These images are somewhat tame: for more, google "meth".
Posted on 10/29/2007 9:11:27 AM PDT by 60Gunner
I saw a woman at the store near my house last Wednesday morning after I got off work. The moment I saw the woman, I knew she was on Meth. Her face was covered with black sores; she was pale, scrawny, dirty, and absolutely wild-eyed. She was practically dancing in place. Her speech was a jumble of pressured and confused babble; her movements were grandiose and repetitive. She constantly rearranged the items she placed on the checkout counter. At one point she looked right at me. Her expression was chilling.
She managed to pay for her groceries, but then loitered outside the entrance, pacing back and forth and mumbling to herself. She approached one or two people outside. I told the clerk to call the police. They would probably haul her to a local ER and dump her there, and the ER wouldn't really be able to do anything for her but watch her, but at least she wouldn't run into traffic or assault someone.
When people are 'cranked,' they seem to suffer a total disruption of reality. The laws of physics and of cause-and-effect seem to be suspended for them. They're stolen away to a kind of 'parallel universe.' On their side of reality, they race unfettered at light speed and are bombarded from every direction with pure stimuli; yet on this side of reality, their bodies literally fall apart from neglect and abuse. They are animated rotting corpses. They are real-life zombies. They are the living dead.
Yet because they still exist (the word 'live' no longer applies for their hell on earth) in our reality, they carry along with them the attachments of the people who love them. They are still somebody to somebody else: somebody's daughter, son, brother, sister, mother, father, husband, or wife. And we can only watch in powerless horror as our loved one is stolen away from us and, day by day, cut by cut, over months and years, butchered and left to decompose before our eyes.
This is Meth. This is what it does to us. Why have we as a society allowed our leaders and law enforcement agencies to pussy-foot around with this?
ER Nursing Stories ping.
But remember: if we just legalize it and make it available to the general public, this wouldn’t happen.
There is always a “Big Bad Drug de Jour”, from Heroin in the 70s to Crack in the 80s and now Methamphetamines. But I gotta say the horror stories about Meth are so bad, I really believe they are true. These people are wacked!
After all, they are only harming themselves. no one else... not family, friends, community...
This is Meth. This is what it does to us. Why have we as a society allowed our leaders and law enforcement agencies to pussy-foot around with this?
Because they are somebody to somebody ELSE
I know the horror of being addicted.
I know the horror of having close friends addicted while you are not.
Luckily, I had the strength to break the addiction. Others do not, even when help is offered and accepted.
I really believe that there are personalities that are susceptable to addiction and personalities that are not susceptable to addiction.
Does that make it right for society to turn a blind eye? No.
But society CAN'T care unless a vast majority within the society care.
Most people have not been addicted. Most people don't know the agony of deciding between the next fix and that months rent. Most people haven't seen someone they know waste away before their eyes and become a zombie, looking for the next fix no matter what the cost, and the cost can be extremely high.
So society will continue to turn a blind eye because most people don't know.
I’ve never seen somebody on Meth, but if it’s anything like Herion, I get the picture. That guy had no idea what was going on until he got the Narcan. I know it save his life that day.
Those aren't necessarily "sores." Meth, like cocaine, constricts the blood vessels. Over time, this leads to the collapse of the vessels and blood cannot flow. Those sores could be dead flesh.
"meth use constricts the blood vessels and cuts of blood oxygen to EVERY tissue of the body."
That "reasoning" makes sense to a lot of people. Drugs that destroy people should be legal and available, but God forbid I don't wear a seatbelt.
These images are somewhat tame: for more, google "meth".
Joe, I want to thank you for sharing. Part of being a good nurse is learning more about what the patient experiences. This is not the ‘drug OD in bed 2;’ this is a human being. Do you know what I mean?
I hate meth probably more than any otherillicit drug. And that’s saying a lot right there, because I hate what drug abuse does to people. I see it every day. But meth is probably the most awful. And the fact that we as a society will not destroy the people who make it really frustrates me.
Hey, thanks for the latest instalment, and for the work that you do in ER. I’ve been to the casualty ward a couple times and have always been grateful for the people there who have been there when I needed it. You guys are heroes in my estimation.
P-Methamphetamine is really nasty stuff: New Zealand has the dubious distinction of the highest per-capita consumption in the world, I am led to believe. Much of it is now being imported from China: most of the stuff that is cooked domestically is made in West Auckland, where I live.
Oddly enough, P-Methamphetamine is the reason why I am a Guardian Angel now. It’s a journey I’ve described here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1891248/posts
I hate the stuff, and I hate what it does to people. It takes three of my Angels to take down one person on “P” — they are *that* violent, as you would know. I think your cops are crazy if they take these people to ER: they are just asking for somebody at your hospital to get hurt.
I’ve started posting extracts from my Patrol Log to the FR — some of the unreal stuff that happens out there, you just couldn’t dream up as fiction: only in real life could these sorts of things happen, if they tried to make a TV show out of it nobody would ever believe it: too implausible.
Anyrate, thanks for the latest instalment, I enjoy reading your threads!
Kind regards
*DieHard the Hunter*
When I was a teen, marijuana was the thing. That, and alcohol. Part of small-town life where I lived was to get drunk and high on Friday and Saturday nights. Most of my friends and I left that behind. Some couldn’t, and went on to other drugs. One out of those that I know about died very, very young. It all seemed so inocuous back then, just a way to have a “good time”.
Thanks again for the ping. I really enjoy your posts.
> I’ve never seen somebody on Meth, but if it’s anything like Herion, I get the picture. That guy had no idea what was going on until he got the Narcan. I know it save his life that day.
You might have, without knowing it. When people start using Methamphetamine, it is often difficult to tell that they are on it. It doesn’t make them dozey or dopey: it makes them hyper-alert and really focused, and that is often your first and only clue.
In my view it is quite a bit more dangerous than Heroin, or pretty much anything else that is out there. And these days it is getting so cheap that, here in NZ, it is no longer the “drug of choice” for the rich, but rather for the poor. They make it themselves from easily-obtained ingredients using well-known (extremely dangerous) techniques. It can be inhaled, injected or ingested — if inhaled, the crystals are good for a few hits, not just one.
It wasn’t until my pancreas exploded and I was put on morphine that I even understood how someone could become addicted.
I get it now...
Oops! That meant to be a Private Reply.
Joe, I appreciate your candor on this thread. I also hate what drugs do and I would like to know what you would recommend “society” do to help? (not being snarky, truly looking for your insight)
I have friends with an addicted son. They have put him in rehab multiple times, and each time he gets out he *jumps* (not falls, jumps) off the wagon. They finally had to move and not let him know where they live because he would steal their stuff and sell it. He lives on the streets now. They have cell phones so he can call them, and they go to see him regularly, but have no further way to help.
In fact, he has now even dragged his twin brother into his nightmare. He used his brother’s name when he was in jail, so now his brother (straight arrow, never in trouble) has a mess to clean up.
So, what do *we*.... his society...do? There is no want for money to help him, or people who care, or offers of help. He doesn’t want it.
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