I would like to start by saying that methamphetamine (meth) is a synthetic stimulant drug used for medical and illicit purposes. Meth is very addictive and induces strong feelings of euphoria. Typically illegally methamphetamine is sold as a colorless crystalline solid called crystal meth, glass, ice, tik.
When sold in rock formations methamphetamine is called dope, raw or tweak. When sold in pure crystalline powder one calls it crank, or speed (Johnson, 2004).
One needs to remember that crystal meth is a powerful central nervous system stimulant drug that would drastically affect the human brain by affecting the nervous mechanisms responsible for the regulating certain classes of neurotransmitters that go by the name of biogenic amines and monoamine neurotransmitters. The danger of crystal meth’s impact on the neurotransmitters is that they are responsible for the heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure and other things such as appetite, attention, mood and responses associated with human alertness and alarm conditions. While it is not well-understood how crystal meth affects these neurotransmitters one believes that it could easily reverse the monoamine transporter’s direction of flow. The release of the monoamines from the vesicles to the cytoplasm and from the cytoplasm to the synapse contributes to the so called prolonged synaptic cleft. As one might assume the neurotransmitter itself would start producing less impulses which in turn would contribute to the tolerance and withdrawal effects (Holley, 2003).
