Speed

Does speed melt your stomach?

THERE'S a popular story doing the rounds among clubbers at the moment. It concerns a TV programme back in the day which examined the effects of amphetamine sulphate, aka speed. The presenter, so the tale goes, put a wrap of speed on a piece of steak which started bubbling and dissolving. "And that," he gravely told the camera, "is what it does to your stomach".
It's about as true as any other daft drug myth. But taking speed is dangerous, and there's more to it than the acknowledged side-effects of sleeplessness, crashing downers, and paranoia.

The most common way of taking speed ­ leading to its Manchester nickname of 'poor man's cocaine' ­ is of chopping the powder into lines and snorting it with a rolled-up banknote or off a bit of card. However, increased club security since the Barry Legg Act became law has led to bouncers monitoring drug use in cubicles much more heavily these days.
Enter the 'speed bomb', much like the powder version of a ready-rolled spliff. The drug user deposits a small amount of powder in a cigarette paper, then twists it shut to form a miniature package. When swallowed, the thin paper lining dissolves quickly in the stomach, releasing the speed.

The 'advantage' of taking speed in this way is pretty obvious. You can pop it as quickly and surreptitiously as a pill. You don't have to muck about in a toilet cubicle and risk getting caught and chucked out by a bouncer. "It works more slowly," explains Mike Linnell, of Manchester drugs agency Lifeline. "It's impossible to say how much more slowly. That depends on what else has been consumed and eaten beforehand, but you also don't get as much of it."

SO why do people get stomach pains when they swallow speed bombs? Their stomachs aren't melting; they're suffering from gastritis, or stomach wall inflation. Dr Mark Holman, a doctor at Colchester Psychiatric Unit, says there are several ways this can happen.
First, if you're taking speed, the likelihood is that you're doing it on an empty stomach. You're certainly not going to be eating after you've taken it. This means the acid in your stomach is unbuffered by food. But a more significant effect of amphetamines on the nervous system is a decrease in blood flow to the stomach wall ­ with dangerous consequences.

"The stomach wall is protected from the stomach acid by a layer of mucus," explains Dr Holman, "The amount of mucus produced is proportional to blood supply ­ so less blood leads to less mucus." The stomach wall is also protected from the acid by a layer of bicarbonate, which is held in place by the mucus. The speed-induced lower blood supply reduces the secretion of bicarbonate as well.

Taking speed therefore leaves the stomach acid to act on the gut, leading to inflammation of your stomach: in other words, the shooting pains and acute discomfort that follow bombing speed. In the long term, the stomach acid eats away at the stomach lining, leading to ulcers. If enough of the stomach wall is eaten away, blood vessels will be exposed, resulting to bleeding directly into the stomach, and eventually death.

Speed continue