Kapiolani
Community College Diamond Journal 2003Fall
Kapiolani
Community College
Diamond Journal 2003Fall
The National Drug Intelligence Center said in its assessment that
methamphetamine, particularly high purity crystal methamphetamine also known
as “ice,” poses the greatest drug threat to Hawaii. Doug Althauser, chemical
coordinator at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii says that “ice is to methamphetamine
what crack was to cocaine” (qtd. in Tighe 10). Smoking is the preferred
method for using the drug, although some have been known to either shoot or snort
it. This drug has many different names like battue, clear, ice, crystal, and speed;
to name a few. Crystal adversely affects every part of a user’s life -
physically, mentally, and spiritually, for the worst. I believe the more knowledge
people
have of this terrible drug and the consequences of using it, the less likely
they
would be ever to try it.
I grew up in Hawaii and remember the days before ice hit the streets. There were
a lot of people that smoked pot, and a few that did harder drugs like cocaine,
LSD and heroin. People in those days were a lot mellower. This is not to say
that
we did not have problems like any other state. Still, life seemed to be pretty
good in the islands. But this would all change when the slow, laid back Hawaiian
lifestyle was introduced to the fast paced destructive world of ice. Many people
that at one time may have only smoked weed or grown it and sold it are now hooked
on ice.
Lori Tighe of the Honolulu Star Bulletin says in her article, “Hawaii’s
Habit,” “When isle pot smokers were introduced to ice, they latched
onto a drug that would sear the nervous system, the heart and the brain, possibly
irreparably” (8). She is right. I don’t think most people that try
ice really know what they are in for, and by the time they realize what they have
gotten into, it is too late or they’re in deep trouble. Today a person
can
find a gram of ice more easily than a gram of marijuana.
Ice can become a physical addiction after only one try. In Tighe’s Star
Bulletin story she interviews a user, Rhonda, who said, “It’s addictive.
It hooks you the first try” (5). The physical harm caused to the user is
immense. An Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC) report says, “Crystal
methamphetamine, when taken with other drugs including alcohol, greatly increases
the risk of overdose and death” (1). The poisonous chemicals used in making
the drug, such as acetone, denatured alcohol, and red phosphorus are used to cook
down the meth into the crystal form of the drug. Dr. Pablo Stewart, chief of psychiatry
at the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco says, “The vapors enter
the lungs, explode into the bloodstream and shoot to the brain in six seconds.”
When smoking ice, one’s brain suffers terrible damage as the drug literally
burns holes into the brain leaving it looking like a bombed out and torched landscape.
The drug is also very bad for the heart Stewart says, “Ice disrupts the
body’s ability to sleep and then forces the body to run on energy it doesn’t
have” (10). The human heart can only take so much. The relentless pace
set by the drug and the lack of sleep pushes the heart to very dangerous limits
and
even heart failure.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that, “other effects of methamphetamine
include respiratory problems, irregular heartbeat, and extreme anorexia”
(1). The fact that users don’t have an appetite when they smoke ice appeals
to some users at first when they seem to be losing those pounds they could never
take off. Althauser says, “Usage leads to premature aging of the body and
skin, and malnutrition from not eating” (10). Then one day they look into
the mirror and see a person that is starving to death with a bad heart, bad lungs,
and a damaged brain that won’t go to sleep. Mason Henderson of the Sand
Island Treatment Center says, “Many ice users’ teeth fall out at a
younger age. Some users also experience asthma symptoms—difficulty breathing,
sore throats and wheezing” (10).
One thing I have seen on users of methamphetamine is a rash of sores that break
out all over the user’s skin. Users often pick at their skin, causing sores
that get infected, scarring the face forever. Ice users chance serious problems
such as heart failure, stroke, and permanent brain damage every time they use
ice. Even years after a user quits they still experience heart problems and have
a lot of trouble breathing for the rest of their lives.
Ice puts more people on the streets and in jail than any other drug I know. I
have seen so many good men and women turned into something less than human. The
effects on a user’s mental state are like night and day. Henderson also
says, “It’s the worst drug, because of its psychotic and violent effects” (9).
