How To Get Meth Out Of Your System Fast: Complete Guide & Best Three Methods

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Adam

how to get meth out of your system fast

You’re here because you want to get meth out of your system fast. There’s some bad news and some good news on that.

The bad news is that meth can hang around in your system for quite a while, depending on how often you take it and at what doses.

The good news is that there are three good methods that can help you to pass a drug test for meth. I’m going to talk you through everything you need to know. The types of drug tests, how long meth stays in your system, and how it differs from other types of drugs.

Plus, crucially, I’ll talk you through the three methods you can use to pass a drug test with meth in your body.

What Type Of Drug Test Are You Facing?

You could be facing a hair drug test, urine drug test, saliva drug test, or even a blood drug test. Although, a drug blood test is incredibly unlikely unless you are in real trouble.

Most likely, it’s a urine or saliva drug test, as these are the most common types.

Whatever type it is, it will be a panel drug test. The most basic is four panels, which exclude marijuana. Five-panel standard testing includes marijuana, then it works its way up to 12 panels as the maximum number of standard panels.

Each is more expensive and looks for more substances. You can’t predict what they will look for if you are up for a drug test of any type.

You see, the thing is, whoever is commissioning the test and swapping out any panels they want. So there’s no point in trying to predict if you could get caught, you just have to know how to appear clean (or actually get clean) for the type of test you are facing.

Is Methamphetamine Any Different To Other Types Of Drugs For Detection?

A meth drug test is no different to any other type of drug test. They are panel tests that look for multiple types of drugs, and methamphetamines are almost always on every single panel test, even the four panel one.

What matters is how long it stays in your system. Usually, if you are a light user, a couple of times a week, then it will be detectable up to about five days in urine, and usually three days in saliva.

In hair, every single type of drug is detectable for 90 days. It stays indelibly inside the hair shaft, and they test the most recent 90 days growth.

So in practical terms, methamphetamines are no different to any type of illegal drug. If the panel looks for it, and it’s in your body, or in your hair, it will be found.

How To Detox From Meth At Home

Although meth usually disappears in about 4 – 5 days, it can stay longer if any of the following apply:

You are older with a slower metabolism
You are obese
You don’t exercise
Your diet is poor
Doses are high and frequent
Your general state of health
If there are other substances you are taking

Don’t believe any of the nonsense about home remedies and drug tests. You can’t get meth out of your system at all, let alone fast, using a home remedy or a natural detox alone (in any reasonable time).

The only way you can learn how to detox meth at home is to do a full natural detox and accelerate that process with pills. I will cover that in a moment.

how to pass a drug test for meth

The Most Effective Ways To Pass A Drug Test For Meth

If you’ve got meth in your system, then depending on the type of test, there are ways to get clean fast. So let’s now talk you through the strategies you have and the drug test types that you can use them for.

#1 Synthetic Urine (Best Method)

If facing a urine drug test, then synthetic urine is the best way to pass. Not cheap crap, and not your pal’s urine either. High quality fake urine that closely mimics real human urine and that won’t be detected in a standard drug test.

The best source of fake urine is from Test Negative. They make the two best brands.

Sub Solution is the most affordable at $85. It closely mimics human urine both in the way it looks, smells, and froths. Plus, it contains 14 chemicals found in urine that are looked for in all but the most advanced drug test.

Trade up to Quick Luck for $100 if you want basically Sub Solution premixed, with a little bit more complexity.

Either of these is easy to prepare because of the heat activator powder. You don’t need a heatpad, which can go wrong.

Just before you go into your drug test, tap in about half of the powder and agitate it gently. It will dissolve and be undetectable and will raise the temperature of the liquid. Keep adding in a bit of the powder until it gets within the correct temperature range (between 90°F and 100°F).

If it’s an unsupervised drug test then this is the 100% best way to pass a urine drug test for meth.

#2 Detox + Detox Pills (Genuinely Clean)

The best way to get genuinely clean is to do a natural detox. That way you will pass urine, blood, and saliva drug testing easily. However, that can take weeks if you are a heavy user because of the speed at which toxins can work their way out of the body.

You’ll need to do a natural detox:

Eat clean food
Eat small and frequent meals
Drink plenty of water
Abstain from drugs and alcohol
Exercise and sweat every day

However, you can speed up the removal of toxins from your body by about 50% by using Toxin Rid detox pills. The only pills available which really do the job.

If you’re a really heavy user, then the 7 or 10 day courses are recommended. Moderate users should try the 5 day course, and light users the three-day course.

