METHAMPHETAMINES

WHAT WE KNOW

Methamphetamines have short- and long-term effects on your brain.

• In the short term, methamphetamines cause mind and mood changes, such as anxiety, euphoria, and depression.
• In the long term, methamphetamines can cause chronic fatigue, paranoid or delusional thinking, and permanent psychological damage.
• Methamphetamines can cause a severe “crash” after the effects wear off.
• Methamphetamines affect your self-control, causing aggression and violent or psychotic behavior.
• Methamphetamines can cause irreversible damage to blood vessels in the brain.

Methamphetamines can affect your body.

• Methamphetamines create a false sense of energy and push the body faster and farther than it’s meant to go, increasing the heart rate, blood pressure, and risk of stroke.
• Methamphetamines can cause heart failure, stroke, or cardiac arrest when overused or used by people with a drug sensitivity.
• Methamphetamines can damage your liver, kidneys, and lungs.
• Methamphetamines can cause sweating, headaches, blurred vision, dry mouth, hot flashes, and dizziness.

Methamphetamines are as dangerous as crack, cocaine, and heroin. Some users get hooked the first time they snort, smoke, or inject meth. Because methamphetamines can be made from lethal ingredients (battery acid, drain cleaner, lantern fuel, and antifreeze), there is a greater chance of heart attack, stroke, or serious brain damage with using this drug than with using other drugs.

 

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