Also known as: Billy Whiz, Crystal, Glass, Ice, Sulphate, Uppers, Speed

What does it look like? Amphetamines are man-made drugs and are usually a white-ish powder with a bitter taste. They can be sniffed, taken as a tablet or injected when in liquid form.

What does the law say? Class B, moving up to Class A if they are prepared for injection.

How much does it cost? £10 to £15 for a gram. Half a gram normally contains only five per cent amphetamine. Drug dealers often mix it with other white powders (anything from talcum powder and toilet cleaner to rat poison and dog worming tablets) to increase the amount they have and so make more money.

What are the ups? Amphetamines are very powerful – they literally speed up your whole body. They make you feel confident and energetic. You can’t stop talking and can go for a long time without food or sleep.

What are the downs? While on a high, your heart beats faster and your blood pressure rises which can be dangerous. Afterwards, you feel restless, confused and depressed. You have mood swings, violent tempers and suffer from skin problems.

What’s the damage? If you are a regular user of amphetamines, you become mentally dependent on them. They can cause deep feelings of fear and even mental illness. And because they lower your body’s natural defences and users often don’t eat enough, amphetamines also lower your resistance to disease. Constant high blood pressure can lead to heart failure.
 

The amphetamines are potent psychomotor stimulants. Their use causes a release of the excitatory neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) from storage vesicles in the CNS. Amphetamines may be sniffed, swallowed, snorted or injected. They induce exhilarating feelings of power, strength, energy, self-assertion, focus and enhanced motivation. The need to sleep or eat is diminished. The release of dopamine typically induces a sense of aroused euphoria which may last several hours: unlike cocaine, amphetamine is not readily broken down by the body. Feelings are intensified. The user may feel he can take on the world.
It doesn't last. There follows an intense mental depression and fatigue. Amphetamine depletes the neuronal stores of dopamine in the mesolimbic pleasure centres of the brain.
More than any other illegal drug, speed is associated with violence and anti-social behaviour. Occasional light and infrequent use is probably relatively harmless; but heavy chronic use can lead to stereotypies of behaviour, depressive disorders, "meth bugs" akin to cocaine-induced formication, strain on the cardiovascular system, increasing behavioural disintegration, and outright "amphetamine psychosis".

Amphetamine is structurally related to ephedrine, a natural stimulant found in plants of the genus Ephedra. It is also structurally related to adrenaline, the body's "fight or flight" hormone. Amphetamine was first synthesised by Edeleano in Germany in 1887, but it only entered clinical medicine in the late 1920s. The US medical and pharmaceutical establishment was worried that supplies of ephedra in faraway China would be exhausted. Amphetamine promised a cheap and synthetic substitute. Like ephedrine, amphetamine dilates the bronchial small sacs of the lungs, a great blessing for suffers from breathing disorders. So in 1932, Smith, Kline and French introduced the famous Benzedrine Inhaler.
Amphetamine sulphate was aggressively marketed for asthmatics, hay-fever sufferers and anyone with a cold. Amphetamine was soon available in pill form too. "Pep pills" were sold over the counter for all manner of ailments. Doctors prescribed amphetamine for depression, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, travel-sickness, night-blindness, hyperactive disorders of children, obesity, narcolepsy, impotence, and apathy in old age.

Soldiers on both sides in World War Two consumed millions of amphetamine tablets. This practice sometimes caused states of quasi-psychotic aggression in the combatants.
From 1942, Hitler received daily methamphetamine injections from his quack doctor Morell. This corrupted his judgement, undermined his health and probably changed the course of the War.

'Ice' is recrystalised methamphetamine hydrochloride, a potent stimulant. Ice will dissolve in water and break down to smaller particles. It generally takes the form of clear crystallised chunks. Ice induces a profound sense of euphoria in the user by blocking the reuptake, and stimulating the release, of dopamine and noradrenaline in the central nervous system. It is a "power drug" whose use is typically followed by prolonged depression and fatigue. In contrast to base cocaine, smoking meth will extend its effects for up to 24 hrs per ingestion. Smoked in a base form, meth is unappetisingly known on the street as SNOT. It can only be smoked. SNOT gets its name on account of its resemblance to the natural product of the same name. It is very addictive.

The effects of using methamphetamine may include:

· extreme elation
· wakefulness
· alertness
· enhanced self-confidence
· aggression
· talkativeness
· loss of appetite
· increased initiative
· increased physical activity

Withdrawal symptoms may include:
 
· severe craving
· deep depression
· fatigue
· inertia
· paranoia
· psychosis

Smokable methamphetamine is similar to smokable cocaine, i.e., crack. They may both briefly be delightful, but persistent and heavy use pays a price. Moderation and care are the key to using this drug.

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