Once considered the “poor man’s cocaine,” methamphetamine has seeped into the mainstream in the United States. It is estimated that more than 12 million people have tried the drug, and 1.4 million used it during the past year. Meth-making operations have been uncovered in all fifty states and police departments across the nation now rank methamphetamine as the number one drug they battle today. In this eye-opening title, author Elaine Landau examines both the meth epidemic and its social implications. First, she looks at the drug itself—how its history and its many forms shape the problem today, how meth affects the user’s body, and how the drug’s long-term effects complicate addiction issues. In addition, Landau investigates meth’s cost to society, what perils meth labs present to their surroundings, how police and lawmakers are attempting to deal with the problems, and how the situation continues to change. By considering the problem from both individual and community angles, Landau provides an important analysis of one of the nation’s most serious social problems.

A man is accused of attempted murder of a former crystal meth addict. He claims he shot in self-defense, responding to the extremely aggressive behavior the victim was exhibiting. How will this play out in court? Most likely, the prosecution and the defense will call various expert witnesses - perhaps neurologists, psychologists, pathologists - each with testimonies based on their own theoretical viewpoints, but none with a truly comprehensive knowledge of the background and effects of methamphetamine (MA) use. This will cause confusion, complexity, and their testimonies may not comply with Daubert standards. Written by a multidisciplinary team of experts, Methaphetamine Use: Clinical and Forensic Aspects examines MA use and abuse from clinical, forensic, and criminal justice perspectives. It is the first to cover virtually every aspect, reviewing the history, pharmacology, pathology, physiology, treatment, and evidentiary value of MA and its use. It addresses Daubert considerations and victim/witness credibility, competency to confess and to stand trial, criminal responsibility, extreme emotion as mitigation to murder, and dangerousness. It also details statutes and case law to represent perspectives of both the prosecution and the defense. Growing in popularity more than any other illegal drug, methamphetamine has been shown to produce a paranoid psychotic state, which may recur months or years after use. Methamphetamine Use: Clinical and Forensic Aspects provides a comprehensive, critical survey of the current knowledge and policies regarding the use and abuse of this dangerous and ubiquitous substance.

Updated and expanded to reflect changes in recent years, this second edition covers virtually every aspect of this dangerous drug, including history, pharmacology, pathology, physiology, treatment, clinical and forensic psychology, and legal aspects. This edition features new chapters on criminal- and civil-forensic applications including an in-depth discussion of recent laws. Pointing out important cases, articles, and statistics, the text also presents chapters on neuropsychological testing; normative data on risk analysis and violence prediction; the physiology of tweaking, the most dangerous stage of the meth cycle; and the efficacy of treatment programs including examples from newly established drug courts.

Fawcett provides a practical resource for recovery from methamphetamine and the restoration of healthy sex and intimacy. He outlines a path toward healing, describing the phases of physical, emotional, and sexual recovery and provides a broad range of supportive tools from managing triggers to mindfulness.

Meth The Basics

Discussion of methamphetamine abuse and its social costs.

A New York Times bestseller, Norman Ohler's Blitzed is a "fascinating, engrossing, often dark history of drug use in the Third Reich” (Washington Post). The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. Yet as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs: cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, which were consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to German soldiers. In fact, troops were encouraged, and in some cases ordered, to take rations of a form of crystal meth—the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to account for the breakneck invasion that sealed the fall of France in 1940, as well as other German military victories. Hitler himself became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs—ultimately including Eukodal, a cousin of heroin—administered by his personal doctor. Thoroughly researched and rivetingly readable, Blitzed throws light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows. “Delightfully nuts.”—The New Yorker