I wouldn’t recommend the one or two day courses (and even three-day courses) unless you are going to also buy a high-quality detox drink to mask any remaining toxins on the day of your test.

But usually, in 10 days, you can get completely clean from any level of drug use using Toxin Rid alongside a natural detox. Just make sure you have a couple of home drug tests and the detox drink hand on the table test to check you are clean and have a plan B if you still have loose metabolites in your urine.

#3 Detox Drink (Masks The Toxins For A Few Hours)

Detox drinks are a great way of passing a urine drug test. However, you have to understand they only mask the toxins for a few hours.

Here’s what a detox drink actually does:

Flushes out the toxins using the volume of liquid and the power of the ingredients
Floods the body with chemicals found in urine so some pass through in balance
Keeps your urine balanced, looking and smelling normal

But here’s the thing, they only mask the toxins for a few hours before the drug metabolites still in your body start to work their way through into your bladder again.

A good quality detox drink like Rescue Cleanse or Mega Clean will work a treat to mask the meth in your body for up to 5 hours though.

My top tip for making sure they work for that long is to get your hands on some Toxin Rid pills from Test Clear at the same time. The one day course alongside these, will at least maximize your chances.

If it’s a supervised test, or you don’t want to smuggle in urine, then only detox drinks to mask the toxins, or Toxin Rid and a natural detox will work.

#4 Macujo Method (Meth Hair Drug Test)

If it’s a hair drug test then you are in real trouble because drug metabolites stay in your hair for the length the hair is on your head. So this isn’t about learning how to get meth out of your system fast, it’s about learning how to get it out of your hair fast.

The only way to do this is the Macujo method. I can’t go into details here, but you can read about it here.

It basically uses Aloe Toxin Rid shampoo and some household ingredients to open up the hard cuticle layer of each hair shaft and flush out the toxins. But it is a great way of passing a hair drug test for any type of drug.

Where To Buy The Products To Pass A Drug Test For Meth

As I’ve already mentioned, you are looking to buy these from Test Clear and Test Negative. Rescue Cleanse and Mega Clean, along with the pre-rid pills bundled with Mega Clean, come from test clear.

Test Negative sell both Quick Luck and Sub Solution, as well as Rescue Cleanse (probably the best detox drink on the market).

Correcting The Myths & Establishing Facts About Dopamine And Addiction

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Adam

dopamine

Dopamine is very often referred to as a pleasure chemical, which gives as a rush of determination and can induce reckless behavior. Therefore, people assume that it can lead to addiction.

While it’s true that dopamine can lead to reckless or addictive behavior, it doesn’t mean that it’s the strongest link between an individual and addiction to a substance.

There are a lot of myths out there about dopamine and its role in growing addiction in individuals. This article is going to address some of those myths and facts for you.

It’s not a straightforward picture, but what is a fact is that a lot of what you know about dopamine through popular culture is false.

Here’s What Dopamine Is

Dopamine is one of the main hormonal neurotransmitters. It’s created by neurons, and it’s used to affect other neurons in the body.

In technical terms, it’s actually a neuromodulator rather than a neurotransmitter. It works to modulate the sensitivity of other neurotransmitters, rather than being a substitute in its own right.

It’s often known as the “risk and reward” neurotransmitter. It can modulate GABA and glutamate, our main inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters, giving us the emotions we feel in those risk and reward situations.

Dopamine is activated when we do something, or seek and gain something that we perceive to be rewarding to us.

Therefore, it was very useful for hunter-gatherer humans because it was the motivational drive and reward to get the next kill for the tribe. The thrill of the kill and the pride of taking the kill back became what spiked dopamine, driving humans to go all out whenever possible. Alongside the feelings of hunger, it allowed more rapid development of things which allow for the building of communities.

So in human history, dopamine gave us motivation. It makes a seek and it makes us stick at things to get the reward.

It’s one reason why we have been so successful as a species, because we are relentless, motivated, and driven by success.

Can You Be Addicted To Dopamine?

You certainly can be addicted to dopamine rushes. The problem is that in society, especially complex modern societies, there are so many things that the dopamine rush and reward on completion process can be linked to.

The alcoholic can get the dopamine rush when they see a drink or take that first sip.

The gambler can be motivated by the rush of a win or even the sights and sounds of the casino.

Dopamine can spike when you see, smell, or taste certain foods. When linked to other causes of obesity, it can be disastrous.

And that’s exactly the same with drugs. The smell of marijuana, the starting of certain rituals, the thrill of doing the deal.