I have friends that smoke ice and now seem to live in a world of paranoia and
say they see things that are not really there. Once in a while I see a person
I grew up with on the streets screaming and violently throwing punches at something
that does not really exist. This is the sad scene acted out over and over by
users
of ice that have become schizophrenic. Some never do recover. Even after quitting
the drug, they later still suffer from serious mental illness. In a Star Bulletin
article Stewart said, “Speed-induced psychosis lasts days, months, and years” (qtd.
in Tighe 11).
Ice has a way of making everything seem possible. The user’s mind is tricked
into believing the chemical-induced visions of grandeur that one feels while using
the drug. This happens when the mind is flooded with a natural chemical in the
brain called dopamine. Karl Taro Greenfeld of Time says, “Researchers now
report that as much as 50% of the dopamine-producing cells in the brain can be
damaged after prolonged exposure to relative low levels of methamphetamine”
(32). Low levels of dopamine cause the user to feel just the opposite of the drug’s
chemical lie. Instead users can fall into very dangerous depression with the
only
escape being that which made the user depressed in the first place.
After a while the user becomes violent at times. Dr. Stewart says, “Ice
is the No.1 drug among 90 percent of parents who abuse or neglect their children”
(Tighe 11). I know some people that were mellow and generally good-hearted until
they started using ice. Now they always seem to be in trouble with the law. A
few of them have been put in jail for beating their wives. Dr. Stewart says, “Ice
affects a part the brain responsible for impulse control, which causes violence”
(10). People that use ice are very unpredictable. They seem to be living in a
“Jekyll and Hyde” state of mind.
Crystal methamphetamine is so addicting that most users will sell everything
they own to get another hit of ice. But this goes even further; the grip of addiction
is so strong that people will resort to a life of crime. A user’s desire
to stay high leads them headlong into theft, prostitution, and they themselves
becoming ice dealers. Every person I know that has gotten into ice has eventually
turned to some kind of criminal activity. The Hawaii Drug Threat assessment says,
“Honolulu had the highest percentage of adult male arrestees who tested
positive for methamphetamine among cities reporting to the arrestee drug abuse
monitoring program in 2000” (1).
When police raid ice dealers’ houses, they usually find everything from
movie passes, DVD’s, to guns and motorcycles. Ice users will take anything
that is not bolted down to the dealers, even if it only gets them one hit. Nothing
is sacred to an ice addict. It so sad to see people be so desperately in need
of more ice that a wife will sell her wedding ring or trade her whole china set
for a few hits of ice. A father that has rent to pay and a wife and children
to
feed will not think twice about spending his whole check on ice after taking
a
hit.
Ice affects a person to the core of the innermost self. At first, ice preys on
feelings that a lot of us have in everyday life. Where once a person had low
self-esteem
or insecurities such as being too shy or just not being able to keep up the pace
of everyday life, now ice users feel they could do all these things. Ice plays
on every weakness a person may have, and I don’t know a person that does
not have some sort of weakness. It’s all part of being human. When a person
takes a hit of ice for the first time, everything seems so clear. The problems
of the world seem almost to be solved in the short time it takes to blow out
that
first hit.
The trap of ice is filled with hope, happiness, and the promise that the answer
to life is just one hit away. This is the sad lie that people sell their souls
for. Crystal methamphetamine will rob a user of everything that is good in life:
family, friends, and their happiness. Ice has a way of turning people into something
less than human and robbing them of all that is good. A young man I know who
now
lives on the streets told me that all he needs is a hit and it’s all good.
But I have seen that good has nothing to do with it. In fact with ice it’s
all bad. And in the end it will rob the users of their love, happiness, and dignity.
I feel that the best way to help people stay away from ice is by educating the
public. Especially in the schools, younger students could benefit from information
on the harms that the use of ice would cause them and everyone around them. People
need to know that ice will never make anything better, only worse. The only thing
that a person will succeed in by doing crystal methamphetamine is the sad destruction
of his or her own life.
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