Methamphetamine 277physical afflictions that make dextroamphetamine inadvisable should also
avoid methamphetamine.
Abuse factors.Experiments with intravenous injection of pure pharmaceu-
tical methamphetamine found that recipients did not experience the almost
instantaneous rush of effect that would normally be expected from such a
path of administration. Recipients instead began experiencing significant ef-
fects hours later. A study of Japanese abusers receiving treatment for their
drug habit compared injectors to smokers. Injectors had less schooling and
more criminality and were more likely to have alcoholic parents. Such back-
ground is typical in persons having a bad relationship with drugs. Contented
people rarely fall victim to drug abuse.
Methamphetamine flashbacks are possible. Someone who experienced a
threatening situation while undergoing frightening psychosis brought on by
methamphetamine can have a flashback when later confronted with a mildly
stressful situation. In one study of abusers methamphetamine was blamed for
long-term psychosis, in one case lasting 38 years after abuse stopped, but most
of those patients also had other troubles (broken homes, criminality) promot-
ing maladjustment.
Persons who abuse methamphetamine are typically disappointed with their
lives. The drug is sometimes blamed for causing “amotivational syndrome”
in which abusers lack much interest in life, but abusers typically have much
to be discouraged about regardless of drug use. One study of Japanese alco-
holics compared those who had also abused methamphetamine to those who
had not. The abusers were more afflicted withalcoholhallucinations, were
much less likely to live together with someone, and were twice as likely to
collect welfare and three times as likely to live in slums. (And about one fourth
of the abusers had tattoos versus none of the nonabusers—the researchers
called the variation “significant,” but that term was surely meant in its statis-
tical sense.) Another study of Japanese abusers found that only 5% came from
an upper income background, in contrast to 71% of marijuana users. Still an-
other study of Japanese abusers found that they ended their schooling early,
hung out with gangs or other groups, and experienced effects typical of am-
phetamine class drugs (restlessness, irritability, low appetite, suspicion of
other persons). Some negative aspects seemed to depend on how much the
drug users perceived themselves as victims of society. Pepped-up feelings and
drug-induced happiness declined as methamphetamine abuse continued over
the years. One authority has noted that persons who get drunk on alcohol
every day are five times more prone to smoke methamphetamine than persons
who consume alcohol either moderately or not at all. This does not mean that
alcohol itself promotes methamphetamine use, but a person who is so mis-
erable as to get drunk daily will also be likely to seek additional ways to
obliterate perception of problems. One of those choices may be methamphet-
amine.
Compared to persons who don’t abuse methamphetamine, abusers are
known for more frequently engaging in risky sexual practices (no condoms,
partners with sexually transmitted diseases, multiple casual partners). Less is
known about whether such conduct is promoted by the drug or whether the
drug is simply one component of a life filled with risk-taking.