By BVN Staff

Drugs of any kind can have severe effects on those who use and abuse them. But crystal meth is its own "hell on earth" for those who come under its spell.  It's cheap and provides a high that lasts for hours, even days. It pumps up the sex drive and makes users feel super human.

It's known by many names: meth, crystal, ice, methamphetamine, speed, crank, glass, yaba, tina and many others. Methamphetamine is also extremely addictive and is plowing through the nation, from coast to coast and from city to countryside, leaving behind a trail of broken families and destroyed lives.

After years of being labeled the "poor man's drug" the facts are meth is used by teenagers who just want a little extra edge when studying for a test. It's used by young girls who want to control their weight. And it's used by guys who want a little more out of a sexual experience. Meth users (also called "tweakers") can be students, professionals, city folk, or urban dwellers, dirt poor, celebrity rich, and members of any ethnic background.  

From the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's official website to YouTube photographs of meth addicts depict the horrors of addiction: faces that seem to have the life sucked out of them, sunken eyes that indicate days or weeks without sleep, wasting bodies from malnutrition, mouths riddled with sores and missing or rotting teeth.

Methamphetamine, known as crystal meth, despite its destructive result, more and more people are abusing the drug.

Typically those babies suffer the consequences of withdrawal as soon as they are born.

The disastrous effects of methamphetamine addiction have been well documented since the drug became widely popular more than a decade ago.

In 2005 the U.S. Senate stepped in, with legislation - modeled after several state laws - that locks up cold medicines that provide meth's most common ingredient, pseudoephedrine, into cabinets or behind pharmacy counters in drugstores and requires customers to show ID before purchasing the medications.

But despite the efforts of the government and the heart wrenching tales of destruction and pain that result from meth addiction, more and more people are abusing the drug.  About 8 percent or 15 million people said they used the drug, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The chemical structure of methamphetamine makes it especially addictive, according to experts on the drug. The euphoric rush and larger-than-life feelings that accompany the highs are the product of large amounts of dopamine being released in the brain.

Meth addicts frequently become severely depressed by the resulting chemical imbalance.

Controlled studies show that frequent or prolonged use of the drug rewires neural circuitry, especially the parts of the brain associated with decision-making and motor mentor function.

Recovery from the functional changes that occur in a meth user's head can take years. Some people, however never recover, and scientists are finding more and more evidence of death due to meth related stroke or cardiac arrest.