METH MORE DANGEROUS THAN EXPECTED, STUDY SAYS

Using methamphetamine not only messes up the part of the brain that
makes you feel good, but it may also devastate the part that helps
you think and remember, a new study has found.

"We've now shown in our labs that methamphetamine is much more toxic
than previously thought," said Dr. Jean Lud Cadet, clinical director
of the Intramural Research Program for the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, in the agency's most recent newsletter.

But even as the federally financed agency was delivering the bad news
about meth's impact on the brain, it also announced it was chasing "a
number of promising approaches" to blocking, or even reversing, some
of the brain damage caused by the drug, including the use of vitamin
E and drugs that currently treat Parkinson's disease.

Meth, a highly addictive synthetic drug also known as "speed,"
"crank" or "crystal," is considered by most law enforcement groups to
be, after alcohol and marijuana, the most pervasive drug in the
Central Valley, and unquestionably the most dangerous.

Former U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey last year called it "the worst
drug that has ever hit America." Earlier this month, Gov. Gray Davis
included $50 million in his proposed state budget for meth-fighting
programs.

Use of the drug, which is relatively simple to manufacture from
easily obtainable chemicals, can result in medical problems that
range from tooth loss and severe paranoia to heart and kidney damage.

Previous studies have found that meth can also burn out receptors in
the brain that control the release of dopamine, a chemical related to
the feeling of pleasure. The result is chronic and deep depression,
which meth users often treat by using more meth.

The studies also found that when meth use is stopped, the damaged
receptors can eventually recover. But new NIDA studies conducted with
mice found that meth caused otherwise healthy brain cells to go into
apoptosis, a natural process the body uses to get rid of unhealthy
cells by in effect having them commit suicide.

The destroyed cells were in the hippocampus and frontal cortex areas
of the brains, which house memory, cognitive functions and decision
making.

"Although these findings are in mice," Cadet said, "if
methamphetamine kills nerve cells in the same brain regions of humans
who abuse the drug, the functional consequences could be significant."

The NIDA study supports research at UCLA that discovered long-term
brain damage in chronic meth users similar to that found in stroke
patients or people with Alzheimer's disease.

It also has spurred an effort by NIDA to study ways to combat
meth-caused brain damage through studies at five as-yet undesignated
sites around the country. Researchers for the agency, which finances
or oversees most of the country's research on the health aspects of
drugs, are looking for ways to block or reverse the brain damage,
first by developing medications to treat meth addiction. By reducing
reliance on the drug, researchers believe they can retard further
neurological damage.

But scientists are also looking at substances that may actually
restore brain functions damaged by meth use.

One of them is selegiline, which has been used to treat Parkinson's
disease and is used in treating cocaine addiction.

Other possibilities include Hydergine, which has had some success in
improving alertness and short-term memory in stroke and Alzheimer's
victims, and vitamin E, which has been used to fight Parkinson's
disease symptoms.

The Bee published an investigative series of stories last year on the
meth epidemic. To view this special report, please go to
http://www.valleymeth.com/