What is Crystal Meth?
What is crystal meth?
Crystal meth is one street form of the drug, methamphetamine hydrochloride, which comes in clear, chunky crystals, which are then inhaled or smoked. It is also called “ice,” “crystal,” “glass” and “tina.”
Crystal meth can be easy to produce in small, clandestine labs, sometimes in a kitchen or bathroom, by mixing a cocktail of about 15 substances, mostly pseudoephedrine (a cold remedy), red phosphorous and iodine, but also including ammonia, paint thinner, ether, Drano and the lithium from batteries. Police say an investment of about $150 can yield up to $10,000 worth of the drug. But the resulting drug is often impure and the manufacturing process can be dangerous and cause fires.
Crystal meth has become the most widespread and popular form of the drug, largely because it is so easy to make that anyone can set up a lab (instructions are widespread on the World Wide Web), but also because motorcycle gangs, which are becoming dominant in organized drug trafficking, usually sell the drug.
What is crank?
“Crank” is a smelly, yellow form of “meth” that is usually snorted. Crank is usually the cheapest form of the drug. www.lakeviewhealth.com
What is lith?
“Lith” is short for the lithium taken from batteries in the manufacturing process. Lith comes in a paste form that is usually smoked. It is more expensive than crank but cheaper than the crystal form.
Who uses crystal meth?
According to mental health workers, police and research scientists, the people who use crystal meth include:
- Large numbers of rural and small town poor across North America.
- Some young people in the rave and dance scene.
- Some young people who want to lose weight.
- Gay males involved in the dance scene or who frequent bathhouses.
Addiction experts say crystal meth first became popular in poor areas of rural North America for a number of reasons. It was a cheap high and, in initial stages of use, it actually gave the energy that allowed the user to keep working. It was also considered “cool” by young people who did not have big-city connections to other street drugs.
A recent Statistics Canada survey of teenagers showed that among those who answered questions about drug use: www.steppingstonecenter.org
- 34 per cent had tried marijuana.
- 4 per cent had used ecstasy.
- 3 per cent had used crack cocaine.
- 2 per cent had used crystal meth.
- 1 per cent had used heroin.
What is a tweaker?
A “tweaker” is a term for a crystal meth user that came out of the U.S. rural Midwest and has become increasingly common as the media and the entertainment industry picked up the term.
Is there a connection between crystal meth and ecstasy?
Police say that in some areas, crystal meth is replacing ecstasy as the drug used by teenagers and young adults in the rave and dance scene.
In many areas, crystal meth is cheaper, at $10 for a “point” or about one-tenth of a gram. An ecstasy hit, or tablet, can cost twice as much, about $20.
The RCMP say that some of the drugs seized at parties or dances that were sold as ecstasy were, in fact, crystal meth. As well, the police say that some dealers give out “free samples” at parties or in the dance scene, in hopes of hooking new customers.
On the other hand, police and addiction treatment counsellors say that some “street-wise” kids are on to that and try to avoid crystal meth either directly or disguised as ecstasy.