The problem when it comes to narcotics is that not only does dopamine get linked to these processes of drugtaking, but dopamine is also released when the brain is flooded with too much stimulation from certain substances, it basically triggers it becoming desirable response.

Therefore, every part of drugtaking becomes linked to a spike in dopamine levels. Not only does it make the behavior more desirable and addictive, but you are also then linking the addiction to dopamine.

So although you can’t be literally addicted to dopamine, you can become addicted to requiring higher levels of dopamine spiking to get the same feeling of being rewarded.

That’s why it becomes a constant chase of high doses and seeking those early thrills and responses. The memories and emotions are linked to them, and your desire to feel them, and to accelerate them when you do, creates an emotional situation where you become keener and keener to re-experience those things.

Dopamine Is Highly Motivational

Dopamine is therefore highly motivational, especially when it becomes linked to certain actions, chemicals, and feelings.

The other problem is that dopamine is linked to several key body functions, including movement, memory, pleasure, motivation, cognition, attention, sleep, arousal, mood, and ability to learn.

This means that you can be highly motivated by good levels of dopamine. Because when you take drugs those dopamine levels spike, and you feel alive. All of those things I just mentioned are emphasized.

This helps to create the addiction situation. Because it feels so good, because it’s linked indelibly to the drugs, it is being craved more and more. Alongside the motivation, develops an increasing dependency on the substances that deliver feelings of satisfaction and reward.

Do People With High Levels Of Dopamine Stand More Chance Of Becoming Addicted?

The actual level of dopamine is not really relevant unless you have very low levels which can have implications for many things. However, low levels of dopamine do not seem to lower narcotic addiction to any noticeable degree.

Even if you have low levels of dopamine, because they spike due to the drugtaking, even low levels of motivation, people who are just depressed, unchallenged in life and not motivated at all; all can be driven to still get that buzz.

So although dopamine levels could affect the degree to which you can become addicted, there’s no real evidence because on a personal level it still spikes above normal creating the behaviors.

High levels of dopamine can make you seek out reckless behavior though. Not necessarily addiction, but spikes in dopamine, even from a low level, can accelerate bad behavioral patterns.

Let me give you an example here. The dopamine bean, Mucuna Pruriens. Long known to help spike dopamine levels, it can help you to feel more determined and focused. All the things we’ve talked about dopamine affecting can be elevated. Cognitively, alertness, motivation.

But people using the dopamine bean often report increasingly reckless behavior patterns. If they take it at high doses and ongoing supplements, I have read reports that people increase their frequency and spend on gambling.

I remember reading in a newspaper about a woman who was taking dopamine bean capsules to increase her motivation. It did that wonderfully.

But the problem was that it increased her use of bingo websites. The spiking dopamine started to help her develop higher levels of reward pleasure from using those sites and spending more money.

Another example I read about was a guy who found that after taking high levels of dopamine bean for a couple of weeks that he started frequenting strip joints nearly every day when he had never done that before in his life.

So although it doesn’t directly stimulate addiction to narcotics, it can reinforce the desire for pleasure from that type of experience and create a quest to do it again to experience another dopamine spike. When artificially created through taking in dopamine, this can be even worse.

Is Dopamine Really A Pleasure Chemical?

It’s actually a myth that dopamine is a pleasure chemical. Our pleasure chemicals are actually mostly glutamate and serotonin. These are the main excitatory neurotransmitters that give us feelings of happiness, euphoria, and positivity.

Although dopamine does reinforce your experience of pleasure and can drive you to seek out future experiences that recreate that, it’s not in itself a pleasure chemical.

It’s a misconception that you feel happy, motivated, or satisfied due to dopamine.

Although it is a response, and it creates a situation where it spikes under similar circumstances every time, meaning that repeat chasing at the things which spike the dopamine occur, it doesn’t actually give you pleasurable feelings. That’s down to other hormonal neurotransmitters.

Dopamine & Drug Tolerance

Although there are a lot of misconceptions about dopamine, it does play a significant role in the development of addiction and tolerance.

When you develop tolerance, you have to use more of the substance to get the same level of effects, and dopamine as part of this process and problem.

When you get overstimulation in your reward center, by flooding the brain with that narcotic or another chemical, it becomes overwhelming. The dopamine levels spike, and you get that flood of satisfaction. But the thing is that the more you do it, and at higher levels, the more your body tries to compensate.

For a start, it will decrease dopamine production to try and put a ceiling on that spike. It will also start reducing the dopamine receptor sites.

That’s why it cannot feel as good. Although you get the effect of the actual drug, that extra push from the dopamine spike just isn’t happening any more.

