Meth Epidemic in the United States

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Table of Contents

Summary of the Meth Epidemic video
Trends of meth use
Effects of meth epidemic on addict
Ingredients of meth
Ways of curbing meth
Conclusion
Works Cited

Meth mysteriously made it is way into United States of America through the rural areas and not so many people including the media reflected on it. Meth is a cheap white crystal like drug compared to cocaine and other hard drugs (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo 45).

Meth is consumed by ways of injection when in liquid form; smoking or inhaling it is residues which seduce those who consume it, thus making them feel confident and sexy for several hours. After several days of drug abuse, an individual’s life is destroyed since the drug interferes with the body’s nervous system. Meth is an addictive drug used by individuals from various socioeconomic status thus including doctors in Illinois, computer engineers in Chicago and works of different industries in Georgia.

Summary of the Meth Epidemic video

“RWA #1: PBS Frontline: The Meth Epidemic” is a narrated video that focuses on uses and making of meth drugs in the United States of American. The pictures portrayed in the video show the effects of meth as a drug when used continuously by addicts. First, the video gives an image of how a woman’s beautiful face was before she started using meth and later how it wrinkled making her look old.

Apart from it folding several times, the woman’s face contains blood patches that make her look reddish. It also shows how the police are trying to curb it is rate of consumption by storming in illegally made laboratories and making several arrests on those individuals found in the act of making, consuming and selling the drug to the public.

This includes an individual with a yellow vest who tries to deny having the drug after having been found with a small polythene paper containing meth. When arresting the man, the policeman says, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can ands will be used against you in a court of law (RWA #1: PBS Frontline: The Meth Epidemic). It also gives its focus on the various ways in which an individual can get access of the drug through the purchase of cold drugs from authorized dealers.

Trends of meth use

Basing on a report by the National Survey on drug Use and Health of 2009, the document portrays an increment in the number of individuals using the drug from 2008. In 2008, the approximated number of individuals who abused the drug was registered as 312000 but in 2009, the surveyors registered a total of more than 500000 individuals.

This increase constituted a number of more than 90000 individuals who were new to the game. It also shows that the number of meth drugs and their laboratories were on the rise, thus an indication that a lot of people are engage in the act of drug abuse. The most affected areas are the rural areas where those involved in the act are unemployed.

Looking at the rate of meth supply, the number of indivituals involved in drug manufacturing process is increasing, thus making the product readily available in the market. Basing on Drug Enforcement Administration institute, the year 2007 experienced an increase of meth seizures by 180 percent which is almost 1800 kilograms. This number increased to more than 5000kilograms in 2009, thus doubling that of the previous year. The main suppliers of meth in the United States of America are the Mexicans.

The reason why meth is cheap is probably because it is prices have been escalating throughout the years (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo 98). Since 2005, the price per gram for this commodity has been reducing until in 2009 when the amount clocked at $110.00, thus containing a purity level of 72 percent. Last, the increase in number of meth laboratories that were found in the United States of America after the government conducted a search in several towns also raised an alarm.

While this increase continues to take place, majority of innocent citizens suffer silently because nothing can be done to stop whatever crimes that come with meth consumption. Many divorces came as a result of meth consumption because they are based on domestic violence. Children have been abandoned by their parents because they can no longer take care of them.

Effects of meth epidemic on addict

The worst thing about meth consumption is that it damages the brain the moment one becomes an addict and when treated, it requires an individual to undergo several processes to recover. If frequently used, it interferes with dopamine receptors thus making it an able to respond to any form of pleasure.

Several researches have been done concerning pleasure thus indicating that it can be treated as time goes by but no healing will be realized on a victim’s cognitive ability since it is permanent. The level of anxiety and hallucination in an addict’s body comes as a result of an individual persistently consuming meth. According to doctor Rawson Richard, the rush feeling of pleasure takes several minutes before it elapses and thereafter followed by a high euphoric that consumes more than ten hours.

During this time, the brain discharge dopamine chemicals which are normally in excess thus the neurotransmitter used to control the rate of an individuals level of pleasure (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo 121). Despite other drugs such as alcohol releasing this kind of chemical in one’s brain, meth is considered the mother of their release because it discharges all dopamine. After feeling this way, an individual goes through a deep depression.

This contributes to the urge of one’s drug consumption because he or she would want to feel normal which at this point is destruction of the brain. The brain of a meth addict usually undergoes a series of changes in the sense that the brain wiring networks are destroyed, thus making it unable to experience any form of pleasure. Other effects of meth include;

Increasing the rate of an individual’s heart beat
It lowers the process of illness resistance in human being thus, killing the body tissues responsible for that process
It increases the body temperature which to the brain is risky
Last, it disorganises an individuals lifestyle just the way it did with Kimberly Fields.

Ingredients of meth

Ingredients required in making meth into a complete product include ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. The two products are found in cold medicine as seen in the video and because of their effect on human beings, laws have been enacted to oversee it is process of consumption.

Combat Methamphetamine Act is among the laws enacted in 2005 in order to curb the rate of meth consumption. The law restricts an individual from consuming too much of pseudoephedrine. Therefore it is required that vendors in need of the drug to make purchase behind the counter and always have records of those who make purchase from them. In places like Mississippi and Oregon, more measures have been considered in that for one to get the drug, he or she has to have a doctor’s prescription.

Ways of curbing meth

Despite all these efforts, producers and users of meth still have other means of accessing the drugs. This is achieved by the producers hiring individuals who in turn purchase the product legally from one of the government distributers designated in various locations. Institutions where monitoring electronic devices are not available provide these individuals with better chances of getting the drugs. This is because; no tracking device such as cameras will be available to show how the products were taken.

A process called shake and bake is normally used by small scale laboratories when making meth. To achieve this process, one is only required to have cold pills containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine together with toxic or noxious household chemicals which are readily available in the market. One should also have a two liter bottle of soda which is used to mix the two ingredients thereby giving a complete meth drug for human consumption.

Conclusion

From the above, one is able to observe that meth is an epidemic that need to be addressed by governments around the globe to reduce the rate of it is consumption within the society. Places like Mississippi indicated a decrease in the consumption of pseudoephedrine since the introduction of the laws that prohibits the excessive purchase and consumption of the drugs.

Oregon began protecting it is state children, women and men in 2004 before the enactment of the laws in 2009. Other states are following soot to an extend that laws have been enacted classifying the cold pills as illegal drugs that require authorized prescription from qualified physicians such as doctors.

Works Cited

Pastorino, Ellen, and Susann Doyle-Portillo. What Is Psychology? London: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print

“RWA #1: PBS Frontline: The Meth Epidemic”. The Oregonian. Carl Byker and David Davis, 2006. Film

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