8/31/2002: Meth rage
 

http://cellar.org/2002/methrage.jpg

A scary one, and one that might flame up the gun debates going on elsewhere on the Cellar. Here a Thai gentleman is apparently under the influence of methamphetamines. Having cut himself in a rage, he has now taken a hostage. It ended ok as the authorities overpowered him and freed his hostage.

The details of *how* they overpowered him might be germane...as they were in the LSA case.

From what I understand, all Meth does is give you boundless amounts of energy and fucks up your body in the process. It doesn't put you into a "rage" and make you cut yourself. So be careful what opinions you form soley from this picture.

I'd be really interested to hear more details in this case. Can anyone provide to the original story?

<img src="http://web.planet.nl/movie/specials/pics/DirtyHarry03_200x150.jpg">

Go ahead... make my day!

Maggie & NBN

Note from the article:

Interesting. The story implies that in Thailand, it's quite common for meth heads to snap and take people hostage. That doesn't really square at all with my experiences, though. I wonder if it's some cultural difference?

The story also says he didn't cut himself, he was hit in the head by someone or some thing.

A web search for "ya ba" yield articles that state that the stuff is cheap and plentiful; what happens at high doses may be outside your experiences. And for being common, it's comon enough that I've seen TV footage of a couple of incidents like this one, althought the drug involved isn't usually identified.

In fact, are we sure this article quoted is describing the same incident as the photograph?

And just for the record, I prefer autoloaders to revolvers.

Harry was carrying a .44 mag on an S&W N-frame, big and heavy, and at nearly 12" overall for the 6.5" barrel, the dickens to conceal. Eastwood had several S&W 629's made up from parts for the films, including one for some shots with an extra long barrel.

Yes. The story identifies the victim by the same name, although spelled a bit differently, as the caption used by Reuters for the photo.

Edit Note: Actually, there are some real discrepencies in the name of the 19 year old victim as reported by the two news agencies, although the incident appears to be the same circumstances on August 29.

<img src="http://newzucanuze.com/DrHarry.jpg">

Fo fafed... fake fy fay! Foo vu feewl fucky, funk? Fell, foo ya?

Crystal is nasty.
Never seen that kind of stuff though.

Juju, look around his collar bone, there's at least one clear cut, i'm sure if you got a closer look at the area that was his ear you'd find allot more.

Man they really should use pics like this in anti-drug campains.

Well, maybe so. But either way, one of the stories is wrong.

Actually, both stories could be correct. Although the news report doesn't say that he cut himself, it doesn't say that he didn't cut himself, as you suggest.

Looks like Maggie was right. I guess I never hung around my friend long enough to see the side effects get really bad.

The thing about it being extremely cheap is true, though. You can get the instructions off the internet, gather a few household items, and make meth in your backyard or garage. All you need is:
<ul>
<li>30ml bottle tincture iodine containing 2% iodine, sodium iodide <li>4%,
alcohol 47%, rest H20
<li> 5 Sinustop Herbal Decongestant tablets containing 60mg crystaline
pseudoephedrine HCl each mixed with some herbal ingrediants. Or 300mg of
ephedrine obtained thru some other method.
<li> 5 road flares.
<li> Bottle of drain cleaner containg conc. H2SO4
<li> Bottle white distilled vinegar
<li> Red devil Lye containing sodium hydroxide
<li> Spray can of brake cleaner containing 1,1,1 trichloroethylene or 1,1,1 trichloroethane
</ul>

You could also blow your face off if you don't know what you're doing. And all this nets you all of these wonderful side effects. But that's why it's so cheap. You don't have to import the shit from Afghanistan or Columba and run it past border guards. You just make it in your fucking garage.

I'm not saying it's good, mind you. I think the shit is terrible. For all I know my friend is dead already. If he's not, he probably will be in a few years.

True. It is extremely vague on what exactly happened to him.

Here's a Thai editorial regarding a similar incident last November that ended in tragedy.

Like this one

Thai teenagers on yaa ba
 

I used to be the teacher of the Thai student whose web site is mentioned above

"Confessions of a Teenage Drug Addict" http://www.thailandlife.com/drugs

He used to be a very intelligent young man who always got good grades for his exams. He was a shy student who never missed school and was liked by all the teachers. Everything changed for him when his girlfriend broke up with him on his 15th birthday. He started hanging around with the wrong crowd and soon found himself experimenting with yaa ba (crazy drugs).

