Where the substance comes from
These are synthetic products made from precursors diverted from the chemical or pharmaceutical industry — hence the tight control of some cold remedies in several countries. European speed is a heavily cut paste or powder, often below 20 % purity. Methamphetamine, far stronger and longer lasting, circulates as crystal and is advancing in Europe after dominating North America and East Asia.
A little history
Amphetamine was synthesised in 1887 in Berlin by the Romanian chemist Lazăr Edeleanu, with no use in mind; methamphetamine in 1893 in Japan by Nagai Nagayoshi, from ephedrine, and obtained in crystalline form in 1919. It was not until 1932 that an American company, Smith, Kline & French, marketed amphetamine as a nasal decongestant, Benzedrine, whose stimulant effect was soon noticed.
The Second World War made it a mass product: the Wehrmacht handed out tens of millions of Pervitin (methamphetamine) tablets to its soldiers, the Allies Benzedrine, Japan Philopon — and Japan experienced, from 1945, the first epidemic of stimulant dependence. In the 1950s and 1960s amphetamines were prescribed for fatigue, depression and weight loss, then strictly controlled by the 1971 UN convention.
They came back in other forms: clandestinely made methamphetamine, which ravaged rural America in the 1990s and 2000s and then South-East Asia, where it is now produced by the hundred tonnes; captagon (fenethylline, synthesised in 1961), which became the drug of the Middle East; and, on prescription, the treatments for attention deficit disorder, whose misuse by students is the modern face of the story.
The forms it takes
- Paste or powder, snorted, swallowed in paper, sometimes injected.
- Crystal (ice), smoked in a pipe or injected: immediate onset, ten to twelve hours of effect.
- Tablets of prescription stimulants used outside their indication, notably around exams.
What the user is looking for
Prolonged wakefulness, hunger and sleep gone, a sense of mental speed, confidence, physical endurance. In sexual settings (chemsex), methamphetamine is sought for longer sex and lowered inhibition. The effect lasts far longer than cocaine, which shifts the problem: the dose is not what is dangerous, the sleepless night that follows is, and the ones after it.
Immediate unwanted effects
- Tachycardia, hypertension, hyperthermia, dehydration.
- Aggression, agitation, severe anxiety.
- After thirty-six to seventy-two hours without sleep, an induced psychosis appears almost invariably: persecutory ideas, visual and tactile hallucinations, a conviction of being followed or of having insects under the skin. It resolves with sleep but can persist.
- In chemsex, lowered inhibition and longer sex markedly raise the risk of transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the more so as condoms are often abandoned.
Medium and long-term risks
Marked psychological dependence, deep depression on stopping, lasting insomnia. The dental damage of methamphetamine is characteristic — dry mouth, bruxism, sugary snacking and abandoned hygiene destroy teeth quickly. Add weight loss, skin lesions from picking, cardiac problems and a lasting risk of psychotic relapse. Injecting carries the infection risks of any injection.
How to spot use
Whole nights without sleep followed by recovery days, rapid weight loss, picking sores on face and arms, clenched jaw, fast and suspicious speech, glass pipes, straws, extreme jumpiness. Urine detection: two to four days, longer for methamphetamine.
Why the effect is stronger in adolescents
At the same dose in a lighter body, the concentration reached is higher in an adolescent than in an adult. More importantly, the reward circuit matures well before the prefrontal cortex that is supposed to restrain it: the pull to repeat is stronger and the brake weaker, which markedly shortens the gap between first use and problem use. Use established before eighteen multiplies the risk of adult dependence whatever the substance — including legal ones such as the caffeine in energy drinks, alcohol or nicotine.
When to call an ambulance without hesitating
Loss of consciousness, seizures, severe confusion, slow or irregular breathing, blue lips, chest pain, very high temperature, uncontrollable agitation, suicidal thoughts. In those situations call the emergency services and say what was taken: treatment depends on it.
