the Crystal Meth Curse

According to ESPN.com and articles everywhere the past few days, Andre Agassi has admitted to having used crystal meth. He describes it in his new autobiography. He was caught by drug testing he underwent in 1997 as a tennis pro. What he says is that he lied to ATP tour officials, telling them he accidentally drank from a can of soda belonging to his assistant, “Slim.” Agassi described his first use of meth:

“I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed,” Agassi writes.

“There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy.”

“I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds.”

(ESPN.com, Agassi says he used crystal meth in ’97, October 28, 2009, http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4600027)

I found this post on a blog, and asked the author if I could republish it here.  We’ll have a former meth addict discuss these images in future posts.

Life or Meth

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the Crystal Meth Curse

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Faces of Meth

Identify a Meth User

Meth Death Stories

Dangers to Children Living in Meth Homes/Labs

the Crystal Meth Curse

the Crystal Meth Curse

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What meth user hasn’t daydreamed about having the ability to make his own crystal meth?

AMC is in its second season of Breaking Bad, a drama about a high school chemistry teacher who finds out he has lung cancer and winds up manufacturing crystal meth so he can make a lot of money to leave behind for his family after he’s gone.

The character, Walter, ends up reacquainted with a former student, Jesse, who’s a loser with sort of a good heart. Everything he touches though, pretty much turns to crap.   Jesse is a drug user, so he knows just a little about the distribution system.

What you see when you watch Breaking Bad, is how frightening all sides of the drug game are. You’re in danger whether, you’re using crystal meth, selling it or making it.  Pretty much anything in between.

I don’t know how true the various scenarious played out in the show really are, but it’s enough to scare you away from it if you’ve even been considering trying it.  I recommend that you start with season 1, which can be downloaded on iTunes.

Meth put me in some dangerous situations. Think about the kind of people who manufacture and sell the stuff. Crystal meth is made and sold by criminals.  Sometimes they’re serious violent offenders. When you start using a drug like this, you have to seek these people out to get it when you need it.  I’ve been in some pretty scary places, standing across from some pretty scary people. It’s not like the TV show, Weeds, in which upper middle class people are bringing the drugs to you. You have to put yourself at risk.  Using meth brings with it more than a few potential problems.

1. You might be arrested
2. You might be seriously injured
3. You might be killed
4. You might develop serious health problems or DIE from using meth

A lot of the people who are making and selling meth are involved with gangs.  A lot of gang violence is the result of disputes over the huge fortunes being made by selling drugs. If you put yourself in their neighborhoods, you put yourself at risk.

We haven’t even touched on the health problems that can arise from the use of crystal meth.  That will be addressed in future posts.

If you’ve used meth, tell us what have been some of your scariest encounters. Violence? Robbery?

I had my first dose of crystal meth without even knowing it. At the time, it was most commonly referred to as crank or just speed. I didn’t realize that I was feeling all “speedy” because someone had put some meth in my coffee thermos. At that time, I was straight-laced and law abiding. I was your worst nightmare if you were a drug user.  I would pick up the phone and call the police if you used in front of me.  Yeah.  I wasn’t very popular at parties.

It was a few years after that that I consciously started to use it on my own. I succumbed to peer pressure. My girlfriend and my brother, who was a pretty serious substance abuser at a young age (and has not been able to quit as I did), were badgering me to try cocaine.  I kept refusing, over and over.  I don’t know why it happened, but I gave in and tried it.  Even though it felt extremely uncomfortable to inhale that stuff through a straw, I did it.  I remember that most of it fell onto the floor.

After that experience, it was still probably about another year before I used crank. Having crossed over the line before, it didn’t seem like such a bad thing.  I wasn’t going to snort it though.  I mixed it into a drink and used it that way. I’ll try to describe the experience in more detail in another post.

Through this blog you’ll learn about the experiences of others, too.

Ed