
Crystal Meth Is Spreading - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-03/cheap-nasty-near-you-how-crystal-meth-is-spreading-quicktake
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caymanjim
This article triggers a few of my pet peeves about drugs. Crystal meth is not
"the purest, most addictive form" of methamphetamine. It's methamphetamine
hydrochloride, which is basically the only form that you'll ever encounter.
It's exactly the same as prescription pharmaceutical pills, although without
the inert fillers used to make tablets. Street meth is not likely to be very
pure, either. The article implies that "crystal meth" is some supermeth and is
different from some nebulous non-crystal meth. It's just meth. There's no need
to call it "crystal meth".

They also can't stop themselves from mentioning MDMA. The "MA" does indeed
stand for "methamphetamine", but the effects are entirely different, and the
safety profile is massively different. It's confusing and disingenuous to even
mention MDMA in an article about methamphetamine.

~~~
black-tea
I see this all the time in popular media writings on drugs. Similarly if there
is some scientific result about cannabis, most of what you'll read just can't
resist using words like "pot" to describe it.

One of the first things my PhD supervisor told me is that whenever he reads a
news article about something he _really_ knows about, it's almost always
wrong, and not just a bit wrong, fundamentally wrong. This has been my
experience too.

~~~
kalleboo
> _This has been my experience too_

This is so common that there is the related "Gell-Mann amnesia effect" about
how you still accept articles on topics you don't know anything about
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-
Mann_amnesia_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect)

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skilled
People say you should experience everything when you are young. I would argue
that those same people need to keep their mouths shut. Drugs, especially
anything related to meth is not what you want to have as an experience in
life.

It's a bleak path to follow and unless a divine miracle happens to you,
getting out is going to be very hard. In fact, many of my friends kept
grinding it long after I had quit and changed up my life entirely.

For reference; I was addicted on a weekend-basis that sometimes turned into
3-4 day parties. This went on for 3 years at most maybe.

~~~
rjbwork
I took amphetamines for a decade. Adderall. Just legalize, give people a clean
and pure supply. Then the only side effects are due to the drug not all the
issues around it like the low quality chemical ridden bullshit street quality
bathtub stuff.

~~~
Mirioron
People with ADHD are expected to take those drugs for life. If that's doable
then I really don't understand why it's criminalized so heavily.

~~~
Spooky23
They are dangerous drugs with serious side effects like cardiac damage.
There’s a book called Blitzed that talks about the mass abuse of amphetamines
in WW2 Germany.

~~~
betterunix2
The argument is not that the drugs have no side effects or that there are not
serious side effects. It is that black market drugs come with all of those
side effects plus many more negative effects due to the lack of quality
control and unreliable supply chains.

~~~
Spooky23
I think the argument works for marijuana, and but not for these other drugs.
Getting a script for meth or heroin isn’t a good idea.

Decriminalization to allow people to get help may be a way to help address
some of the issues.

~~~
spaced-out
But getting a "script" for adderal or oxycontin is totally different, right?

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dondawest
What’s weird about this article is that it fails to mention one of the primary
USA cultural reasons — perhaps _the_ primary reason — for the increased
cultural popularity of this drug: the increased popularity of chemsex.

I was a pretty low-functioning meth addict for years, both overseas and in
America. Disgusting cuts on my hands and feet that would never heal, lost a
tooth, the whole nine yards.

What fascinated me about doing meth in the Bay Area was the police force’s
reluctance to harass, question, or even stop me when I was clearly a fucking
tweaked-out tweaker. Eventually I realized that I was protected by the
phenomenon of chemsex: cops didn’t stop me because they thought I was gay and
thus were scared I would call them out for homophobia. (And they were right,
lol)

Doing meth in the Bay is so much easier than other places it’s kinda
disgusting TBH. there’s a line between tolerating a drug and enabling drug use
and the SFPD definitely crosses over that line into the enabling department.

~~~
Johnny555
I don't understand how the prevalence of "chemsex" (I'd never heard of it
before and had to look it up) gives you any protection from the police.

I'd assume that the reason they didn't stop you was because you weren't the
first drugged out person they'd seen today and they don't have time to stop
them all (and in the Bay Area, they'd likely be back on the street in a day).
Unless you were harassing or assaulting other people or committing some other
illegal act, I'd be surprised if the police bothered to stop every suspected
drug user.

It seems surprising that the police would be afraid to stop a gay man just
because they think he's gay.

~~~
dondawest
When you’re on meth you can read minds so I’m positive I’m right in my mind
reading! Lol.

In all seriousness though, I’m quite sure my appearance as a homosexual
protected me from police harassment. I think to them, stopping and harassing
me would have felt like “picking on the gay kid” so they just didn’t do it.
(This was NOT the case in other countries and cities that are less sensitive
to lgbt rights than the bay).

Also a highly relevant factor in my not getting harassed by Bay Area cops: i’m
white.

>It seems surprising that the police would be afraid to stop a gay man just
because they think he's gay.

It’s not solely because they correctly judged me to be gay, it’s because of a
confluence of cultural factors. When you see a non-homeless gay tweaker in the
Bay Area, you can be almost assured that his addiction has to do with chemsex,
and thus stopping him would just be an uncomfortable conversation _for the
police_ because they’re in constant hetero-bravado mode and they realllllly
don’t want to stop and ask a gay dude about meth because that conversation
will instantly turn to chemsex which is a conversation they REALLY REALLY
REALLY DON’T WANNA HAVE, lmao

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lanrh1836
My rule is to not take anything that is addictive. Stick with lsd, ketamine,
shrooms, and occasionally mdma...

~~~
Indianmale
Why stick with anything at all?

~~~
lanrh1836
I dabble in small doses for the therapeutic benefits. I don’t think of them as
party drugs at all. They help me think through hard problems in life.

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Indianmale
Can someone please suggest a movie or a documentary which talks about the
dangers smd facts of drugs like these so that I can watch with my family and
make them aware?

Please don't suggest "Breaking Bad" as it is a series. I am looking for
something 3 hours or less.

Language might be English or Hindi or south Indian languages.

My family members do know that some powerful addictive drugs exist out there.
But I am very certain that they have no idea how much powerful and how much
addictive. I don't come across discussions or news articles (talk about the
filter bubble) in the kind of social media friends circle and communities that
my acquaintances frequently visit. (This is one of the very few cases where I
am thankful that filter bubbles exist)

I am aware only because of hacker news and reddit (which others around me
don't use)

I am aware that just because I don't hear about it, will not mean that things
like these doesn't exist around me. It does exist and any of us can get
influenced anytime.

With that context, I would like my friends and family atleast aware once of
the intensity of the global risk snd problem, and it will be best to do in the
form of video, movie, documentary.

So can someone suggest me please?

~~~
eartheaterrr
Requiem for a Dream. Since I saw it as a teen ~15 years ago, it hasn't slipped
my mind.

It's has an effective anti-drug message, probably more than any other movie or
documentary I've seen. And it does this without being an "anti-drug" movie,
belaboring you with facts and stats.

It's a heart breaking drama, because it goes beyond drugs. Because what the
characters are really seeking isn't a quick fix, but an ability to connect
with others.

~~~
heavenlyblue
What you're trying to say is that you completely misunderstood the message of
that movie being primarily about loneliness, rather than drugs in it's purity?

