Tennessee: hot spot for meth
By: Natalie Higdon
Staff Reporter
Issue date: 11/28/06 Section: The Game of Life
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When Sam first tried crystal meth at the age of 26, he was a little worried about getting addicted.
"I'd always heard stories of people getting hooked on it and having a tough time getting off when, and if, they decided to quit," said Sam, who asked not to be identified.
After declining offers from his friends to try it for several years, Sam finally gave in to peer pressure and felt an immediate high.
"It's kind of like your blood gets pumping, and it makes you feel alive," Sam said. "Your breathing starts to get a little deeper, and your eyes are wide awake, and it's a rush."
During the four years that Sam experimented with crystal meth, he and his friends "usually smoked it or snorted it - we never never did needles or anything like that."
"We'd all throw in some cash and buy a certain amount for everyone to party on," he said. "It was always fun - of course, back then I was young, and you don't really think about a whole lot of things."
While he and his friends sat around using meth and "hanging out, talking and listening to music," Sam encountered several "drug friends," whom he only knew through the drug, and slowly started realizing the long-term effects of meth use.
"As I kept doing it, I would meet people who had been doing it a lot longer than me, and I would smoke with people I'd never met before," he said. "I started seeing what meth could do to your teeth from talking to these people."
Aside from one of the classic signs of meth addiction, known as "meth mouth," Sam also noticed another effect of the drug - scabs and scars from the incessant picking at the skin during a high.
"I saw a lot of my friends picking at or making scabs just to keep occupied," he said.
Sam began to notice his own body's decline when he lost weight.
"I noticed my weight started going down, and my muscles began to shrink because I wasn't eating," he said.
Due to the tense feeling one gets while high on meth, Sam noticed quite a bit of soreness in his body when coming down from the drug.
"I'd always heard stories of people getting hooked on it and having a tough time getting off when, and if, they decided to quit," said Sam, who asked not to be identified.
After declining offers from his friends to try it for several years, Sam finally gave in to peer pressure and felt an immediate high.
"It's kind of like your blood gets pumping, and it makes you feel alive," Sam said. "Your breathing starts to get a little deeper, and your eyes are wide awake, and it's a rush."
During the four years that Sam experimented with crystal meth, he and his friends "usually smoked it or snorted it - we never never did needles or anything like that."
"We'd all throw in some cash and buy a certain amount for everyone to party on," he said. "It was always fun - of course, back then I was young, and you don't really think about a whole lot of things."
While he and his friends sat around using meth and "hanging out, talking and listening to music," Sam encountered several "drug friends," whom he only knew through the drug, and slowly started realizing the long-term effects of meth use.
"As I kept doing it, I would meet people who had been doing it a lot longer than me, and I would smoke with people I'd never met before," he said. "I started seeing what meth could do to your teeth from talking to these people."
Aside from one of the classic signs of meth addiction, known as "meth mouth," Sam also noticed another effect of the drug - scabs and scars from the incessant picking at the skin during a high.
"I saw a lot of my friends picking at or making scabs just to keep occupied," he said.
Sam began to notice his own body's decline when he lost weight.
"I noticed my weight started going down, and my muscles began to shrink because I wasn't eating," he said.
Due to the tense feeling one gets while high on meth, Sam noticed quite a bit of soreness in his body when coming down from the drug.