Effects of Meth

What are the immediate effects of meth?

The drug alters mood in different ways, depending on how it is taken. Immediately after smoking or intravenous injection, the user experiences an intense "rush" or "flash" that lasts only a few minutes and is described as extremely pleasurable. Smoking or injecting 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 15 to 20 minutes.

What are the general overall effects of meth?

In all forms, the drug stimulates the central nervous system, with effects lasting anywhere from 4 to 24 hours. Methamphetamine use can not only modify behavior in an acute state, but after taking it for a long time, the drug literally changes the brain in fundamental and long-lasting ways. It kills by causing heart failure (myocardial infarction), brain damage, and stroke and it induces extreme, acute psychiatric and psychological symptoms that may lead to suicide or murder.

What are the effects of meth on those who use the drug occasionally?

Harder to spot is the occasional user who takes meth for parties or raves. This group can hide the effects of meth along with those of alcohol withdrawal and claim a hangover. In fact, using methamphetamine this way is particularly dangerous, because users can drink large amounts of alcohol without passing out. The result is someone who is completely drunk but still awake enough to do damage to themselves or others. Sometimes, this can lead to a fatal alcohol poisoning as an user continues to drink.

What are the effects of meth addiction?

Over time, meth addicts gradually lose their ability to feel pleasure in normal activities. Only more of the drug will help the condition, called anhedonia. Users will cycle through periods of ever deepening depression and an unwillingness to participate in their own lives. Job loss and ruined relationships are the common result.

Explosive violence and aggression may also emerge as the addict’s personality begins to change in response to chronic use of the drug. Irritability is common, as well as an inability to deal with the normal setbacks in life. They come to realize they are addicted, and this, combined with the depression that comes with meth addiction, can drive them to seek out more opportunities to use. The vicious cycle continues as the only good feelings the addict ever gets are from meth. Extended binges start to occur and these are followed by long and difficult recovery periods.

What are the short term effects of meth?

Central Nervous System Side Effects of Meth: Even small amounts of methamphetamine can produce euphoria, increased alertness, paranoia, decreased appetite and increased physical activity. Other central nervous system effects include athetosis (writhing jerky, or flailing movements), irritability, extreme nervousness, insomnia, confusion, tremors, anxiety, aggression, incessant talking, hyperthermia, and convulsions. Hyperthermia (extreme rise in body temperature as high as 108 degrees) and convulsions sometimes can result in death.
Cardiovascular Side Effects of Meth: Use can produce chest pain and hypertension which can result in cardiovascular collapse and death. In addition, methamphetamine causes accelerated heartbeat, elevated blood pressure and can cause irreversible damage to blood vessels in the brain.
Other Physical Effects of Meth: Pupil dilation, respiratory disorders, dizziness, tooth grinding, impaired speech, dry or itchy skin, loss of appetite, acne, sores, numbness, and sweating.
Psychological Effects of Meth: Symptoms of prolonged meth abuse can resemble those of schizophrenia and are characterized by anger, panic, paranoia, auditory and visual hallucinations, repetitive behavior patterns, and formication (delusions of parasites or insects on the skin). Methamphetamine-induced paranoia can result in homicidal or suicidal thoughts.

What are the long term effects of meth?

Fatal kidney and lung disorders, brain damage, liver damage, blood clots, chronic depression, hallucinations, violent and aggressive behavior, malnutrition, disturbed personality development, deficient immune system, and methamphetamine psychosis (a mental disorder that may be paranoid psychosis or may mimic schizophrenia).

What are the effects of meth during pregnancy?

Babies can be born methamphetamine addicted and suffer birth defects, low birth weight, tremors, excessive crying, attention deficit disorder, and behavior disorders. There is also an increased risk of child abuse (including "shaken baby syndrome") and neglect of children born to parents who use methamphetamine.

What are the effects of meth overdose?

A toxic reaction (or overdose) can occur at relatively low levels, 50 milligrams of pure drug for a non-tolerant user. Metabolic rates vary from person to person, and the strength of the illegal form of the drug varies from batch to batch, so there is no way of stating a "safe" level of use. In overdose, high fever, convulsions and cardiovascular collapse may precede death. Because stimulants affect the body's cardiovascular and temperature-regulating systems, physical exertion increases the hazards of meth use.

Meth Facts

Meth use and risky behavior: Users of crystal meth will exhibit very at risk behavior, including sexual binges that include unsafe sex with multiple anonymous partners. In addition, users often exchange sex for the drug, further exposing them to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.

Steps are being taken to slow the crystal meth problem. Some states are limiting the purchase of over the counter pseudophed, one of the components of crystal meth. Prevention messages are being targeted to at risk populations and law enforcement are cracking down on the labs.

Methamphetamine, also known as “meth,” “speed,” “crank,” or “ice,” is a powerful and highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Meth is a synthetic drug produced or sold as pills, capsules or powder that can be smoked, snorted, injected or swallowed. Meth is accessible in many different forms and varies in color from white to brown. Most meth comes in a powder form resembling granulated crystals or in the rock form known as “ice.”

Meth is a neurotoxin, meaning it damages the nervous system. Meth use can cause dependence and addiction psychosis, stroke, dangerously high body temperature, and cardiac arrhythmia. Withdrawal often results in severe depression and paranoia.

Methamphetamine gives its users a boost of energy and causes them to feel more alert. It also acts as an appetite suppressant.

Smoking or injecting meth will cause an intense rush almost immediately, while snorting the drug results in about a 5 minute delay. Those who take Meth orally won’t notice its’ effects for about 20 minutes. Meth causes a release of high levels of dopamine into the section of the brain that controls the feeling of pleasure.

Negative side effects of meth include convulsions, dangerously high body temperature, stroke, cardiac arrhythmia, stomach cramps and shaking. Chronic use of meth can result in a tolerance for the drug. Long term users often try to intensify the desired effects by taking higher doses, taking it more frequently or changing their method of ingestion.

Some abusers will refrain from eating or sleeping for days while they binge, or “run”, on meth. During these episodes, an user may inject as much as a gram of meth every 2-3 hours for several days until they run out of the drug or are too dazed to function.


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