Methamphetamine is best known as one of the most addictive and dangerous drugs out there. But it's also an FDA-approved drug that can be used to treat ADHD in children. In this special feed drop of the Spotify podcast Science Vs, scientists and meth users weigh in on what meth does to your brain. This episode was produced and hosted by Wendy Zukerman, with production from Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys. It was edited by Blythe Terrell, fact checked by Erica Akiko Howard, mixed by Bobby Lord, with music by Bobby Lord, Bumi Hidaka, So Wylie, Emma Munger and Peter Leonard. You can find and follow Science Vs here: https://open.spotify.com/show/5lY4b5PGOvMuOYOjOVEcb9?si=273dc5f470ba476d Help us plan for the future of Today, Explained by filling out a brief survey: voxmedia.com/survey. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is methamphetamine and why is it controversial?
Hey, it's Jonquilin. This week on Explain It To Me, we're bringing you something from our friends over at Science Versus. Every week, science journalist Wendy Zuckerman separates fact from fiction about everything from narcissists to the pill to 5G. The episode we're sharing with you today is about methamphetamine.
So I assumed I knew everything I needed to know about meth from just-say-no-style campaigns, but there's more to meth than meets the eye. And just a heads up, this episode deals with some mature themes. Okay, on to the show.
Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Versus. Today on the show, methamphetamine. More and more people in the US are trying it, and it's got this reputation as being one of the scariest and most addictive drugs out there. Is that true? I feel like basically every message that we get about meth is that it's this uniquely dangerous drug, almost in a category of its own.
Like in this government PSA, you see a normal teenager whose life is ruined by it.
I wish my tire had blown out that night. I wish my cards skidded off the road. I wish I'd broken my neck, but I didn't crash. I drove to that party and I did meth for the first time. I did meth and now this is my life.
And that's the idea, right? That meth is so addictive that if you try it just once at a party, you won't be able to stop. And in the meantime, it'll destroy your life. We hear that meth will rot your gums, make your teeth fall out. I mean, ever heard of meth mouth? And even worse, apparently after using meth, your brain will never be the same again.
Some people, they just lose it. Stop! Research shows that taking methamphetamine, even just a few times, can impair your brain and movement for life.
And I should say that not all meth PSAs went for the scare the hell out of you approach.
I do have to play this bonkers ad that my editor remembers hearing a lot when she grew up in the Midwest.
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Chapter 2: What are the common myths about methamphetamine?
Now, it's not that noticeable or bad for everyone, but one guy I spoke to who asked us to call him enough, he's used meth pretty much every day for the last four years. He told me that these days his memory is shot.
Everything in the past is not really there. It's just fog and haze. One of my work best friends, I can't even remember how we met. And I had to tell her that the other day. Like, I really don't remember how we met.
But what a lot of the scary meth news articles out there don't tell you is that if you stop using meth, your brain can at least partly recover. Studies show that even after long-term heavy use, once users stay off meth for, let's say, six months, a year, their scores on cognitive tests improve, including their memory. Over time, some areas of the brain itself even start to look more normal.
Martin told me that this is good news here.
The point being is there's enormous regenerative capacity in the brain. I mean, there are limitations, but there's a tremendous amount of regeneration that can happen.
In the longer term, there are some other things to worry about, though, like meth might put you at an increased risk of Parkinson's disease, which is a disease related to dopamine. But the big thing that you hear a lot about when it comes to meth is that it'll make you go basically psycho, where you start seeing things and hearing things.
One of our listeners, she asked me to call her Tina, started off just taking meth with friends to go dancing on the weekend. She'd party all weekend on this big binge, and on her way home, sometimes she'd start to see things.
What? What would happen is when I was driving home, out of my peripheral vision, I would swear that I saw someone walking up out of the woods and like walking towards the road. And then as soon as you shift your vision over and you look directly at them, they're gone because they were never there in the first place. But yeah, I saw many shadow people. Did you have any other hallucinations?
Oh, yeah. There is a video of me somewhere that a friend took trying to catch bugs. They were not there. There were no bugs there.
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