anything to get high - all while you are watching it from an outer perspective (for me anyhow). It's not fair to fight something on an uneven playing field.
It's just not fair at all! It really is hell on earth. Literally.
Didn't mean to deviate from the actual topic of meth, but I believe all drugs are relative.
Just some input coming from an addict himself.
Please don't comdemn, this took alot for me to get this out on a board.

I read a book once called "Society as an addict" it opened my eyes that to some degree humans are wired for addiction.

Be it things that aren't so harmful like shopping, eating, collecting mass amounts of shoes, ego gratification, coffee, cigs, internet, car racing, football, hoarding, the list could go on and on.

It is also a fact that in ancient times tribes used drugs, natural not those altered in a lab, to use in religious ceremonies.

Part of the problem is our mind is also wired to re experience what is percieves as pleasure and that is where the addiction comes in. We have lost touch with the positive uses of natural earth gifts to allow us to expand our consciousness to *see* beyond the normal optical awareness.

Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating peeps go out and eat some peyote and go tripping without a guide. But it can be an experience to open centers in the mind that allow us to get in touch with things that normally aren't available.

I have heard people say that there are ways to do this without drugs as well and I think this would be the best route to go.

As Far as the original topic of Meth...................I see absolutely no value in it. It is another way for us to be dumbed down, it increases crime, and anyone that does it more than a few months will find out the hard way.

The war on drugs is not a war on drugs it is a war on the american people. Do you really believe they would be so available if TPTB didn't want us to have access to them? No is the answer. It is a way to break up families and do disable otherwise productive people.

reply to post by impaired

Just some input coming from an addict himself.
Please don't comdemn, this took alot for me to get this out on a board.

Although the heartfelt nature of your post brought me to tears, I thank you for having the courage to share. Your positive steps are nourishing the healing vibe to spread.
Thank you.