The craving to take the drug still remains though, because that’s what you are being told by your brain and your cravings. You just need to keep taking more of it to get the previous effects of tolerance to the substance, and despite the dopamine to the level, it was initially.

Can We Narrow Someone’s Risk Of Addiction Down To A Single Thing?

The truth is that dopamine does play a role in addiction. It is our reward chemical that rewards certain types of behaviors with feelings of satisfaction and happiness.

But it’s not why we get addicted. There are so many reasons for addiction, many general, while others are very personal.

Genetic factors, social factors, your health history, mental health, state of mind, home life, happiness or unhappiness levels, and problems with the brain and hormonal levels.

It’s really a myriad of things, and one or more of them combined can trigger drug use which then spirals into addiction.

I mentioned obesity earlier. It’s the same thing. Food is the drug, and dopamine spikes to reinforce the positive feeling of eating. Dopamine doesn’t cause the obesity, but it makes the eating of food a positive experience, and emotional comfort.

Using Viagra With Meth: How The Viagra Factor Raises Your Chances Of Trouble

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Adam

meth and viagra

When it comes to talking about meth and Viagra, surprisingly a lot of the information you’ll find online is very old.

Studies from 2004, old newspaper articles from 2006, there’s not a lot of current info out there. But what has been established beyond any doubt is that Viagra and meth do have a link. But it’s not completely linear, and so I want to explain to you exactly what the problem is here.

Let’s talk about the meth first.

Crystal meth, methamphetamine, is highly addictive. But more than that, it also raises libido (sex drive) dramatically. It does this through a chemical interaction in the brain. But it also raises levels of adrenaline, which leads from more physical and aggressive outlook in both sexes, but notably men.

It’s a well-known fact and long established that crystal meth improves sex drive. In fact, that’s how some people get into using it. The problem is that any initial benefit is quickly steamrolled by the addiction which caused a breakdown in physical and mental structure.

When you take it, it makes you feel exhilarated, happy, and blissful. Increased sex drive effect leads to notable encounters and promiscuous behavior.

Methamphetamines have long been used on their own and teamed up to create polydrugs have been used to emphasize sexual performance and satisfaction. On the downside though, crystal meth use can lead to an increasing lack of ability for men to have sex. Just as with alcohol, it destroys the ability to keep an erection.

That’s when a lot of men turned to Viagra, the brand name for a generic chemical called sildenafil. It opens up blood flow to the penis and encourages erections with stimulation (and sometimes even just by thinking sexual).

Together this produces incredible sexual experiences. The higher the meth, the increased aggression, and sex drive, the desire, the feeling, mixed with the ability to get an erection (even though it becomes very tough to actually orgasm).

The use of Viagra and meth went unnoticed for some time. But especially amongst men who have sex with men (MSM), the risk has skyrocketed into a spiraling addiction and the spread of HIV.

Meth + Viagra = Trouble

When you take meth and Viagra the bliss stage doesn’t last very long. The meth addiction will kick in and destroy your ability to physically perform. Lack of food, breakdown in musculoskeletal structure, and cognitive decline, it all starts to take its toll very fast.

In that phase where you can use meth and Viagra, or if you are just managing to keep its use under control over the longer term, you are going to be at risk of secondary infections through sexual contact.

Whether you are hetero or gay, it’s been shown to lead to a dramatic increase in the likelihood of getting serious sexual infections, including HIV.

One study in 2006 that looked at other studies to reach a larger conclusion, found an indisputable link between people using meth and Viagra with higher rates than normal of HIV seroconversion (where the body is producing detectable antibodies in the initial fight against infection).

So it’s not that the two combined create any different chemical reaction, it’s not usual in that way. But what happens is that Viagra allows you to overcome the lack of an erection that meth brings, despite increased sexual desire.

The result is risky behavior with a follow-through, literally. It allows men to have sex with women and men in a risky pattern that they simply couldn’t manage before.

That’s why there’s growing evidence that men taking meth and Viagra have got almost double the chance of getting AIDS.

It is not just about aids. The problem is that a lot of diseases can be transferred, including more recently, things like monkeypox. Because the immune system is suppressed through meth use as well, it can lead to rapid infection.

Plus, there’s also the pressure it puts on the heart. Meth use speeds up the heart and makes it regular, it bursts blood vessels in the brain, and creates all sorts of problems for the cardiovascular system.

Viagra can make some things worse. It makes you feel hot for example, and meth users tend to overheat quickly. That can be problematic alongside not using enough water and being energized sexually.

