Drug Treatment & Alcohol Rehab

The Crystal Meth Plague - Overcoming the Lethal Drug

Has it affected your health?

Well, mentally it ruined me. I'm fine now, but my ability to think has been messed with, but I can still function. I'm not stupid in the head or anything like that. Physically, it took me a long time to gain weight again. It took a long time for me to actually be healthy. It took a long time for me to even like food again, because food would even taste like crap. So I pretty much did it for my health.

Meth eats you away from the inside out. So, some days I would think that I was coughing out pieces of my lung. Not nice…

Could you describe this situation? Crystal meth is like battery acid. It's made with household products. I could go to Canadian Tire or something like that, and I could go and get the ingredients to make enough crystal meth to choke a horse. I used to cough up chunks of my lung, and I would poke it, wondering if my lungs were okay. I was probably more worried about whether or not I could smoke any more crystal meth.

How did that happen?

Just imagine looking in the mirror, you're all high, looking at yourself with wide eyes, and thinking that you're on top of the world. You're a junkie, but when you're just sitting there; cough real hard, and the next thing you know you spit out a chunk. You just look at it, and you're like what the f***? You just touch it, and think what am I doing to myself, will I be able to do anymore drugs? I was more worried about smoking meth and my lungs giving up on me, than the stuff I spit out.

Did you feel changes within your body?

I always had a temper, but it was like I had a phenomenal amount of anger and frustration while on crystal meth. If someone did something, I was like calm down, making them feel like sh**. When you get so much lack of sleep, your judgement is impaired.

How ill can you become when on crystal meth?

One of my friends ended up in the psychiatric ward. The psychiatric ward wouldn't take me, because I had enough sanity left to try and put myself there on my own. They had found my friend walking down the street, without any shoes on and in boxers. On a regular basis, there was paranoia: thinking that everybody is out to get you or wish to steal your drugs.

You can't hold in crystal meth, because it will crystallize in your body. Eventually, you start getting pieces of crystal meth coming out in random areas on your body. They're painful, but obviously not painful enough to stop doing it.

Did you feel any concrete pain on meth?

You feel like you're superman. You don't care. I could end up in a fight with 10 guys, but I didn't care. It's not gonna hurt. Nothing hurts. If people think that they don't get hurt when they're fighting on alcohol, wait until you try crystal meth. It's kind of like a mosquito bouncing off of you, you're crazy and you just keep on going. Your mind is in overdrive. You could probably get shot "x" amount of times and just keep on going like you got metal insides. It gives you a false sense and tricks your brain.

The crystal was actually coming out of your body? Can you explain?

It came out of my chest, just from smoking too much or holding it in too long. You just get little bumps, and they're really painful. When you squeeze them, you'll actually have what looks like a shard of glass coming out of you, but it's crystal meth.

Did you feel any concrete pain on meth?

You feel like you're superman. You don't care. I could end up in a fight with 10 guys, but I didn't care. It's not gonna hurt. Nothing hurts. If people think that they don't get hurt when they're fighting on alcohol, wait until you try crystal meth. It's kind of like a mosquito bouncing off of you, you're crazy and you just keep on going. Your mind is in overdrive. You could probably get shot "x" amount of times and just keep on going like you got metal insides. It gives you a false sense and tricks your brain.

1.5 How Crystal Meth Can Be Appealing

Has the use of drugs affected your life?

It's kind of self-explanatory. It ruined my whole life completely. I went from knowing who I was to not knowing who I was anymore. Not caring about anybody, hating everybody, not caring about my mom, not caring about the people around me, whether they lived or died, I didn't give a sh**. I hated everybody and everything. As long as I had my next high, that was the only thing that made me happy.

How badly damaged were the relationships with your family?

My dad used to cry a lot, even though we weren't very close. Every time I'd see him he'd ask me, "Why are you doing this to yourself?" I used to see him when I was high in my grandparent's home. I became quite an outcast in my family.

Your friends?

The ones that were doing other drugs stayed away from me, because that wasn't their thing. The ones that had gotten into it [crystal meth] ended up going to jail, getting hurt, stealing or hiding, and other types of things.

Continue to next page

1 | 2 | 3