Crystal’s a super-strength amphetamine stimulant (it speeds up your body and its functions). Industrial chemicals and cleaning products (often toxic) go into making it.

Methylamphetamine (commonly referred to as methamphetamine) is one of a group of stimulant drugs called amphetamines that act on the brain and nervous system. Like cocaine and amphetamines, methylamphetamine has stimulant properties but is much longer acting. The crystalline form – sometimes called ‘Ice’ – like ‘crack cocaine’ can be easily smoked and can rapidly lead to high blood levels. It’s also long-acting compared to crack so it’s an extremely powerful and addictive stimulant.

Used in dance clubs or during sex, crystal releases the brain’s stress hormone norepinephrine and ‘feel good’ chemicals dopamine and serotonin.

Meth comes as white or colourless crystals which can be crushed to make a powder. It might sometimes come as a pill.

• It can bring on a feeling of exhilaration and produces increased arousal and activity levels.
  

• People feel more awake and it suppresses appetite
  

• Smoking the purer crystalline form (also known as 'crystal meth' or 'ice') produces a very intense 'rush' similar to that produced by crack cocaine but longer-lasting - between 4 and 12 hours.

But there is a flip side:

• Extended use can lead to psychological and physical dependence. Injecting the drug intravenously or smoking it is highly addictive.
  

• The greater potency of the 'ice' form, particularly when smoked, makes it a more dangerous drug than other forms of methylamphetamine.
  

• Crystal pushes up your body temperature, heartbeat and blood pressure, possibly to dangerous levels, with a risk of heart attack, stroke, coma or, if unlucky, death.
  

• You might go days without eating or sleeping. The comedown can leave you feeling exhausted, aggressive, paranoid, in some cases even suicidal.  Other acute effects include agitation, paranoia, confusion and violence
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• Methylamphetamine-induced psychosis has been widely reported in countries where there’s epidemic use. Psychosis is a serious mental state where you lose touch with a sense of reality. There is some evidence of long-term brain changes that may gradually improve after sustained abstinence.
  

• In cases of overdose – stroke, and lung, kidney and gastrointestinal damage can develop, and coma and death can occur.
  

• Methylamphetamine use can be associated with injecting and with sharing of paraphernalia with attendant risks of HIV and hepatitis virus infections.
  

• Using the drug may also increase libido and risky sexual behaviour thereby increasing further the risk of blood borne virus transmission in some.