In just a few weeks he had changed into a very different person. He became very thin and he had difficulty in partaking in an intelligent conversation. His attention span became very short and he was often irritable and angry lashing out at everyone around him. He thought everyone was out to get him and that he was all alone in the world.

One of the affects of taking yaa ba is that you have a lot of extra energy and that you won't need to sleep. This was exactly what he wanted at the weekend as he could be up all night with his friends for 2 or 3 days in a row. But, during the week he was finding it difficult to concentrate on school work. He never paid attention to the teacher and he often slept through classes. As a consequence he was thrown out of school.

Over the following few months he went through a succession of different drug rehabs who forced medicine down his throat to make him sick. No activities were offered to the "inmates" during the day and they were certainly not given any therapy. As a consequence he ran away and went back home.

For seven months he stayed at home until he started his new school. Everything seemed alright and by August he had been clean from drugs for at least six months. He even appeared on a US Fox Network show on drugs saying that he would never go back on yaa ba. Then a few weeks ago, for reasons no-one knows yet, he went back on yaa ba. He has now run away from home and he hasn't been heard from since. The story continues...

Yes, yaa ba does give you extra energy but it also plays around with your mind. It does make you do irrational things - things you would never dream about doing when you are clean from drugs. It is called "crazy drug" for a very good reason. This once very intelligent student will never ever be the same again.

The message he gives on his web site is very clear. "Yaa ba" is extremely addictive - even after one session you will be hooked.

A series of interviews he did last year while he was on drugs can be downloaded for free from his web site:

http://www.thailandlife.com/drugs

Did you actually type all of this yourself just now, or did you just copy-and-paste it from something you had written previously?

reply to "juju"
 

No, I just typed it now. Why, did I make a lot of spelling mistakes?

Re: reply to "juju"
 

No...it is well-written for the most part, especially if you did it off-the-cuff.

Pay no mind to Juju...he's just suspicious of new folks. ;)

reply to "sycamore"
 

Thanks. It is a story I am very familiar with as I have seen quite a few of my A1 students waste their lives on yaa ba. It is very frustrating when there isn't much we can do. However, the young student in this story has been willing to use himself as an example to show other Thai students (and people in other countries too) how easy it is to become addicted and how much it changes your life.

Interesting site, Interesting info. Silly use of tabs of E in the top graphic. E != Crystal meth
End rant.

Man we're collectively suspicious of newcomers, cellar is like the virtual equilavent of some redneck dude toting a shotgun going "we don't like strangers round these 'ere parts"

Well the next round of ads is going to take place in a few days, so expect a bunch of new folks to wander in.

And, welcome, Sawatdee.

When I was in college, way back when, I knew two guys who snorted crystal meth to study. They were both pre-med which was such an intense program that they had to study a lot of the time, and sometimes they would use meth or caffeine to help out. One of them did OK, the other wound up in rehab and never made it to med school. He had excellent grades, but couldn't get recommendations because he was a flaming asshole to many people.

It seems like addiction is like that - certain brains are unpredictable with certain drugs. I think with coke/crack, meth, and heroin, you basically have a 50-50 chance - either you get what you wanted, or you ruin your life. Person A does it, gets what they expected, and isn't compelled to do it again; person B does it and wakes up 15 years later wondering what happened.

That's why, if you must do drugs, smoke weed. This has been a public service announcement.

In my year its not uncommon for students to use speed to keep studying before exams. Me? I just average around a gram or so of caffine a day.

Well, you could do worse...one gram of caffeine is about 6 cups of coffee.

I've been off of caffeine for a few weeks now. With my hypoglycemia, I MUST eat every 4 hours or i'll crash hard. Not being on caffeine seems to help that some.

I'm not sure if i'll stay off caffeine, though. I'm a very obessive person. I think I may I have that 'alcoholic' gene, though I've never drank alcohol. I normally drink coke <i>constantly</i>, though. I mean, I think I drink more soda than anyone I know. So it's quite a big step for me if I do decide to stay off of it.

I can't really say that I knew anyone who did meth in college, which is strange because I have pretty much witnessed first-hand the gamut of other types of drugs. One guy on my floor would try anything if he heard a rumor it would give him a buzz or trip.

He drank like a whole bottle of cough syrup one night because the dextromethorphan is supposed to give you a trip. Well, he never tripped but his stomach swelled up so big it looked like he swallowed a basketball.

I feel somewhat guilty, in retrospect, for egging him on. "Guys, I really don't think I can drink any more of this stuff." "C'mon Chad, you puss, you wanna trip don't ya??"

