Methamphetamine In Australia Essay

The use of methamphetamine may result in severe psychological effects due to the impairment of the brain, through dopamine depletion as the main example. Australia has one of the highest rates of methamphetamine use in the world, with around 2.5% of Australians having used methamphetamine in the last 14 years.
As methamphetamine enters the brain, dopamine is released in concentrations ten times higher than normal. This excessive release of dopamine produces pleasure and cause the user to feel energetic, joyful and alert. The listed symptoms can persist for several hours as methamphetamine is slowly metabolised and excreted from the body. The “high” stage of methamphetamine binging lasts for approximately 8-24 hours, with only 50% of the …show more content…
Methamphetamine is highly addictive, which causes the brain to speedily build a tolerance to the drug, leading to the cycle of dependence and abuse, a chronic relapsing brain disease that drives compulsive drug consumption. This occurs in the “crash” stage, where the user experiences severe depression, irritability and fatigue and requires more of the drug to experience the high stage, which places further high demands on the dopamine …show more content…
In regards to methamphetamine abuse statistics, the same population with depressive symptoms commonly declined treatment, owing to impaired foresight from the addiction. A methamphetamine user who is in the process of recovering from addiction relapses when they “return to the consistent pattern of addictive behaviour” after a duration of abstinence. The relapse rate from The National Institute of Drug Abuse in methamphetamine use disorder recovery programs is estimated to be approximately