AMPHETAMINES - SPEED
Stimulants are called speed because they accelerate bodily processes. Stimulants don't create energy, but release chemicals that produce it. AIDS risk increases.
Amphetamine symptoms include chattiness, irritability, paranoia, palpitations, chest pain. Stimulant abuse causes cardiac arrhythmia, convulsions, stroke. Doctors discovered amphetamines in 1887, ignored them for 40 years, then used them for obesity and depression. Truckers use them to stay awake. In the 1960s over half the amphetamines market was illegal. In the 1970s amphetamines were recognized as dangerous and addictive. Government set limits on amphetamines production. Most amphetamines sold on the street are prescriptions. Some are made in makeshift street labs, often contaminated and cut with drain cleaner. A pound of amphetamines costs $1,000 to make and sells for $250,000.
Amphetamines' dangers are well known. Few people use them today. Amphetamines' pure form is yellow crystals. Amphetamines' latest versions are smokeable crystals ice and crank. Amphetamines work immediately, lasting longer than crack. Amphetamines as hallucinoges last 2 days. Long term damage from speed - Ritalin's main ingredient - is life-threatening. Speed kills brain cells and causes the brain to bleed. Amphetamines are sold over the counter as diet and decongestant drugs. These are weaker amphetamines versions but still dangerous drugs if taken in large doses.
Cocaine and ecstasy cause addiction, raise cancer risk and also provoke genetic mutations. These drugs, on top of their toxicological effects, attack DNA provoking mutations and altering hereditary material, affecting future generations. Use of ecstasy increased 70% 1995 - 2000. Ecstasy and amphetamines overtake cocaine and heroin as the fastest growing global narcotics menace. There's a direct relationship between ecstasy and cocaine use and effects on DNA. The longer these drugs are used, the greater the damage to DNA.
Crank is made with whatever's available, even gasoline additives. Chemicals used in crank may explode. Crank speeds up your nervous system and damages your liver, lungs, and kidneys.