Posted by chemist on May 22, 2005, at 4:07:15
In reply to Exactly how bad is (meth)amphetamine?, posted by AMD on May 16, 2005, at 17:42:41
hello amd, i suspect my response is not called for in light of recent events...methamphetamine - if pure, administered by a physician, and monitored - can be and is used (although i have no knowledge of a script ever being written, yet this would hardly be fodder for casual chat) sparingly or rarely.
there is something amiss, to my eye...instead of a query concerning abuse of cocaine/meth/etc., the focus is pointedly facing away from the cocaine and towards the possibility of the coke being cut with meth, which in turn leads to diminished capacity to perform mathematical exercises: the query appears to discount cocaine and focus upon meth, which may or may not be present. either one is not something to make a regular habit of, in my opinion.
the methamphetamine neurotoxicity issue has garnered more than a fair share of press, and there was at least one flurry on PB i was party to in the last year concerning 3,4-MDMA and methamphetamine (it was a rather long thread, if i recall...).
there are rather heated debates in progress - well, last i read - from former pals (ricaurte and doblin, the former being the ``con'' side, and the latter leading - i believe - the MAPS study) concerning the damage done....best to grab some pubs and do some reading. and although ricaurte et al. had the dubious ``honor'' of retracting a paper from Science in which they claimed that 3,4-MDMA administered to a small cohort of primates led to death (in two, if i recall), and loss of neuron density in certain places was highlighted; unfortunately, the primates were administered methamphetamine - not 3,4-MDMA - and say what one will, large doses of very pure methamphetamine administered to primates remains a not-so-good activity. i assume the same goes for homo sapiens of the primate variety....yours, c
> I am a bit worried I may have been exposed to methamphetamine last week when I snorted what I thought were (several) lines of cocaine.
>
> My question is, exactly how bad is methamphetamine? I've heard some pretty horrible things about it -- first-time use causing permanent brain changes, impossible to cure addiction and depression: side-effects that are several degrees worse than cocaine in every measure, and things from which one can never recover.
>
> For example: I'm reading this post and, in contrast to others I've written over the past two years, it seems clear there has been a steady, although subtle, dip in my linguistic acumen. Am I being paranoid? Can I expect this to improve with time?
>
> Why, three days after my binge, is my focus still off -- and by off I mean, my head is unable to stay focused on a page, words tumble from my keys in a confused manner, causing me to ^H^H^H several times in order to fix trivial, yet easy-to-spot-the-first-time-around, errors.
>
> Basically ... am I going to recover from all the toxins I put into my body? And if so, how long does this recovery take? I have heard ancedotal stories that one's "mathematics" abilities are diminished by meth' and cocaine, and will never return. Is this true? Even after just a few months of weekly (heavy) use?
>
> The other thing I've noticed is that my spelling is off ... I will blank out when trying to spell words I used to spell with ease. (See "diminish" above -- that I blanked on this, and had to resort to m-w.com, is troublesome). Is this from the recent use, and if so, can I expect my skills in this area to recover with time? Or again, is this a permanent change?
>
> Finally -- what can I do to proactively help myself feel better. I've been drinking lots of fluids, taking vitamin B supplements and fish oil, and trying to eat regularly. But I still feel horrible. Anything short of time I can do to get my head (and mood) back into place?
>
> Well ... I'm working on N.A. meeting #2 tonight, shooting for 30-in-30. Wish me luck on my recovery.
>
>
> amd
poster:chemist
thread:498612
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20050506/msgs/501080.html