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Methamphetamine is a potent central nervous system stimulant which affects mechanisms responsible for regulating heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, appetite, attention, and mood. The acute effects of the drug closely resemble the physiological and psychological effects of epinephrine. Users experience an increase in focus, increased mental alertness, and the elimination of fatigue, as well as a decrease in appetite.
Methamphetamine enters the brain and triggers a cascading release of nor epinephrine, dopamine and serotonin. Since it stimulates the mesolimbic reward pathway, causing euphoria and excitement, it is prone to abuse. Users may become obsessed or perform repetitive tasks such as cleaning, hand-washing, or assembling and disassembling objects. Withdrawal is characterized by excessive sleeping, eating and depression-like symptoms, often accompanied by anxiety and drug-craving. Users of methamphetamine often take one or more benzodiazepines as a means of "coming down".
Methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine in Japan in 1893 by chemist Nagayoshi Nagai. In 1919, crystallized methamphetamine was synthesized by Akira Ogata via reduction of ephedrine using red phosphorus and iodine. The related compound amphetamine was first synthesized in Germany in 1887. One of the earliest uses of methamphetamine occurred during World War II when the German military dispensed it under the trade name Pervitin. It was widely distributed across rank and division, from elite forces to tank crews and aircraft personnel. From 1942 until his death in 1945, Adolf Hitler was given daily intravenous injections of methamphetamine by his personal physician, Theodor Morell.
Most methods of illicit production involve hydrogenation of the hydroxyl group on the ephedrine or pseudoephedrine molecule. The most common method for small-scale methamphetamine labs in the United States is primarily called the "Red, White, and Blue Process", which involves red phosphorus, pseudoephedrine or ephedrine (white), and blue iodine, from which hydroiodic acid is formed. This is a fairly dangerous process for amateur chemists, because phosphine gas, a side-product from in situ hydrologic acid production, is extremely toxic to inhale. Until the early 1990s, methamphetamine for the US market was made mostly in labs run by drug traffickers in Mexico and California. Since then, authorities have discovered increasing numbers of small-scale methamphetamine labs all over the United States, mostly in rural, suburban, or low-income areas.
Methamphetamine is distributed by prison gangs, motorcycle gangs, street gangs, traditional organized crime operations, and impromptu small networks. In the U.S. illicit methamphetamine comes in a variety of forms, at an average price of $150 per gram for pure substance.
Information retrieved form http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine.
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