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Too much speed can leave your head in a mess.
If you use speed regularly your mind can get a bit messed up and start playing tricks on you. At first you’ll probably know what’s going on is from all the speed... but if you keep using you may start to believe these things and no longer understand it’s because of your drug use. This is commonly referred to as psychosis.

A break from speed (and cannabis, if you use it) is usually enough to get things back to normal.

If you’re a regular speed user, you should take a break if you:

• keep having strange thoughts that won’t go away;
   
• feel overly suspicious of your friends or other people; are imagining things that aren’t really there;
   
• feel like you are being watched or noticed by more people;
   
• feel extremely jealous towards others;
   
• have been using speed for days at a time or regularly on weekends; or
   
• experience anxiety or depression.

If taking a break doesn’t help, see a doctor.

In Queensland, for further information on speed and other drug use contact the Alcohol and Drug Information Service on (07) 3236 2414 or regional freecall on 1800 177 833.

Below is the information the briefing paper gives to pharmacists to support the text on the calendar card.
It will hopefully be of interest both to professionals and injecting drug users.

Speed’ is the generic term used by drug users to refer to a range of amphetamine-based stimulants including amphetamine and methylamphetamine, but it is not used to describe amphetamine analogues like MDMA (or ‘ecstasy’) or cocaine.

Speed comes in a variety of forms. It is available as white, yellow, pink or brown powder, tablets, and as an orange-brown putty-like substance called ‘base’ (a high purity form of the drug).

Another potent form of speed is crystalline methylamphetamine hydrochloride or ‘ice’ - a purified form of methylamphetamine which resembles a transparent rock-like crystal with a pink, blue or green colour.

Speed can, depending on the form, be sniffed up the nose - ‘snorted’ - swallowed, injected, or smoked.

Amphetamines and cocaine are potent central nervous system stimulants that give feelings of high energy, assertiveness and confidence. Amphetamine gives a less intense, but much longer lasting high than cocaine (or crack, which is a smokeable form of cocaine).

Although there is no clear physical withdrawal syndrome from daily stimulant use, there can be clear symptoms of psychological dependence, and stopping often induces depression, extreme mood swings, and fatigue.

Heavy use, and use by vulnerable individuals, can lead to increasing levels of paranoid thinking and this can easily turn into a psychotic illness.

Key intervention points
If heavy use is causing paranoia or depression a break from both stimulant and hallucinogen use (including cannabis) is usually enough to allow the person to recover.

It is important to stop taking cannabis because although most drug users think of it as a depressant - and therefore suitable ‘self medication’ for distressing paranoid thoughts - it is, in fact, a hallucinogen that achieves it’s effect by altering perception.

When taken by people suffering from paranoia or other psychotic disorders, cannabis often has the effect of providing short term relief (during acute intoxication) followed by exacerbation of the original symptoms.

If paranoid symptoms become very powerful, or if taking a break doesn’t help things, stimulant users should be encouraged to seek medical advice as they usually respond well to anti-psychotic medication.

Further reading
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. (1999). A Users’ Guide to Speed. Sydney: NDARC.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. (2000). Club Drugs. Sydney: NDARC.

Queensland Intravenous AIDS Association. (1996). A Guide to Safer Speedin’ - Starring Go-ee the Goanna. Brisbane: QuIVAA.

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