Methamphetamine addiction has run rampant throughout out Texas over the last couple of decades reeking on countless addicts and families. Thousand of addicts have sought help in Texas drug rehab programs for addiction to methamphetamine.
Methamphetamine is a psycho stimulant of the amphetamine class of drugs. It creates a false sense of alertness, concentration, energy, and in high doses, can induce euphoria, enhance self-esteem, and increase sexual promiscuity. Methamphetamine has an extremely high potential for abuse and addiction by activating the psychological reward system via triggering a cascading release of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain.
Believe it or not methamphetamine is FDA approved for the treatment of ADHD and given to children and marketed in the USA under the trademark name Desoxyn. It is sold in small cubes of odorless, bitter-tasting crystals; this led to the nickname Crystal Meth where the word crystal refers to its crystalline appearance and meth is short for methamphetamine. Often children prescribed this drug later suffer drug addiction problems from drug cravings caused by the use of these medicines.
Meth Abuse Treatment and Addiction Information
Following a period of heavy methamphetamine abuse, also known as “binging”, which typically last days or even weeks, a severe methamphetamine withdrawal lasting up to 10 days can occur, primarily consisting of depression, fatigue, excessive sleeping and an increased appetite.
Chronic methamphetamine addiction and abuse can result in side effects that mimic psychiatric disorders, cognitive impairment, as well as an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. These symptoms which persist beyond the withdrawal period for months and even up to a year are due to damage to the central nervous system as a result of methamphetamine induced neurotoxicity.
Research has found that 95% of those who try methamphetamine for the first time will use the drug again. There is also evidence of long term psychological harm and physical harm, primarily consisting of cardiovascular damage occurring with methamphetamine addiction.
Treatment For Methamphetamine And Origins Of Use
Methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine in Japan in 1893 by chemist Nagai Nagayoshi. The term methamphetamine was derived from elements of the chemical structure of this new compound: methyl alpha-methylphenylethylamine. In 1919, crystallized methamphetamine was synthesized by Akira Ogata via reduction of ephedrine using red phosphorus and iodine.
In 1943, Abbott Laboratories requested for its approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of narcolepsy, mild depression, postencephalitic parkinsonism, chronic alcoholism, cerebral arteriosclerosis, and hay fever. Methamphetamine was widely used by Nazi, Japanese and Allied forces during WWII with methamphetamine addiction soon becoming a problem.
The German military dispensed methamphetamine under the trademark name Pervitin. It was widely distributed across rank and division, from elite forces to tank crews and aircraft personnel, with many millions of tablets being distributed throughout the war.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine – cite_note-Pervitin-10 From 1942 until his death in 1945, Adolf Hitler may have been given intravenous injections of methamphetamine by his personal physician Theodor Morell.
In Japan, methamphetamine was sold under the registered trademark of Philopon by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma for civilian and military use. Similar to the rest of the world, the side effects of methamphetamine were not well studied, and regulation was not seen as necessary.
Meth Addiction Treatment In Texas
In the late 1980′s and throughout the 90′s methamphetamine addiction spread like wildfire throughout Texas, primarily in North Texas and Panhandle Counties. Currently As the heyday of basement and backyard methamphetamine labs appears to be in decline, Texas police and narcotics officials say demand for the drug is growing stronger, in part because of greater smuggling efforts by Mexican drug traffickers.
The number of clandestine methamphetamine labs in Texas has dropped significantly since 2010. At the same time, seizures of meth produced in Mexican superlabs have skyrocketed. Last year, Drug Enforcement Administration branches in Texas seized 2,140 pounds of meth, 44 percent more than the amount seized in 2004.
And in the first quarter of 2010, the Texas Department of Public Safety seized 150 percent more meth than it did during the same period last year. DPS. Nearly all of these seizures have involved Mexican ice, a smokable form of meth that is more pure and more addictive than the crystal meth of previous decades. In Texas there were nearly 2,000 substance abuse and addiction treatment admissions to Texas state funded treatment facilities for methamphetamine addiction.