Compulsive Behavior Overdrive

Meth makes you horny. The problem is that when you are then capable of having sex it leads to overdrive in sexual desire and the compulsive behavior that accompanies meth use.

So overall, you are driving yourself into incredibly risky situations on a regular basis if you are using meth, especially if you are using it to increase sexual feelings.

Also, meth turns sex into a marathon. It retards ejaculation and can extend erection time. A 2016 study confirmed this by suggesting that meth users have sex that sometimes lasts for hours before they collapse or it peaks. Again, that puts massive pressure on an increasingly stressed cardiovascular system, and can also increase the risk of stroke.

Even if an erection is unobtainable through prolonged meth use, Viagra can help overcome this, increasing the ability to have compulsive dangerous sexual behavior well into the addiction when you are even more vulnerable to infection and other related problems of significant drug use.

Chemsex Is Just So Dangerous With Meth

What we are talking about is extreme chemsex. People abuse substances to heighten sexual desire and performance for millennia, but this modern take is incredibly dangerous.

The combination of meth and Viagra allows people to pursue extreme sexual behavior and compulsive desires in a way that they simply couldn’t even two decades ago.

Unfortunately, we still don’t have much evidence on how much this increases your risk. But especially if you’re homosexual, this increase in risk can lead to a significant chance of getting an infection.

But it’s not just about getting something. Because it’s compulsive it’s going to be unprotected, relentless, and frequent.

That means you are going to potentially infect people far more readily than normal. More partners, more risky sex, more extreme situations, mean more chance of infection for you and others.

That’s exactly why HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are far higher in drug using communities, especially crystal meth, and especially amongst homosexuals using it.

Enabling it through taking Viagra makes it even worse. So you are supercharging the chances of becoming fatally unwell. Although not 100% established, there is now a large body of evidence that HIV spiked in the early 2000’s amongst meth users when Viagra became more widely available.

In fact, the link is well known. That’s why some drug dealers (there was a story about a Brazilian drug ring that did this), are selling meth with a side order Viagra if you want it.

So it’s deliberately being sold as a chemsex product by some dealers. That makes it even more dangerous because some of the people who will be tempted are not entering the arena via the more traditional methods of acquisition, use, and addiction.

What starts as an occasional recreational centerpiece quickly becomes established behavior high addictiveness and stimulant quality of meth, mixed with the ability of Viagra to sexually perform in a way you simply couldn’t naturally.

The Faces of Meth: How Meth Use Transforms Your Looks Forever

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Adam

drug addiction

In the beginning, crystal methamphetamine just feels like fun. An incredible feeling that seems to wash away everything negative in your life.

But that initial wedding night quickly turns into a living hell, far more quickly and absolutely than almost any other type of drug in existence.

In a short space of time, crystal meth can exert an extreme physical toll that becomes highly visible. Added to this are the significant emotional/mental deterioration and alteration problems that turn it into a 24/7 personal nightmare.

Some methamphetamines are legitimate and are used completely legally for things like ADHD and narcolepsy. These are scheduled drugs that can be prescribed.

Crystal meth is a different beast entirely. Street meth is typically d-methamphetamine HCI. When it’s crushed, it can be smoked, snorted, injected, or eaten.

Because of its high addiction rating, by the time you realize you are dependent, it’s far too late to stop. You are already in the grips, and your face will almost certainly look like the faces of meth that are routinely shown online.

The physical signs of meth addiction come on rapidly. Typically, beginning within a few weeks, and peaks in a very scarily low number of months.

The Physical Signs Of Meth Addiction

These are some of the physical signs of meth addiction that together give the face and body of meth addiction look:

Thin and frail body frame
Meth mouth (rotting teeth and gums)
Acne and facial sores
Convulsions
Drooping and greasy skin
Increased incidences of disease and illness
Significant increase in body temperature
Often intense desire to scratch which can lead to bloody sores
General gaunt and deathly look (“living dead”)
Increased libido

Increased libido is not something that is discussed often. Think about the TV show Breaking Bad. It was never really mentioned or shown, other than Jesse occasionally going with an addicted prostitute.

The increased libido is due to methamphetamine stimulating higher levels of sexual arousal, increased adrenaline, and a desire for risk.

Usually, this will mean unprotected sex with other risky people. Worse than that, the open wounds and general lack of health can lead to increased levels of sexual infection, including HIV (even higher if meth is injected).

So even the increased libido, if sexually transmitted diseases and other illnesses are caught, can lead to an even more rapid onset of physical meth symptoms.

Transition From Short-Term Effects To Long-Term Damage From Meth Use

The transition from the short-term effects of crystal meth addiction to the long-term damage that can be permanent can happen quickly.

