Is Meth a 'Smart Drug'?
April 28, 2008 - Wired
Research by medical anthropologists suggests that methamphetamine users often take the drug to increase their performance at work or school, not just to get high.
The work came to my attention via a comment on the Mind Hacks blog by Daniel Lende, a Notre Dame professor, responding to a post about Wired.com readers' drug regimens. He wrote:
Quote:
Even with a drug like methamphetamine, most heavy users in our research engaged in "functional use." They [are] used to enhance cognitive function (or compensate for deficits), to increase overall productivity, and even to appear "normal" while being high (say, unlike alcohol).
After we made contact, the professor sent me a paper on the research, which appeared last year in Addiction Research and Theory. Lende and his colleagues interviewed 40 heavy meth users in Atlanta about how they used the drug that has widely been called the "new crack."
Instead of stories about the fun of crystal meth, the users spoke about the productivity gains they received from the drug. Their comments were eerily similar to what our readers said about using Adderall, Provigil, and Ritalin.
One seamstress claimed that productivity gains were the only reason she used the drug:
Quote:
I went home and made a dress... and I was like, my God, I got the details down so well on this and everything, this is really an opportunitive drug here... I work drugged, which I know sounds stupid, but that's, it's not a social situation for me... I could totally just focus on the project at hand. And that was the biggest first and still is the only enticement of the drug.
Another user contrasted speed with other, supposedly fun drugs:
Quote:
It's the drug that's opposite to things that are
like recreational like marijuana or heroin or things like that, those drugs you can enjoy them if you have a lot of free time on your hands. Speed you can enjoy because it helps you get things done and therefore I would think that more people would want to get things done considering, you know, the pervasive emphasis on work ethic in our society. It's just a really good drug.
It's the drug that's opposite to things that are like recreational like marijuana or heroin or things like that, those drugs you can enjoy them if you have a lot of free time on your hands. Speed you can enjoy because it helps you get things done and therefore I would think that more people would want to get things done considering, you know, the pervasive emphasis on work ethic in our society. It's just a really good drug.
See Also:
Professionals Use Drugs to Sharpen Their Minds
Drugs to build up that mental muscle
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