POPULARITY OF METHAMPHETAMINE SPREADS

The Drug Remains A Near Non-Issue On The Tufts Campus

Cheap, potent, and highly addictive, methamphetamine production and usage
are on the rise nationally according to government statistics, but this is
not the case at Tufts.

Methamphetamine can be made from legal ingredients including lithium
batteries, ammonia, and over-the-counter cold medicines. As a result of the
ease with which the drug is made, so called "meth labs" are popping up all
over the country. Use of the drug has originated in small rural areas and
then migrated towards urban regions. Therefore, contrary to old ideas of
who drug usage affected, users of methamphetamine tend to be white, rural,
and middle class.

Methamphetamine, also called "meth," "speed," "crystal," and "crank,"
started out as something quite different from what it has become. It first
appeared in medical literature around 1887 as a cure for narcolepsy, a
severe sleep disorder, and later, as a potential bronchial aid in pill
form. Since people began smoking the drug after a new form was created in
the 1980s, government officials say that methamphetamine has become the
fastest growing drug threat in America in a Dec. 8 New York Times article.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), "the drug alters
moods in different ways depending on how it is taken. If smoked or
injected, the user experiences an intense 'rush' or 'flash' that lasts only
a few minutes... [and] produces effects fastest, within five to ten seconds.

Snorting or ingesting orally produces euphoria -- a high, but not an
intense rush. Snorting produces effects within three to five minutes, and
ingesting orally produces effects within fifteen to twenty minutes."

The spreading trend of meth use and production became apparent when meth
labs were found last November in Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
TX. A custodian found the meth lab in a practice room in the university's
arts center while the students were on vacation. "Labs are popping up on
campuses all over the country," Police Captain Tommy Jones said in a recent
Rolling Stone article on meth proliferation.

The popularity of methamphetamine with the youth population is creating an
increasingly small chance of rehabilitation. According to Rolling Stone,
even if meth users acknowledge the danger of their actions, only about six
percent of them are able to stay sober -- by far, that is the lowest
recovery percentage for any drug.

"The hell starts when [meth addicts] try to get sober and find that meth
has stripped out their higher functioning, much of which won't come back,"
Dr. Alex Stalcup, who runs a treatment center in California, told Rolling
Stone. After over four decades witnessing drugs' effects on their users,
Stalcup maintains that meth is the most dangerous drug he has ever seen.

Although the "meth craze" is a very real phenomenon, Tufts thus far has
remained largely unaffected. This is in keeping with the general geographic
trend regarding meth usage: "If you look at a map, [meth use is] like a
tidal wave moving east from California and the Northwest states," Chief of
Media Relations for the Drug Enforcement Agency Will Glasby told Rolling
Stone. "Last year, we took down 7,000 labs, many in the middle of the
country. Some were in areas that had never seen crime before, let alone
drug gangs and shootouts. We're hopeful that it won't reach the Eastern
cities."

Boston, as one of those "Eastern cities," is nonetheless vulnerable to the
spreading meth trend, as are college students in particular. However, Tufts
students say that use of meth is rare on campus.

"I know a good deal of heavy drug users on campus, and I'm pretty well
connected to most of the suppliers," said an anonymous Tufts student. "Pot
and cocaine are the biggest on campus, and sometimes you can find hash or
opium, but methamphetamines are really hard to get. I only know about three
or four people on campus who regularly use meth, and they get it off campus
typically."

This student also contends that students may stay away from the drug for
more than health reasons, but for fiduciary ones. Although methamphetamine
is a lot stronger and lasts much longer than cocaine, it is much harder to
get and, as a result, extremely expensive, he said. While a gram of cocaine
can be sold for about $50 per gram, methamphetamine goes for at least $200
per gram, according to the student.