[Methamphetamine abuse by smoking].

Abstract

Three cases of methamphetamine abuse by smoking were reported. The oral intake and the intravenous injection of the drug are usually adopted, and the smoking is recently found among the stimulant abusers in Japan. The stimulant is heated on a piece of aluminium foil with a lighter and its smoke is inhaled with a straw or a paper pipe. The intake means are identical to "crystal or ice" in Hawaii, although a special glass pipe or a cigarette is not used here. The effect of the drug obtained by smoking is more slack and mild than that by a intravenous injection, although the drug of the double dose is used in the smoking. Two cases changed the intake means from the injection to the smoking because of no guilty feeling and a lack of injection marks and evident proofs of illegal use. Therefore, abuse of methamphetamine by smoking is thought to increase in near future in Japan, and the delusion of arrest by policemen observed frequently in the stimulant abusers maybe decreases as a result of a decrease in the psychological stress of guilty.