This creeps up on people because initially they have a huge sense of well-being, higher energy levels, and experiences are generally good.

Apart from taking meth, it means more risk-taking, pushing the body, with less good quality food and fuel going in. On top of this, is the severity of the comedown, the crash, from crystal meth. The significant and rapid onset of the need for more. This becomes overwhelming.

The weight loss which helps to drive that face of meth look, that gaunt and haggard look, also comes on fast.

Within a few weeks, the hunger feelings are so suppressed that some users almost stop eating entirely. It leads to rapid weight loss, that then turns into significant muscle wastage as well. Alongside this will be extreme and increasing insomnia. Disturbed sleep, mixed with hyperactivity, makes the gaunt look even more exhausted.

Alongside these physical signs, there will then be a rapid onset of really bad and nasty mental effects as well.

These can include significant confusion, hallucinations, paranoia and extreme anxiety, delusions of grandeur, a sense of invincibility, nausea and sickness, aggressiveness, constant irritation, and convulsions.

meth addict

Long-Term Meth Use Is Devastating

Once meth use has become addictive and chronic it very quickly leads to devastating long-term consequences that are irreversible.

These are some of the long-term problems users can develop, and can keep even if they kick the habit:

Increased heart rate
Long-term anxiety and paranoia
Damaged blood vessels in the brain (increased stroke risk)
Irregular heartbeat
Lung damage
Liver damage
Kidney damage
Brain damage & notable cognitive deterioration
Mood swings
Permanent life memory gaps
Respiratory problems
Lifelong infectious diseases and lowered immune system
Psychosis
More chance of developing degenerative brain conditions

So if you’re sitting there thinking that this stuff sounds like the bong, then I really hope you’ll step back for a minute and consider the reality. Sure, in the short term you will feel great. Higher levels of energy, a better sense of well-being, a false sense of security, and higher sex drive; it just seems wonderful.

I’m telling you, that will change in literally weeks with daily use. And it will be daily use, even twice per day if you’re addiction rating is high. Within months you will get the meth look. You will not be able to hide it any longer.

Money will run dry, and life responsibilities like children and housing will vanish from your thoughts.

I have literally known someone who had two children and a beautiful house. They were very middle-class and had a good jobs as a department heads at a private school

When their marriage broke up, they got depressed and tried stuff. One of those things was crystal meth. That was what really grabbed hold. Not cocaine, not heroin, but the crystal.

Within months their demeanor and behavior completely change. They lost their job, then the house, and then custody of the children. With savings still hidden, they managed to rent somewhere. But very quickly, they had to deal to keep getting the hit and paying the rent. It became a drug den, and due to her high level of addiction, she then became a cuckoo for some really shady people.

Long story short, she went on the run because the cops were after her for being a significant source of meth dealing in our city.

On the run for a year, by the time they caught her she was unrecognizable. I remember seeing her picture in the paper and knowing the name, but the gaunt meth face looking back at me was like someone else entirely.

Now in prison for five years, having to go through the hell of cold turkey rehab, having lost her kids forever and her entire life, it’s one hell of a story. Sadly though, a story that is repeated a thousand times a day around the world now.

Wherever you are, the extreme physical stress that meth abuse puts on the body, followed by mental health problems and cognitive loss that lasts a lifetime, means that once it’s got its grip, it never really let’s go even if you manage to get clean months, or even years, down the line.

Slowly Fermenting Problem

Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 2022 by Adam

A “slowly fermenting problem”, Detective Sergeant Andy Waite of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said in response to a report, released on 10 July, that states that a cheap and sustained supply of cocaine and crack cocaine has left the UK relatively untouched. “We are not seeing a great deal in terms of manufacture, and there are certainly no signs of an epidemic,” he said, although he singles out the gay scene, groups of Eastern European immigrants and women looking to suppress their appetite as growth areas that merit concern.

Pre-emptive efforts by LIFE OR METH in conjunction with the Met Police led to reclassification of crystal from Class A to Class B by the Home Office on 18 January. As a Class A drug, meth possession now carries a maximum seven year prison sentence for possession and life imprisonment for dealing. Scotland Yard’s Working Group on Meth’s successful petitioning for the new law now enables it to vigorously pursue meth suppliers, dealers and manufacturers.

“The serious and well-documented dangers associated with production and use of this drug in all its forms will now be substantially easier to combat,” said Simon Bray of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). “It will also be possible to close down, for long periods, premises used as illicit meth laboratories. We had a false start when cocaine started arriving and took our foot off the accelerator. That was a mistake. If meth was to take off here in the way it did in Minnesota or Georgia we might not have much time. They thought it was not a problem, and now look.”

