Nazi Meth is the SCOURGE of our country

[alittlelark]

WHY has the scourge of Meth not been discussed by any politician that I know of ?!?

It is a DIRE problem - anyone in a rural area or small town will tell you... it is somewhat ubiquitous and hidden in urban areas, but still Very Present.

I am surrounded by them - most under the age of 35 out here either are using or used to. I have been robbed over 10 times and had my windows shot out (cops got the bullets).

IT IS INSANE.

WHY is no one talking about this???

It was the Nazi 'drug of choice'......

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/crystal-meth-origins-link-back-to-nazi-germany-and-world-war-ii-a-901755.html

http://science.howstuffworks.com/meth2.htm

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/10/uncovered-records-show-nazis-were-high-on-meth.html

[inanna]

1. Meth is a scourge in my

mid-sized Canadian city.

And getting worse.

The blight, the soaring crime rates and rising rents (the addicts are trashing the rental units) can all be connected to crystal methamphetamine here.

I wasn't aware this problem started under the nazi's though.

[alittlelark]

7. I found out it was a Nazi drug about 5 months ago...

...about the time theft became rampant out here and I started researching it.

[angrychair]

2. Yet another thing

That Hitler and Trump have in common: meth

[canetoad]

3. Interesting history of meth/amphetamine

From the University of Arizona: http://methoide.fcm.arizona.edu/infocenter/index.cfm?stid=164

Origin and History

Amphetamine was first synthesized by a Romanian chemist named Lazar Edeleanu (a.k.a. Edeleano) at the University of Berlin in 1887, but was not used clinically until Gordon A. Alles re-synthesized the drug in the 1920s for use in medical settings to treat asthma, hayfever, and colds.[1-5] In 1932, Smith, Kline, and French Laboratories marketed the first amphetamine product, an amphetamine-based inhaler (trade name, Benzedrine) to treat nasal congestion.[6] During the remaining 1930s, amphetamines were promoted by U.S. pharmaceutical companies as treatments for ailments such as rhinitis and asthma.[1-7]

Methamphetamine (MA), a variant of amphetamine, was first synthesized in Japan in 1893 by Nagayoshi Nagai from the precursor chemical ephedrine.[8-10] MA was not widely used until World War II (1940s), at which time German, English, American, and Japanese governments began giving their military personnel the drug to enhance endurance and alertness and ward off fatigue.[2,6,9,10] (Note: Even today, amphetamines are sometimes used by the U.S. military. In 2002, U.S. pilots in Afghanistan killed and wounded Canadian soldiers in “friendly fire.” The defending lawyers argued that the pilots’ use of amphetamines, which is sanctioned by the Air Force, may have affected the pilots’ judgment.[6]

In addition to military usage, Japanese factory workers were known to use MA to work longer hours. Post World War II, former Japanese military warehouses had an abundant amount of the drug in storage and as a result, large quantities of over-the-counter methamphetamine pills were produced for domestic consumption by Japanese pharmaceutical companies. It was in Japan that the first MA epidemic occurred.[1]

In the U.S. a prescription was needed to access amphetamines, thus slowing the onset of an epidemic. Nevertheless, by the 1950s, the prevalence of amphetamine use was on the rise among civilians, including groups such as college students, truck drivers, athletes, housewives, and individuals performing monotonous jobs.[1,11] By 1959, the FDA banned amphetamine-based inhalers due to increases in their abuse.[12] However, at the same time, amphetamine and its various forms were promoted as therapeutic agents for health problems such as hyperactivity, obesity, narcolepsy, and depression. In the 1960s, administering amphetamines, including MA, by intravenous injection gained popularity, especially among individuals already using illicit drugs. It was this group that may have first used amphetamines solely for their euphoric effects.[1]

[hedda_foil]

4. That's the best explanation I've seen for how German soldiers were able to ....

How German soldiers were able to line whole towns of people up kneeling before pits they had been first forced to dig. And shoot every man, woman, child, infant so they fell into the pit. That was what was going on in the east continuously for years before the first death camps opened.