Cough Syrup (DXM)
 

He must have gotten the wrong type. There are hundreds of varieties of cough syrup, but only a couple contain the correct drug dextromethorphan (DXM) and don't contian 'other' chemicals such as gauifenesin, pseudoephedrine, antihistamines, Acetaminophen ( BAD!!), etc. Those other chemicals can have very dangerous effects if consumed in the quantities necessary to intake enough DXM for its psychedelic and dissociative properties to kick in.

Actually, the past few years have been a lot tougher to find 'pure' cough syrups, due to more people being aware of DXM's other effects.

Trust me, DXM, when used properly, gives you just about the strongest trip possible. Definately not a party drug, but one for very intense spiritual, physiological and self explorations. I've tried LSD, mushrooms, pot, and DXM has a much more intense trip than all of these combined. Kinda ironic, because DXM is easily available over the counter, compared to the illegals like LSD. I tripped with DXM about 20 times during a 2 year span (when I was 20-21), which brought many revealations and insights to myself. Especially when combined with a little bud smoking, the experience is completely out of this world: out-of-body experiences, rebirth experiences, exploring your conscious down to its inner core.

It is not an addictive drug, as the nature of its experience is not just a party thing like drinking, but almost a religious experience. (Provided that you treat it as such and don't abuse it.) I haven't done any drugs or drinking for a few years, but I continue to reflect upon the experiences and the thoughts it's given me. It's helped lead me on a different path thru life, becoming a successful modern artist and owning a profitable software corporation. It really helps you to think 'outside the box'. I'm not saying that DXM was the cause of all of that, it was the grace of God to shed His light on me and protect me, but the transcending experiences of that time of my life have had a huge impact on me.

More info on DXM:

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/faq/dxm_faq.shtml


I'm not advocating it's usage to anybody else, but just wanted to let you know that powerful things are possible from DXM. Don't treat it lightly!

People who do this are definitely playing with fire, though. If you don't know EXACTLY what you're doing, you could kill yourself.

I try not to go over one, it varies. At the moment i usually wake up with a coffee, one just before school, one at lunch, one after school, or maybe an energy drink, then they get randomly dotted with cups of tea thoughout the evening. I"m going to try and cut it right back in the hols so its more effective during the exams. A guy i know doing law had a friend acutally OD on caffine, not pretty.

You can OD on caffeine?? What happens?

Death and other not so deadly side effects

Thanks for the insights Robi. He actually did do a little research first, and heard (from who knows where) that children's Robitussin DM was supposed to be the "right" one to use, since they don't dope up the children's version with as many other drugs. Guess he was wrong though.

If the experience is as you describe, it's curious that this hasn't become more popular, or that DXM isn't regulated.

Most of the 'DM' varieties contain gauifenesin, which is supposed to make you vomit in case of overdose. Also, the children's version has a much lower concentration of DXM, meaning you need to drink even more of it. You can drink a whole bottle of the lower strength syrups and hardly feel anything... However, take 2 bottles of the maximum (and pure) syrups, and your level of existence is drastically altered!

DXM actually has been getting more regulated recently. I no longer use it, but once in a while I check out the 'flavors' available in stores to see what's around. I don't think Wal-Mart supplies the correct type anymore. Used to be able to get 8oz mega bottles (family size :) ) of the max strength, but that's rare these days. Though I'm worried that changes like that will make it more dangerous for those who try it in the future, because having less pure syrups around will cause more people to ingest the wrong chemicals. Research of people who have tried it shows that about 95% or more of all the problems that have occured from DXM is from taking the wrong syrups.

DXM isn't very popular for several reasons. First of all most people don't find it appealing to consume 8oz of cough syrup. Second, lots of people probably won't believe that you can buy such a powerful psychedelic over the counter. Third, a majority of the drug taking population is more interested in 'getting fucked up' or party drugs rather that a serious trip into the inner core of your conscious. ( Some people have told me they thought DXM was stupid - because they took it and tried hanging out at the mall or playing video games - which completely misses the point of where DXM can take you. I would mentally prepare for each trip sometimes weeks in advance, so that I would get the most out of it. Most people would rather party and not worry about stuff like that.) Fourth, as with any drug, DXM effects different people in different ways. The actual psychedelic properties come from when your body converts DXM into DXO. Only about 30% of humans have the correct enzymes in their body that allow the DXM - > DXO conversion, so your neuroreceptors can get the full effect. For those that can't achieve the complete effect, they will dismiss DXM as bunk and not worry about it again.

Anyway, I need to get back to my programming instead of rambling on about DXM.

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/...9673363447.jpg
popped up in a fark thread.