Which is worse: crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine?

They both are addictive and ruin lives. :shrug: Sure, one is probably worse than the other, but the result is often the same.

It's like comparing forms of suicide.

but, how many crack labs blow up in neighborhoods?

The main thing that makes meth worse is the fact that the manufacturing process poses a risk to anyone in the vicinity, not just from explosions but from the fumes of the chemicals, etc.

Crack is nasty as hell, meth is even nastier.

epidemic in Detroit in the early nineties, while working with urban youth and their families - I would say that the heightened level of gun violence - and devastated families was pretty comparable. I saw huge swaths of human devastation. However I have had little exposure to the ills of the meth problems - thus in my experience reality I would tip the scales towards the MASSIVE devastation of crack. But I recognize my view is based on experience with one, and none on the other. So in reality - I can't compare these apples and oranges.

but generally when (if)you manage to kick a coke problem there aren't a lot of long term health effects. meth seems to induce a lot more psychiatric problems.

I just want to take this opportunity to state that the war on drigs is bullshit and dependency to whatever chemical can be more effectively and productively dealt with as a public health problem and not a criminal one. I know it's only sort of related to the OP but I like to say that whenever I get the chance.

I've been a social worker in Detroit for almost 20 years. We don't have a meth problem, but still are dealing with crack and heroin. Crack was one of several things that helped destroy Detroit. People went crazy over it. In the 90s, things started to settle down a bit-the crackheads aged out of the baby-making range, and lots of them died or ended up in prison or mental facilities.

I know meth is a problem in rural Michigan, but just not in Detroit. Crystal meth was around when I went to WMU in K-Zoo from 1982-6, but it was not in a smokable form, it was chopped up and snorted like cocaine. It was something the kids who did cocaine did when they couldn't find any coke.

:crazy: :smoke:

Believe me.

n/t.

In terms of difficulty getting off the drug? In terms of difficuly in the making of the drug? In terms of it's economic and social effects on society? In terms of the intensity and/or type of high? In terms of the cost/high? In terms of its health effects on the body? In terms of taste? Smell?

You need to define your terms, dude.

And the meth users fared much, much worse over time.

Serious question. We used to snort some crank now and again back then, when we either needed to stay sharp or just wanted to, say, drive to Ohio starting at 2 AM, and nobody I know ended up devoting their life to (or throwing their life away on) the stuff.

What's changed? I understand it's a real plague these days.

Redstone

... yes. Even now, there are many forms. As the gov't has made various precursors harder to get, new formulations are invented. Each is made in a different way and is slightly different in potential.

All of it sucks.

when it wasn't such a problem back then (and it certainly was available; cocaine was only a novelty in the 1970s, but crank was everywhere).

I'm really curous about this, because my perspective from back then kept me from realizing how bad the current problem is for a long time.

Redstone

... I wish I knew the answer. In north TX and OK rural areas it is a HUGE problem.

I could offer my social theories but they are nothing but suppositions :)

problem. Someone, somewhere, must have an idea of why the meth plague has hit rural America even worse (though opinions may vary on that) than the crack plague hit urban America before.

Redstone

... there is little difference between why urban folks use crack and rural use meth. They are both trying to find some escape, some pleasure in a bleak existence. IMHO.

is that you have all of the ingredients there. The sudafed from the drug store/wal-mart, the anhydrous ammonia stolen from the farmers, and the space to make it with a relatively low chance of getting caught (if the lab doesn't explode) Add to this that the fact that you can't get crack or anything "harder" than pot in the rural areas and there you go. It's hit the midwest pretty hard, but I can't say which is worse.

at least in my experience. much more powerful and much cleaner. glad i didn't kill myself

The crash was enough of a bitch with pure crank...that might explain the current problem; I can see where if you were doing dirty crank, you'd be willing to do ANYTHING to soften the crash.

Redstone

... meth is more insidious. Everybody knows what crack is about, but lots of folks think they can dabble with meth. A few years later their life and health is ruined.

I hate meth.

Are you out of your fucking mind?

Which one would you pick?

tried it several times, and i've seen it turn several friends into zombies and werewolves.

Short term: crack. The "stimulant paranoia" kicks in almost immediately. This is a very short term drug. Quick craziness, quick death. I smoked crack a few times. Why anyone would do it more than once or twice still boggles my mind.

Long term: crystal meth. It takes longer for the paranoia to kick in. It devastates your body over time. But, I'm going to be very politically incorrect here - without meth, I would literally be dead. I did it every day for a year, it helped me get through the worst depression of my life and helped me change my life, so I didn't feel the need to obliterate myself to stop the pain. When I was able to change things, I quit using. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to change anything and I would certainly have killed myself. It wasn't difficult to stop. I just stopped. I've talked to others who had the same experience - for a short time it helped them get through a bad part of their lives and change things and then they quit using. I 've also known addicts whom it has destroyed over time.

There are very rarely any easy answers. And I speak from experience since there are very few drugs I haven't done.

Khash.

at again. I saw a web site with the faces of people who use that stuff. I hope I never get stupid enough to touch that shit. I don't want to look like that if nothing else.

Here is one: :puke:

from here:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/NEWS01/40902020/

http://www.kptv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2789003

Redstone

Crack is still pretty bad, but meth stays in the body much longer and has a ton of nasty chemicals in it. At least crack is still pretty much just cocaine.

It doesn't take long to have massive impacts on your life. Have a friend going down that road right now, it's taken him all of 1 month to become thin, unable to sleep, paranoid and in my mind unable to say no. He isn't the first person I've seen this happen to.
Seen people do A LOT of coke for a while then go 'oh well' and get on with their lives.
Is coke different than crack? I don't know.
Thats my two cents anyway. I think meth is the most evil drug ever.