Comments on: Positive Effects of Crystal Meth?

By: Rev Max

Rev Max — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:40:41 +0000

Philip K. Dick - brilliant mystic visionary or pathetic meth-addled scum bag?

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 23:28:21 +0000

We are living in a society which on the one hand seems bent on making us as mentally sluggish and â€˜weak-willedâ€™ as possible, while on the other hand pushing us to strive for more and more efficiency, more and more â€˜blingâ€™,

Absolutely! I have come to personally feel that “slower is faster”. That is, when you actively slow down, what you think you were after when you were trying to speed up becomes much more coherent. And when you try to speed up, you have the sensation of speed, but no roots, no depth, just being buffeted around in the breeze. And this leads to extreme tension, fear, paranoia, becoming ill-at-ease, etc.

I definitely agree that it is society’s pace increasing which leads us to feel as though we need to speed up our thought processes to keep up. We do not. There’s nothing to keep up with. Cars will always drive faster than people will run. The two are simply different.

By: Brooke

Brooke — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 07:26:06 +0000

I think the need some people feel (and probably most of us feel at least to some degree) to make the brain work faster and faster is just this perceived need to keep up with the pace of society, what with the acceleration of technology, all the things we’re being told we need and want, told we should be achieving and striving for… and there’s this ever more immense and fast-moving snowball of available information online, so if one is the type to overvalue information, and therefore overemphasize the accumulation of it - thinking it equivalent to “knowledge”, or superior to or somehow a prerequisite to just successfully living - they’ll certainly feel a pressing desire to speed up their mental processes, by whatever means, because there’s just so much to process, and they actually think they need to be processing it. (I am not of this mindset).

Even the more ‘normal’(?) people I know though, who aren’t addicted to information, seem to be experiencing a certain amount of pressure to speed themselves up, if to a lesser extent, in order to, like I said, keep up. Caffeine addiction is completely commonplace.

We are living in a society which on the one hand seems bent on making us as mentally sluggish and ‘weak-willed’ as possible, while on the other hand pushing us to strive for more and more efficiency, more and more ‘bling’, more and more money, more and more of the competitive ‘edge’ (basically either to get further ahead in, or if smart, try to escape the ‘rat race’). Furthermore, we’re bombarded with constant distractions and information(?), so all most people feel they can do is dose up on stimulants throughout the day and work week, then escape into alcohol, sex, tv, etc. evenings and weekends. If they’re lucky enough to have a job where they don’t also work evenings and weekends.

The crystal meth thing is just one of the more extreme symptoms emerging from this very sick system.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 04:07:11 +0000

I have never known a habitual user of that shit who didnâ€™t face extreme consequences from it.

Then according to one system of thinking, everyone you know is weak-willed. And this is precisely my problem with pmp adovocating meth use on these grounds, because it leads to these types of conclusions

By: Jennifer Emick

Jennifer Emick — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 03:38:51 +0000

pure crystal methamphetamine is actually very safe

And rare as hen’s teeth.

Sorry, no drain cleaner for me. A once easygoing guy I knew hacked his mother to death strung out on that stuff….I have never known a habitual user of that shit who didn’t face extreme consequences from it.

By: Sheldon

Sheldon — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 23:09:28 +0000

I was a meth addict for a few years in the 80’s and I was lucky to kick it out of my life. As was mentioned, very few people can control their use of it. So why encourage anybody to even try it. It’s a very risky thing to do.

It’s interesting that brekin mentions the fast food industry. I’ll just say that that hit the nail on the head.

By: brekin

brekin — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:59:14 +0000

I believe it’s in the Between The Devil and Dragon book of his collected essays and quotes. Great book.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:47:59 +0000

Interesting Hoffer quote. Where does it come from?

By: brekin

brekin — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:37:29 +0000

I think if a pharmaceutical company tried to publicly market a drug that 99.9% of the population would have the results meth has then it would be a no-brainer that it wouldn’t be socially responsible. I don’t even know what the existing companies considerable acceptable losses are but even if %10 or %5 of it’s users suffered bad effects then it would seem it’s law suit city. But then again this all starts to tread into the social resposibility of legal recreational drug companies that produce cigarrettes and alchohol.
I quibble with “those people in the after-meth pictures donâ€™t look like that because the meth directly destroyed their bodies, they look like that because it interfered with their ability to take care of themselves.” I think that’s pretty direct, Meth is messing up their brain biochemistry, which influences afterthing else, it’s like saying drinking alchohol doesn’t cause bad driving, it just messes with all the things that go into driving.
As far as improving cognition, I think maybe meth could help you play Doom better or really get into operating a forklift, helping you process faster in a narrower focus, which I think why it is so popular with people in warehouse and fastfood fields. But something is being lost, as Eric Hoffer said, “That what minimizes the time between thought and action dehumanizes, that which increases the time between thought and action humanizes.”