Methamphetamines’ current low cost and powerful effects are a dangerous combination, Dr. Sheri Fandrey of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) told attendees at a public information session in Thompson May 3.
“Right now the drug that is coming into Manitoba is very, very high purity,” said Fandrey, the AFM’s knowledge exchange lead. “The ice form that’s coming into Manitoba is often more than 90 per cent pure. Even when it’s been cut it’s still a really powerful drug.”
About 80 per cent of methamphetamines being used in the province right now are produced by Mexican cartels and make their way north into Canada via the United States, Fandrey said, with the remaining 20 per cent coming east from British Columbia.
“It’s a lot harder to control the supply when it’s flooding into the market,” she said.
And while literature that says the drug – a cousin of amphetamines and MDMA/Ecstasy – can be instantly addictive, Fandrey says that isn’t necessarily the case, though its powerful impact on dopamine, a chemical in human brains that triggers feelings or pleasure and reward, makes the high it delivers attractive.
“The first time is so persuasive that you try it a second time,” Fandrey said. “You’re not addicted the first time but boy, are you attracted to the second, third and fourth times.”
Methamphetamines are a stimulant, a class of drugs that also includes caffeine and nicotine and one that makes people feel energized, alert and functional.
“We like that feeling,” she said.
On the bright side, however, meth is not yet widespread among the general population, but it is more prevalent among street-involved people, including those who are homeless or involved in the sex trade, and also among youth in Child and Family Services care.
“For somebody who feels powerless and disconnected, this drug offers a lot,” Fandrey says.
As a point of comparison, eating a cheeseburger when you are hungry can boost a person’s baseline dopamine level by 50 per cent, while having sex increases about 100 per cent. Smoking a cigarette increases a smoker’s dopamine level about 150 per cent, while drugs like morphine and cocaine boost it by 250 and 300 per cent, respectively. The bump that comes from doing meth, especially if is smoked or injected, the latter being the most common delivery method these days, is a whopping 1,100 per cent.
“It’s so far outside the bounds of what we can really understand,” she said.
The dangerous effects of methamphetamines are proportional to the high it delivers, which will never be as good as it was the first time, and high-intensity and binge users may take the drugs for days, a week, or sometimes even two, before crashing and sleeping for days afterwards.
It is one of the four drugs that actually kill brain cells – a group that also includes inhalants and solvents as well as alcohol – though the damage meth does is not as severe as what alcohol can do to long-term alcoholics. Methamphetamines kick start the body’s metabolism, to the point of causing overheating as your body cooks itself from the inside. Heavy users may scratch their skin off because the drug can make them hallucinate insects crawling under their skin.
“People will claw down to the bone trying to find the bugs,” Fandrey says.
The combination of reduced blood flow, dry mouth, teeth-grinding and cravings for sugary food that meth addicts experience is very harmful to oral health, a condition often called “meth mouth.” Because users are often dehydrated, methamphetamines also have a noticeable effect on their skin that can make them look much older than they are.
“It’s really devastating just how meth ages you,” Fandrey said.
The AFM estimates that the number of users among the general population of Manitoba is no more than three per cent, but that more than half of street-involved people may use it because it is so cheap and helps to keep them alert to potentially dangerous situations. The drug is used to draw young men and women into the sex trade and a high proportion of meth users suffered some sort of trauma prior to their addiction, with Fandrey saying that 80 per cent of female users have experienced past or ongoing trauma.
The number of adults treated by AFM who have used meth within the year prior to seeking treatment for any type of addiction tripled from about 400 in 2011 to more than 1,500 in 2017, while the number of the organization’s youth clients who have used meth in the previous year has nearly doubled from about nine per cent a few years ago to 17 per cent last year. It is also contributing to deaths of Manitobans at a higher rate now than in the past, in part because it is sometimes mixed with fentanyl, which can be especially deadly for people who haven’t used opioids before.
Though methamphetamine use is a serious problem, Fandrey says there is hope for addicts once they get through withdrawal, though many hit a wall around three months because the lack of dopamine stimulation makes life seem colourless and dull. Withdrawal can’t kill a recovering addict, but the suicidal thoughts accompanying it can and anti-depressants may not work for meth-related depression, through physical exercise and cognitive behavioural therapy can help.
“A large part of the work for [drug addiction] counsellors is holding hope for people who are hopeless,” Fandrey says.