The push for reclassification followed the publication of an internal police report that showed that crystal meth was now present, to some extent, in almost every town and city in England and Wales. The ASPO study found that the drug is being produced, sold or used in every area of the UK, and that increasing levels of meth is turning up in other drugs – notably heroin and cocaine – meaning some people are taking it without knowing.

District Judge Justin Philips, the lead judge in a West London drug court, says: “Crystal meth is becoming more of a problem. It’s moving out of the clubs on to the streets. It’s probably the most addictive drug that is available.” Because each person who comes to court on a drug order is now tested with or without their knowledge, Judge Philips has noticed an emerging trend. “A lot of them don’t know they are taking [crystal] – cocaine is cut with it, skunk is being cut with it, which may be in an attempt to hook people, as it is so addictive.”

The police reported in 2006 that a Filipino crime network was preparing to exploit lucrative inroads already made into the commercial gay scene by targeting the UK mainstream with mass supplies of meth from America and south-east Asia. Police intelligence reports had also identified meth labs operating in the UK, including five in London as well as the Hampshire, Coventry, Nottinghamshire, Teesside, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire. Scotland Yard’s Working Group on Meth has been surveilling the distribution of meth within London’s gay community, and a year ago arrested the then most prominent supplier to the scene.

In December, three men were found guilty of conspiracy to produce up to £1.3million of meth in a barn on the Isle of Wight, leading to the first UK conviction for manufacturing meth. Only days earlier, armed police carried out a dawn raid on a semi-

detached house in Hayes, West London, seizing enough chemicals to produce 15,000 grams – the first time that industrial amounts of meth ingredients had been incovered in the UK.

More recently, what is believed to be the biggest meth laborartory in Britain to date was uncovered in the tranquil setting of Stoney Middleton in Derbyshire’s Peak District, and North Wales police cordoned off two areas in Mold and, wearing chemical suits and breathing apparatus, and raided and searched several homes, seizing chemicals and laboratory equipment used to make methamphetamine.

In another pre-emptive strike, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency held a meeting in June to debate the restriction of medicines containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine via a change to their legal status from pharmacy to prescription only, together with a reduction in pack size. Similar restrictions in the US have seen a dramatic decline in the number of meth labs seized by police. Drug manufactirers lobbied heavily against the proposal, but in August government medical advisors announced a compromise whereby large packs of decongestants would be replaced by 12 or 24 tablets containing a total of 720 mg of the drugs limited to one pack per customer; enough for three days’ treatment.

In late 2005, London’s Most Dangerous Drug? report on ITV demonstrated how easy it is to buy meth on London’s streets, while a drugs survey in Mixmag found that 28% of UK clubbers knew where to buy the drug.

At the same time The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs reported to the Home Office that “there does not appear to be a firm foundation and rationale for reclassifying methylamphetamine”, a response that ignored police recommendations and was seen as a virtual green light for meth’s spread from the gay community into mainstream Britain. The Home Office’s intransigence was compounded by a frustrating lack of knowledge about crystal from the government’s own resources like the National Drugs Helpline and drugs website Talk To Frank, which for years have been unresponsive to efforts alerting them of a potential crisis. In February 2006, a spokesman for drugs charity Drugscope told Sky News that it sided with the decision to keep meth Class B while “hoping and praying” it would not become the next mainstream drug, then suddenly changed tack a year later when Drugscope issued a statement “welcoming” The Advisory Council’s change of heart.

Meth’s infiltration into the gay scene continues, despite a UK HIV prevention conference warning

in 2005 that an immediate response was needed to avoid major addiction problems later on.

Perry Halkitis, an eminent psychologist at New York University, told the eighth CHAPS conference in Bristol in March 2005 that meth’s addictiveness can make occasional use rapidly escalate to regular use, as occurred in New York in the late 1990s. He pointed out that as recently as 1998, crystal was mainly a west coast phenomenon in the US with only around 7% of New York MSM (men who have sex with men) using. However, by 1999 the number of users had leapt by 50% – to around the same number of MSM in London who admitted to using meth in a recent University of London Survey of gymgoers. The difference between the two cities, Halkitis added, was that New Yorkers were using meth every weekend instead of once or twice a year as the survey respondents claimed – a trend that could eventually be replicated here.

