World trends and problems of amphetamine abuse.

Abstract

World trends and problems of amphetamine and methamphetamine abuse, were described. Since the world seizures of the controlled drugs such as opiates, heroin, cocaine, cannabis and other psychotropic substances have rapidly increased in recent years, the author focused on the world-wide spread of amphetamine abuse. The world seizure of stimulant including amphetamines in 1987 has increased by 5-6 fold over in 1982. The trends of amphetamine abuse in many countries were summarized and this report pointed out the past and present problems of amphetamine abuse in U.S.A., Sweden, and Japan. In west coast regions of U.S.A., methamphetamine abuse has surprisingly spread in recent years. The increases of clandestine laboratory have become a big problem in US western states. The trends of amphetamine abuse patterns were introduced. Because of the great risk of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome with intravenous injection drug use, abuse patterns have been changing from injection to inhalation of amphetamines. About a new smokable methamphetamine, so-called "ice", its chemical and pharmacological characters were discussed and its toxicity also described. Additionally, concerning psychotropic drugs chemically and pharmacologically similar to amphetamines, their histories and hallucinogenic activities were described. In paticular, the epidemiologic topics of 3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) called the rivival of LSD was described.