Methamphetamine use and addiction in Australia

methamphetamine use and addiction in Australia

By Nicole Lee

Associate Professor at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University

More commonly known by the street names speed, ice or crystal meth, both amphetamine and methamphetamine belong to a group of stimulant drugs called amphetamines.
Australia has one of the highest rates of illicit methamphetamine use in the world and the highest use among English-speaking countries. Around 2.5% of Australians over 14 years – around half a million people – have used methamphetamine in the last year. This rate is three- to five-times higher than the USA, Canada (0.5%) or the UK (1%).

Illicit use

The illegal manufacture of street amphetamines in Australia is almost exclusively methamphetamine.
Illicit methamphetamine is manufactured in local “meth labs” and also imported from South-East Asia.
The drug usually comes in powder or pills (speed) or crystalline (ice) forms. Although both can be used in many ways, speed is usually swallowed or snorted and ice is usually smoked or injected.

Effects

Methamphetamine in small to moderate doses increases energy and wakefulness, self-esteem and sociability and sexual arousal, and reduces appetite and lowers inhibitions.
Large quantities can result in paranoia and hallucinations, and a range of physical effects such as chest pain, dangerously high body temperature, muscle spasm, brain hemorrhage, heart attack and seizure.
Regular, long-term use of methamphetamine can result in dependence and neurotoxicity (damage to the brain). This is a particular risk of Australia’s 73,000 dependent users.

How it works

Methamphetamine increases the level of dopamine, the brain’s natural pleasure chemical, to ten times its normal levels. Very little else can increase dopamine like methamphetamine.
Over time, the brain stops being able to produce enough dopamine on its own. It then needs more and more to get the same high (tolerance).
When a person stops using methamphetamine, they may start to feel depressed because their dopamine system has been worn out from over-producing dopamine. This is part of the withdrawal process: when the brain misses having the drug in its system. Symptoms of methamphetamine withdrawal include intense craving, anxiety, flat mood, decreased energy and motivation and problems sleeping.

Treatment

Currently, the main treatment for methamphetamine dependence is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). The main premise of CBT is that unhelpful thinking drives feelings and behaviour.
A methamphetamine user who has quit, for example, might think, “I can’t cope with these cravings,” and go back to using. CBT would teach them to identify and modify those thoughts that lead to relapse. A new thought might be, “these cravings are hard, but if I wait the feeling will go away.”
CBT has been show to be effective, even in small “doses” of two to four sessions.
However, methamphetamine users are often reluctant to seek treatment. The lack of an effective pharmaceutical therapy is considered a significant barrier to getting methamphetamine users into treatment.

Drug development

The search for a medicine to treat methamphetamine dependence has been ongoing for the best part of two decades. More than 18 different drugs have been trialled but none have been approved for methamphetamine treatment. While some of these medicines have shown some effects for some users, none have shown a big enough or widespread enough effect to be considered broadly useful.
One of the difficulties in finding an effective medicine is that methamphetamine can have a very complex action in the brain, affecting (and damaging) many systems, including reward pathways and multiple systems that control thinking, memory, attention and mood................

At MediNat Australia and drugtest-medinat we supply drug test kits to detect the use of Methamphetamines.
If you are a parent or employer who suspects methamphetamine use by someone you know please don't hesitate to contact us.