"Speed"  Methylamphetamine
                                                                        Andy Dittrich
                                                                        English 102

	Since I have started school at U.N.R, I have been expose to a more variety of drugs than high school.  Speed (Methylamphtamine) is a drug that I totally despise.  I was in shock because I did not realize how many students were addicts to this drug.  I have always known what this drug does to people because I know someone that is addict to speed.  The drug is one of the most addicting drugs out there and I hope the information I  have researched on can make you never think twice about trying this addicting drug.
	Speed is a stimulant, a drug that can make one feel cheerful and wide awake for days after days.  Students use the drug for intensive study habits or during depressing moments of school.  On Speed, users never want to eat because the drug shrivels up their stomach that causes massive weight loss.  One of the reasons' women use the drug is to lose weight, which is an extremely unhealthy way of doing it.  What Speed  does is it effects the middle nervous system, and stimulates the brain.  The drug causes insomnia, restlessness, and a fake sense of acting normal.  People either snort the drug up the nose or smoke it through the mouth.  After staying up for days on Speed the drug where's off and a person will sleep for days, there is a larger fatigue and one will be so damn depressed.
	I stopped talking to a friend because he was so addicted to this horrible drug called Speed.  One thing I noticed is he was a totally different person when he was using speed.  Whenever he was high on the drug he was a great guy with all this incredible energy, nothing would ever possibly make him upset.  Though when the drug wore off he was so grouchy that no one could stand a single bit of being around him.  Every little thing you did when he was coming down on Speed annoyed him and it made me wonder if I was wrong at times.  I remember a group of us walking through the mall one day and we were teasing him about some girl he was courting at the time.  He had not been on the drug at the time and was upset he couldn't find any because he was so addicted.  The next thing you know he was trying to fight me in the middle of the whole mall.  My other friends had to hold him down on the ground because he was so out of control.  Till that day I have always thought that people exaggerated on how addicting and nerve wrecking the drug could be.  Apparently for me to realize how addicting the drug could be was I had to witness it first hand by someone I knew.  
	I never knew till this research that using Speed can cause heart failure, increases blood-pressure, disorientation and even cause one to hallucinate.  I have noticed first hand that when a person is in denial about being addicted to the drug is when they are addicted.  My friend used the drug for so long that he even knew how to disguise his addiction so good.  Every time I explained him that the drug controlled him, he would just deny it.  He would always say, "There are users and there are abusers and all I am is a user."  
	It is a horrible fact that students at this school often use Speed before and during exams.  I can understand  that one needs to stay alert and ready during exam time, but the only reason students use the drug is because of their bad study habits.  When studying, the drug will keep you so wired and you will study more in one hour than you ever could before.  This drug will sure enough change one's personality to the extreme.  People use the drug for all sorts of reasons.  Often times when people can not keep up with their work, need to lose weight, depressed, insecure, loneliness and insecure about themselves.  
	Over all I feel sad about this whole issue and I wish the drug would be demolished off the face of this world.  After all the trauma people in this society go through some people let a yellowish powder substance control their lives.  I feel drugs in our society is a big issue and people need to pull together to stay drug free.  In my opinion the war on drugs is the war on people.  Drugs have always been in our society forever and I feel the best thing we as people can do is just educate our youth of the dangers of drugs.  I just feel that people will always be exposed to drugs as a metaphor to there are good choices and there are bad choices.  What made me write this paper is that students on this campus use this drug and it is a problem we as people can not ignore.  I hope some of my personnel experiences and facts I have mentioned about this drug can be a learning  experience for you and keep you from trying it.