“The discussion on crystal in the UK feels a lot like it did in New York in 1998,” Halkitis told the conference. “The time to start taking effective public health measures to make sure it doesn’t take over the UK scene is now.” Harm-reduction messages like limiting use and planning safer sex before using worked for some MSM, he noted, but meth was so psychologically addictive that among those most vulnerable to addiction the only effective measure was mental-health work targeted at underlying issues like depression.

“If we want to avoid a renewed crisis, we have to do something that is very difficult for gay people: we have to restigmatise bareback sex and make crystal meth socially unacceptable on the gay scene. The alternaive is another mass culling of the gay poplation.”

~ Johann Hari [Attitude Magazine]

CHRIS, a 24-year-old who takes the odd ecstasy pill on a night out, was totally clueless about meth when invited to “party” by some guys he met in a South London club in November 2004. Returning with them to a nearby flat, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. “Before the music was even turned on, the crystal came out,” Chris told LIFE OR METH a week later. “I’d never heard of “Tina”, but everybody else was taking it so I took some too.”

Chris had never been passive during sex, yet for the next 12 hours each of the eight guys proceeded to penetrate him without condoms. “They were talking as if it was the norm,” says Chris. “Maybe it is at these parties, but did I care at that moment in time? No way. All I cared about was getting as many dicks inside me as possible. We all became animals. Two days later, it dawned on me the extent of what had occurred. I spent a day in a sexual health clinic and have to take 14 tablets a day for a month [PEP] before I can take an HIV test. I would never have unsafe sex – that night I had unsafe passive sex with at least three guys that I know were HIV+. Just one bump of Tina is all it takes, and you want more and more.”

The British Crown Prosecution Service is now prosecuting individuals who recklessly or intentionally transmit HIV, charging them with “biological GBH”.

Chris’s story is a disturbing insight into the infiltration of meth into the London scene. Clubbers have reported being offered hits of “k” or “coke” by predators, then find they are unable to sleep for days on end. “I was wired, depressed and near suicidal up to a week,” says Dan. “This is how they are creating their market, by dispensing free hits and making us dependent on them once we are hooked. It’s evil.” Meth is also available in London’s saunas where it is freely offered, not least by dealers keen to hook potential new clients who, once addicted, will keep coming back for more.

Despite the lessons of North America, most of London’s club scene has failed to respond to the rise of crystal, and could even be fueling its use with a surge in after hours events and around-the-clock clubbing. Promoters and club listings mags have instead channelled their efforts and resources into stamping out the messier effects of GHB, which one zero-tolerance campaign describes as “the drug that destroyed New York nightlife”, prompting some to turn to meth for an alternative kick while others bear the brunt of meth-

fueled anti-social behaviour. “There is no question that the London club scene is losing its edge and funky freshness,” adds Dan. “The vibe, particularly in the Vauxhall clubs, is becoming hard and uninviting, psychotic even, and more and more people are staying at home.”

Last October and November there were two deaths and 15 known collapses related to GHB/GBL in the Vauxhall/Southwark area. That this drug poses a threat to the London scene is not in doubt, but do the devastating effects of meth – which aren’t immediately messy but are progressively debilitating, chronically affecting the abuser psychologically and physiologically for days on end – make it a drug that club promoters and sauna operators can afford to turn a blind eye to? Says DTMP promoter Lee Freeman: “Blue Cube does not welcome anyone using crystal. “Furthermore, we will bar anyone found with it on their person for life. Using crystal is vile and stupid, and definitely isn’t a good look. Don’t let ignorance kill our customers and the best club scene in the world.”

By the end of 2007, the london gay scene had become the latest gay mecca to implode, as the damage wrought by the effects of those using crystal meth and GHB/GBL continued, resulting in dwindling crowds and notable club closures, the once seemingly invincible DTPM among them…

Over the past year there have been half a dozen deaths of gay men in London where meth is known to have been involved, including the suicide of a Hot House Video porn actor who died in July after overdosing from injecting meth.

Tellingly, it was the mainstream television news that prominently covered his death, which went completely unmentioned – along with all other meth-related deaths – in a shameless gay press that nevertheless provides unfettered coverage of GHB casualties and fatalities. But then, it is GHB that poses a more immediate threat to the club scene and, in turn, their advertising income…

“In any Vauxhall club these days you can be sure that upwards of 20% of people are using meth, hence the change in atmosphere and declining numbers. Crystal destroys everything it touches, and we are seeing its impact unfold like a train crash in slow motion.”

~ PC [Disco Damaged]

“Why do I have this nagging feeling the gay scene is losing touch with what’s really important – compassion for the safety of your fellow man…”

~ Clint Walters [Founder, Health Initiatives]