Methamphetamine

Government health officials and doctors don't like to talk about it. The major reason meth (methamphetamine) hooks people is that it increases their sex drive and performance for a short while, anyway. It is even more powerful than cocaine in this respect. Dr. Mary Holley of Alabama interviewed meth addicts. Both men and women said the effect on sex was the number one reason they used illegal drugs. After about six months, meth addicts can't have sex unless they're high, and after a while longer, they're unable to have sex at all. At first, meth fires up the dopamine system in the brain. After a while, it burns it out. Once that happens, the person no longer functions sexually. Besides causing brain damage, meth has other nasty effects. Paranoia is common. Some meth addicts hallucinate. Others become violent. Users who inject meth risk contracting HIV and hepatitis C, a life-threatening liver disease. Those who share needles are also at risk for other sexually transmitted diseases. Meth users' hair and teeth eventually fall out. The nation's prisons are filled with former meth users whose teeth are crumbling. The prisons cannot afford dental treatment for them.