So how could young recruits do such a thing over and over and over again without most going completely, suicidally insane? Meth maybe?

[SQUEE]

6. Suicide and alcoholism was rampant among Eastern units.

Even while they were "winning".
Leading to specialized units taking on the burden of the atrocities.

[hunter]

5. Frankly, it makes people feel "good" within certain kinds of social structures.

Especially those where "productivity" in shitty jobs is expected and rewarded, and in communities that are oppressive and, let's be honest, fucking boring.

It's a rare person who won't escalate their use of amphetamines in such circumstances.

Many of the problems of methamphetamines can be attributed to the illegality and gross impurity of illicit sources. As with all addictions, non-judgmental clinical assistance is the only reliable solution, even if that requires indefinite supervised use of prescription medicines or alcohol.

Paul Erdős, one of the great mathematicians of history, used amphetamines. But he had pure legal and quasi-legal sources and he never escalated his use. He tried not using amphetamines occasionally and felt that hurt his ability to do the math. I'd speculate he's one of the rarer people who could use amphetamines as an anti-depressant. Brain chemistry is a complicated subject.

Personally, I'm not fond of any drugs, legal or illegal, except maybe beer, and I can take that or leave it. I usually leave it when I feel I'm gaining fat and losing muscle. The first time I got drunk was in my twenties, while most alcoholics start drinking heavily in their teens. But I do have a dangerous family history.

I joke here on DU sometimes that when I want to get high, all I have to do is quit my meds, which are currently anti-psychotics and an anti-depressant. My own depression is not the stay-in-bed sort, it's the "I think I'll go swim with the sharks" sort. There's a strong OCD component to it. I used to run obsessively too, so much that my knees and hips curse me all day and night.

Back to your original post, I think the "War on Drugs" has killed and maimed too many people. It ought to be easy for anyone with an addiction to get help, without fear of entanglement with our sometimes barbaric legal system. We also need to start thinking about what's wrong with our communities and society that so many people suffer addiction.

If people were dying left-and-right of cholera, we'd want to know where it was coming from, we'd want to know the fundamental reason people are getting sick. Is our sewage treatment inadequate? What?

Addictions are just another illness, but maybe we don't want to know where that's coming from, maybe we don't want to know what's fundamentally wrong with our society. Or maybe deep down we do know, but we don't want to face it.

[panader0]

8. Meth? That's the clean stuff. How about Crank?

As a construction worker I have been exposed to every kind of drug user.
I have seen cranksters destroy their lives, their marriages, hurt their kids
and end up in prison. Crank labs abound in the trailers in the boonies.
The people who know me know that I do not abide the use or possession
around me. As a musician--if you're wired, you're fired.
The chemicals used to make that shit are poison.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. For one thing, it's popular especially where there isnt access to weed.

Two, i think there's a real socio-economic aspect to the whole meth phenomenon. Think of all the people working 2,3 jobs. Maybe they have a day job at Wal-Mart and take a night shift at the Gas Station, to make ends meet.

How does a normal human function on that sort of schedule? Pretty difficult. So something like meth seems to be a great "solution", at least for a little while before the walls start conspiring against you and bugs start crawling out of your ears.

[alittlelark]

10. The meth heads in my valley don't work

none of them (that I know of) have jobs. They live with their parents and steal for a living.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. Im not saying its some kind of great lifestyle. Its horrible shit.

But I do think there is an element out there of people doing it to maintain a multiple low-wage job existence.

I also dont think it works for very long, before shit falls apart and teeth start coming out, etc.

[alittlelark]

12. Out here the teeth are horrid....

...as are the souls of the users.

[inanna]

13. I think many around here began using meth while employed

until the addiction became so bad it rendered them "unemployable."

I've seen many "functional" alcoholics in my time, but very few functional meth addicts.

That's just my own perspective, of course.