Methamphetamine: toxic. Additive. Devastating. Get the facts! Also known as "meth" or "ice," this highly addictive and brain-altering drug is a threatening scourge on individuals, families, and communities.

• Position: HEADS UP REAL NEWS ABOUT DRUGS AND YOUR BODY

Dear Teacher:

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and Scholastic Inc. are dedicated to bringing students clear, science-based information about drugs and addiction. We are passionate about this mission because research has shown that when young people are armed with facts, they are more likely to make smart choices about their health and their futures.

For those reasons, we are launching the fourth edition of Heads Up: Real News About Drugs and Your Body. Over the course of this school year, we will bring you a series of articles about drugs of abuse that NIDA researchers have determined to be of greatest risk to the teen community.

In this first installment of the series, we cover the scourge of methamphetamine, a devastating, addictive stimulant that can be snorted, swallowed, injected, or smoked, and which is increasingly available across the United States. We want to make sure that students understand the devastating effects of methamphetamine and how it poses serious health risks not only to individuals who use it but also to others who never do. We want them to also know the risks from the highly toxic chemicals that are used to make methamphetamine. Armed with these facts, they can make smart choices if ever faced with this drug.

Together with our partners, including classroom teachers like you, we at NIDA are working toward a day when young people everywhere understand the risks of drugs and the damage they can cause. Thank you for helping us come closer to that time, a time when every student in the U.S. will know that trying drugs is always the wrong choice.

Sincerely,

Nora D. Volkow, M.D.

Director of NIDA

Big Heads Up: Across the United States, methamphetamme is wielding widespread damage in its path.

Make no mistake: this is a highly toxic, addictive, and devastating substance that poses serious health risks both to individuals who use it and to those who never do. Families, neighbors, communities, innocent children, the environment--all are affected by methamphetamine and the highly toxic chemicals that are used to produce it.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Often referred to as "meth," methamphetamine can be a white powder that easily dissolves in water. Another form of the drug, in clear chunky crystals, is called "crystal meth" or "ice." The drug can also come in the form of small, brightly colored tablets known by the name "yaba." Methamphetamine abusers inject, snort, smoke, or swallow the drug.

A SPREADING THREAT:

Whether teens live in the city or in the country, they are increasingly likely to be faced with methamphetamine. Until recently, methamphetamine in the United States was concentrated in a few cities and towns, most of them in the West. But now, health and law-enforcement officials see methamphetamine spreading to rural areas, cities, and towns across the nation.

WIDE DEVASTATION:

Few substances are as harmful as methamphetamine. From the ravages facing abusers whose bodies, brains, and actions become altered, to burns, explosions, and toxic spills resulting from the chemicals used to produce methamphetamine, this is one dangerous drug.

According to Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), methamphetamine is "a stimulant drug that can have devastating medical, psychiatric, and social consequences."

Partly because of the spread of methamphetamine across the country, NIDA has stepped up its research relating to the drug. Scientists are working to understand how the drug affects abusers and how best to treat people suffering from the disease of methamphetamine addiction.

HOW IS METHAMPHETAMINE HARMFUL?

Scientists know that methamphetamine can change the structure of a person's brain; it can change behavior; and it can even change feelings and emotions--effects that can last a long time. It can also cause people to do risky, disastrous things--things they'd never do if they weren't under the influence of the drug. There's even something called "meth mouth," which results from methamphetamine constricting blood vessels in certain areas of the mouth. The reduced blood flow over time can weaken the teeth and lead to tooth decay.

Methamphetamine abusers can experience a wide range of other potentially devastating effects for themselves--and others. These include violent behavior as well as anxiety, depression, confusion, insomnia, paranoia, auditory hallucinations, and delusions.

BRAIN CHANGE:

Recently, Dr. Paul Thompson, a NIDA-sponsored researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to look inside the brains of long-term methamphetamine abusers.

"The methamphetamine abusers Thompson studied experienced structural changes in the limbic regions of their brains--this is the area responsible for feelings, emotions, and cravings," explains Dr. Steve Grant, acting chief of NIDA's Clinical Neuroscience Branch, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, Development and Behavioral Treatments. The hippocampus, responsible for making new memories, also showed structural changes. Not surprisingly, those addicted to methamphetamine scored very poorly on memory tests.

TRICKING BRAIN CELLS:

Methamphetamine's effects--and some of the brain changes they ultimately cause--stem from the fact that the drug's chemical structure is similar to dopamine. Dopamine is the natural chemical released in certain areas of the brain in response to pleasurable experiences--like...