Kind of interesting. I didn’t realize it was so huge vs the others.
What happens if you do heroin, pot and coke all at once?
Honestly, the drug situation in America is such a meth. I don’t know who’s going to clean it up.
I’m sure something happens, but I’m also sure you’re not going to remember it.
Hmmm…seems to me he could have just stopped that sentence at the comma.
Will it get this thread shut down if I answer honestly?
Coke and heroin together make a cocktail commonly referred to as speedball. Each drug attenuates the other’s drawbacks, making for a unique and very potent high. They also quickly create a compund addiction that’s extremely difficult to treat.
And I would venture a WAG that many people who do speedball have pot in their system at the time. Pot is like the soup or salad course of a drug meal.
Note to mods: if you must, please just delete this post rather than shut down the thread.
Okay that study is BS. Meth use is a fraction of heroin, cocaine and especially pot. They surveyed 500 coutnies, giving each equal weight (they must have because the reults talked about “the majority of the counties” or “Half the counties.” There is a wide variance in the populations of counties. Meth is a big problem, but it’s mainly in rural counties, where it’s exacerbated by the fact that law enforcement have never dealt with anything like there. That doesn’t make it a greater problem for most people, just the ones where meth use is widespread, and crack and heroin use are not. Of course, few law enforcement officials will say that pot is their biggest problem.
I don’t believe they’re saying that meth use is higher than the others – it seems to me they’re lumping usage and problems stemming from usage together.
Meth causes different problems that pot or heroin. Many meth users will stay awake for days on end, not only trashing their health and causing sleep-deprivation hallucinations but giving them the energy to get into all sorts of illegal activities, usually to fund to acquisition of more meth. In addtion to the problems caused by the meth itself, the by-products of meth production are extremely toxic and expensive to clean up. Around here, meth makers will break into empty homes, cook for a few days or so, and leave the crap when they move on. Some of the biggest producers around here (that have been caught) don’t touch the stuff themselves, but have made large amounts of money selling it.
As a person who dearly wishes pot were legal, it just crawls my butt to see all the money that is wasted trying to stop a relatively harmless drug like pot, when that money could much better be used trying to eridicate a drug that actually damages the people who use it, but the environment in which it is manufactured. If pot were legal, the liquor stores would very rarely see me again.
Yes, I know, although the headline called it “The top drug in the country,” which would make you think they were talking about usage. My point is, even as damaging as it is, it’s mainly a rural phenomenon. The article said that it was the biggest problem for the majority of counties, but not the majority of law enforcement officals or number of people. New York City, for example, has 40,000 officers for 5 counties. How many counties have 8,000 officers?
I hesitate to say that it’s a rural phenomenon - a lot of people who were using coke before have switched over to meth because 1) it’s cheaper, and 2) the high, while different, lasts longer. Heroin and coke are EXPENSIVE.
That said, most of the people I know from L.A. use meth on a regular basis. Not so with things like coke and heroin (or even pot, which is getting pricier and pricier for the good stuff). Anywhere where you get people who want a high and don’t have a lot of money, you’re going to find a meth problem. That’s what they’re finding in Vegas now, as well as my teeny little town. It’s a problem everywhere.
~Tasha
Or, to illustrate with an example, let’s say we surveyed law enforcement in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and New York City. If everyone but NYC said that meth was their biggest problem, the result would be Meth is the biggest problem for 305 out of 310 counties. However thsoe 305 counties have fewer people than New York City, so by population it would be roughly 8 million to 5.8 million. I don’t want to say meth isn’t a problem. I just think that it’s getting hyped by the media into an apocalyptic scourge. It is true though that rural police departments don’t have the resources urban ones do to combat it.
And that’s possible reason why pot is not legal: it would likely pull millions of dollars away from the extremely lucrative alcohol and tobacco industries. Or is that the pot-fueled conspiracy paranoia talking? 
The plural of anecdote…
It is mainly a rural (PDF WARNING See page 25) phenomenon. Mainly doesn’t mean exclusively, of course. Cociane is still a much bigger problem in large cities.
And from page 6, “In 2004, 0.2% percent (583,000) of Americans over the age of 12 were regular user of meth,” meaning using it at least once a month.
On the West Coast, it’s not just a rural drug. And its use is increasing rapidly, apparently due to a shift from local production to Mexican prodution (which is better organized and financed).
Which is why I use mainly in each post.
And it is used once a month or more by less than 1% of the population.
I remember seeing a program on TV that showed a long-term meth addict’s brain (after autopsy) and it looked like swiss cheese. This site says that meth use causes irreversible damage to blood vessels in the brain.
I think the real fear about increased meth use is that it is cheap, instantly addictive and has irreversible physiological effects, which can only lead to a greater strain on the medical system!
I remember a Newsweek cober story on crack that said the exact same things. I also remember, ten years later, Newsweek printing a story saying it all media hype (although they didn’t mention how they participated in it). Since then, Newsweek (along with other media outlets) have forgotten the retraction and call meth the new crack, not realizing the irony of that statement. Just so you know, there’s no such thing as instantly addictive drugs. It just doesn’t work that way.
Former CPS investigator chiming in here. Meth is a horrible problem. I worked near Fort Worth in an urban area, and I had more meth mothers than I can count. I had one heroine/speed mother, and she was infinitely easier to work with than the meth mothers. After one removal, a meth mother showed up at court higher than a kite. It was an iffy removal, and I was honestly worried that the judge would order us to return the baby. I hate to say this, but I’m glad the mom was strung out at court, because that gave us the opportunity to keep the baby in a good foster home. The people I’ve dealt with who’ve been using meth are mean, angry, and violent. Just one of the many, many reasons I’m glad I’m out of that job.
SOME would say meth is a bigger OPPORTUNITY than heroin, pot and coke.