The History of Methamphetamine

Methamphetamines are synthetic amphetamines or stimulants that are produced and sold illegally in pill form, capsules, powder, and chunks. Two such methamphetamines are known on the street as "Crank" and "Ice." "Ice" refers to a clear, crystallized, purer product, both forms of methamphetamine are smokable product that produce a more intense reaction than either cocaine or speed.

Amphetamines were first synthesized in the late nineteenth century by a German scientist; the synthesis of methamphetamine is attributed to a Japanese chemist in 1919. Historically, methamphetamine has had therapeutic uses. It also has been widely abused for its powerful stimulant effects. Amphetamine derivatives, such as methamphetamine, were developed in both oral and intravenous form. They were promoted as non-addictive. In 1937, amphetamine became available by prescription in tablet form. It was used in the treatment of hyperactive children, Parkinson's disease, depression, and narcolepsy. When narcolepsy patients reported loss of appetite, it was discovered that amphetamines also worked as an anorectic.

Japan was the first country to experience a methamphetamine epidemic. During World War II, large amounts of methamphetamine were produced for use by war-industry factory workers to aid output. Following the war, methamphetamine tablets, of which large quantities remained in store, were vigorously promoted by pharmaceutical companies and large quantities were sold to the Japanese public without prescription. Epidemic intravenous use of the drug soon followed.

Although a prescription was required in the U.S., during the 1950s large quantities of amphetamines were sold by drug companies to bogus companies in care of post office boxes. "Bennies" or pep pills, as they were known, were used for non-medical purposes by college students, athletes, truckers, and housewives, as well as thousands of veterans returning from the war with amphetamine habits.

Use of methamphetamine expanded across the U.S. in this decade as production of the drug increased significantly. Amphetamines were being marketed to treat obesity, narcolepsy, hyperkinesis, and depression, but were being taken primarily to increase energy, decrease the need for sleep, and elevate mood. In the 1960s, doctors in San Francisco began prescribing amphetamine injections for treatment of heroin addiction. Widespread abuse followed as San Francisco pharmacies began selling injectable amphetamines without prescriptions, or with crudely forged prescriptions, or through bogus telephone orders from users posing as doctors. "Script-writers" appeared: physicians who, for the cost of an office visit, would write prescriptions for the drugs.

In 1962, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies cracked down; eventually, amphetamine and methamphetamine were controlled under the Drug Abuse Control Act of 1965. Subsequent control in Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1970 placed restrictions, among other things, on the amounts of these drugs produced. Drug companies took their liquid, injectable products off the market, although they remained available to hospitals. In response to this market vacuum, illegal crystal-methamphetamine labs began to appear in the Bay Area (1).

Intravenous methamphetamine abuse in the U.S. became prominent in the late 1960s particularly in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where speed, as all amphetamines came to be known, began replacing drugs such as LSD and mescaline in popularity. Public education, massive reduction of federally approved production quotas, and treatment of abusers brought this epidemic under control, although motorcycle gangs, in particular, remained involved in the clandestine production of methamphetamine. During the rise in cocaine and crack abuse in the early 1980s, bikers and "dopers" in rural areas, where cocaine was less plentiful and too expensive, continued to favor "crystal meth" or "crank," which was typically snorted or injected. They produced the drug in crude laboratories via a simple process. Among the general U.S. population, the methamphetamine problem increased steadily. Unlike the earlier epidemic, abusers today are not limited to urban areas, and more women are involved.