Amphetamines
Recreational History Of Amphetamines
Amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 Germany. It has no real recreational history until 1930s when it became freely available in the United States and other countries.
People who had previously been cocaine users started switching to amphetamines in the 1930's, when amphetamine became freely available. Amphetamine was legal while cocaine was declared illegal by the U.S. federal government in 1914.
Rather than go through the hassle of obtaining illegal cocaine many people made the switch to easily obtainable amphetamine. During the 30's, 40's, and 50's amphetamine use spread as it became more popular.
Amphetamine Use In The 1950s
In the United States in the 1950s, legally manufactured tablets of methamphetamine (a stronger form of amphetamine) were used non medically by college students, truck drivers, and athletes. These people usually did not become severely addicted, this was usually because the use was for a purpose other than recreational.
For college students, they were used to stay awake while studying, truck drivers used them to keep alert on long trips, and athletes used them to enhance performance. There were however some people using the drug recreationally, and even smoking meth (not ice) in the late 1950s.
This pattern changed drastically in the 1960s with the increased availability of injectable methamphetamine and speed rose to popularity in California, home of many of the largest meth labs in the country, riding on the back of biker gangs.
Bikers have been historically blamed for introducing the drug into the psychedelic 1960's, subsequently bringing down a whole Summer of Love with violence.
The 1970 Controlled Substances Act severely restricted the legal production of injectable methamphetamine, causing its use to decrease greatly.
Since then, speed has been given a bad rap. It has been called a trailer park drug for decades, due to the fact that it can be cooked up so cheaply and easily. It's still the drug of choice for long-distance truckers and college students working all night.
Speed came to the rave scene in 1992. Theory: the price of taking 3-4 pills of ecstasy became too expensive an option, speed took over as an easier to get and cheaper alternative.
Clandestine production accounts for almost all of the illegal methamphetamine sold in the United States today. The illicit manufacture of methamphetamine can be accomplished in a variety of ways, but is produced most commonly using the ephedrine/pseudo ephedrine reduction method.
Large-scale production of methamphetamine using this method is dependent on ready access to bulk quantities of ephedrine and pseudo ephedrine.
In the past, several bulk ephedrine seizures destined for Mexico focused attention on the magnitude of ephedrine acquisition by organized crime drug groups operating from Mexico and in the United States, and set in motion an effort to focus international attention on the ephedrine diversion problem and to take action to prevent such diversion.
Methamphetamine takes the form of a white, odorless, and bitter tasting crystalline powder, readily soluble in water or alcohol. Street methamphetamine is referred to by many names including meth, speed, zip, go-fast, cristy, chalk, and crank. Pure methamphetamine hydrochloride, the smokeable form of the drug, is called ice.
Methamphetamine can be smoked, injected intravenously, snorted, or ingested orally. Immediately after smoking or intravenous injection, the user experiences an intense rush that lasts only a few minutes and is described as extremely pleasurable.
Smoking or injecting produces effects fastest, within 5 to 10 seconds. Snorting or ingesting produces a euphoria high but not the rush that comes with smoking or injecting. Snorting produces effects within 3 to 5 minutes, and ingesting orally produces effects within 15 to 20 minutes.
Ice
What is usually referred to as ice, is smokeable recrystallized methamphetamine hydrochloride (first developed in South Korea and Taiwan, and introduced to the U.S. by Asian drug gangs)
It is similar to smokeable cocaine (crack) for a number of reasons. Since ice, like crack, is absorbed through the lungs, effects are intense and come on fast. And even though meth smoking isn't new (it was reported in Hawaii as early as 1968 and elsewhere in the U.S. since the late 1950s) ice does offer a new twist.
For one thing, it's easier to do. Since in its powder form, methamphetamine requires a high temperature to vaporize, smoking never really caught on before. Converting the drug to crystals made it easier to melt and produce a concentrated vapor.
Not only that, but ice also tends to be purer than methamphetamine, due to the difficulty of cutting large crystals with additives and bulking agents.
The effects of ice are identical to those produced by injecting methamphetamine, since smoking and shooting involve direct pathways to the brain. Each delivers a concentrated blast of the drug in seconds, compared with the longer, slower absorption that occurs with oral use.
The effect is overwhelming: a flash of euphoria, (by blocking the reuptake, and stimulating the release, of dopamine and noradrenaline in the central nervous system) followed by an extended period of energized alertness.
Myths And Rumors
Smelling meth on a person
Fatigue causes secretion of different chemicals, including ammonia, from the body. Thus you are smelling fatigue, not meth.
Made from poison
Made from several toxic chemicals; this does not mean it is itself poisonous. For example, drinkable salt water can be made from lye and muriatic acid.
Used to cut other drugs
Overstated in this role. Usually something much cheaper (and less clean, like PCP) is used.
Books Amphetamine Syntheses:
Industrial Edition
Looks at various areas related to making amphetamines like the meth lab, the law, designer drugs, chemistry of the reactions, etc.
The majority of the book, however, details syntheses of amphetamine and related chemicals such as MDA, MDMA (ecstasy), DOB, TMA, PMA, MDEA (Eve), DOM (STP), methylcathinone, phenetermine, aminorex, ephedrine.
Amphetamine Syntheses The Speed Culture:
Amphetamine Use and Abuse in America
The only non biased, factual book about the history of speed I have found in print. Written in 1975, it doesn't cover recent history, but does give a good history up to the time of publication.
It was written by the author of Marihuana Reconsidered and describes how amphetamines have been used both medically and recreationally in the United States.
Speed Culture
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