Methamphetamine page12a

Imagine if you will, that repeatedly taking a stimulant like meth is like repeatedly launching a rocket. The only thing is, each time you launch the rocket you never know the exact trajectory (path) it will take, you never know exactly how fast it will accelerate, and you never know exactly how hard or how soft the landing will be when it comes down.

Well obviously, what you need here are some "controls" and/or "governors" that will help reduce these uncertainties when using meth, and these often come in the form of alcohol and marijuana. And that's because both alcohol and marijuana are great for softening, or attenuating the effects of a stimulant.

So as they descend deeper and deeper into the grip of meth, while the attraction to other substances may lessen in their mind, other drugs are usually still used. For example, during meth "droughts," when their supply of meth runs out, many meth users will use powder and/or crack cocaine. It's not ideal, but at least it's a stimulant.

And as we said, alcohol and marijuana are used to get greater control or "governance" over the meth high. If you start getting too "sketchy," alcohol is often a wonderful stabilizer. If you wake up depressed from three days of sleep following a long binge, marijuana will often be your temporary "chill-out" of choice. The real point is, the last thing you want to be when you're a meth addict is way too high, or way too straight, especially way too straight because that means you're crashing. And that's when all the bad feelings start flooding in and they're intense as hell.

As a result, if policy makers and treatment providers focus solely on meth when designing drug policy and treatment programs for meth users, the results realized will be less than they could be because they are ignoring the other drug use. And rest assured, if a recovering meth addict starts really feeling sorry for themselves because they can't use meth anymore, they might rationalize that it's okay to go out and get hammered in a bar. And if that happens, the meth relapse is just around the next corner, or maybe right there in the bar.

So while treatment for meth is in its infancy, what follows are some points and protocols that we feel must be addressed in a properly conducted approach, given what we already know about what works and what doesn't.

By the time the typical meth addict appears at the door of a detoxification, or "withdrawal management" facility, they inevitably have already gone through several cycles of binge-crash, binge-crash, etc.

The "crash" cycle of meth will be re-visited over and over again by the chronic meth user until such time as they permanently run out of meth, or as is the case in many instances, continued ingestion is almost mentally and physically impossible. Again, because so much is dependent on the exact purity of meth that's been used (on a prolonged basis, or recently) the individual in question and the adulterants in the meth used, symptoms of withdrawal and the crash have to be generalized.

For the first seven to ten days of detox, meth users will be in what's termed "acute" withdrawal where the symptoms are the most severe, particularly in the first 24 to 72 hours. During this time, the meth user's entire system is trying to get back to normal and as a result, the user will alternately feel lethargic, highly anxious, depressed, extremely hungry, agitated, etc. Basically, they're all over the place.

At the end of the acute phase of withdrawal, the user enters into the "sub-acute" phase and depending on the individual, can last between two and four weeks. This phase is basically a diluted version of the acute phase where the same symptoms persist but at a softened intensity.

Next we discuss what we call, "the moment." This is nothing less than a critical stage in the cycle of meth addiction, or for that matter, any addiction. We're also going to talk about access to treatment.