Is meth a right wing drug?

[reggie the dog]

I know cannabis is now used across the political spectrum but didn't it used to be a left wing thing in the 60's?

I was looking at a map which shows counties with lots of meth busts and i noticed that they are also heavily republican areas. Certain areas of Alaska also come to mind.


I was just wondering if meth was more of a right wing drug. As in right wing mindsets will appreciate meth more than a lefty. As with crack or powder cocaine snorted or smoked meth is a drug that makes people feel "on top of the world" and full of aggressive energy seems to me to be more of a lure for right wing types.

on the other hand MDMA (ecstacy) which promises feelings of empathy and love seems to be more like something those of us on the left would like.

What do you all think?

Are righties attracted to meth and cocaine, or does doing these drugs make one more of an individualistic asshole?

[madinmaryland]

1. Anyone can become addicted to drugs. There is no left wing or right

wing drug.

[ret5hd]

2. I do think meth stimulates right-wing parts of the brain...

rage, hate, paranoia, misanthropy, selfishness, etc.

[madinmaryland]

4. While it may stimulate what you call the "right wing" parts of the brain,

it can also be additive to anyone (right or left).

[EOTE]

9. That doesn't address the OP, though.

Which asks if those on the left or the right are more likely to partake. I think overall, drugs like coke and meth ARE right wing drugs. I know all I have to offer is anecdotes, but when I was in college, all the right wing blowhards did coke. My far more liberal friends smoked weed. Everyone is well aware that anyone can succumb to addiction, that doesn't mean that there can't be a correlation between choice of drugs and political affiliation.

[madinmaryland]

23. My point is, I don't think there really is a "right-wing" or "left-wing" drug

of choice. It would be interesting if there is actually any real statistics about this. Right now everyone is just offering anecdotal information. And my anecdotal information contradicts yours. :shrug:

[EOTE]

27. That's your opinion, which you earlier on stated as fact.

While I firmly believe there is a correlation between political leaning and choice of drugs, I don't claim it as definitive.

[LynneSin]

8. True but meth is more of a rural/suburb drug which tends to be red regions of the country...

where as crack/herion is found more in urban blue parts area.

But there is alot of overlap!

[madinmaryland]

22. You explained where it is found, but why did they start where they did?

Crack/heroin has also been around for a century.

Meth, from what I understand, is a couple of decades old, and was designed out of pseudofed.

[LynneSin]

26. Couple of decades? Hitler gave meth to his soldiers and pilots

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine#World_War_II

One of the earliest uses of methamphetamine was during World War II, when it was used by Axis and Allied forces.<10> The German military dispensed it under the trademark name Pervitin. It was widely distributed across rank and division, from elite forces to tank crews and aircraft personnel, with many millions of tablets being distributed throughout the war.<11> From 1942 until his death in 1945, Adolf Hitler may have been given intravenous injections of methamphetamine by his personal physician Theodor Morell. It is possible that it was used to treat Hitler's speculated Parkinson's disease, or that his Parkinson-like symptoms that developed from 1940 onwards resulted from using methamphetamine.<12> In Japan, methamphetamine was sold under the registered trademark of Philopon (ヒロポン, hiropon?) by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma for civilian and military use. As with the rest of the world at the time, the side effects of methamphetamine were not well studied, and regulation was not seen as necessary.

[MedicalAdmin]

50. It's been speculated that airmen brought the bathtub recipe back

after WW2.

I know that it tends to be manufactorer in the sticks (not exclusively, but it helps if you can get liquid fertilizer). And rural America is more red than blue, generally speaking.

[ret5hd]

30. Meth has been around since at least WWII

[Blue_In_AK]

56. That's not true about meth.

There was plenty of methamphetamine around back in the late '60s, it just wasn't the bathtub variety.

[reggie the dog]

17. true

but are right and left people drawn to different drugs due to differences in the highs?

[superduperfarleft]

3. :headdesk: n/t

[madinmaryland]

5. Yeah. I had similar thoughts also...

[reggie the dog]

18. oh what a cute bear, can i steal that photo from you???

[madinmaryland]

24. No problem.

It's from teh internets!

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. +1

[EOTE]

6. Makes sense to me.

Anecdotally, that seems to be what I've noticed. And the fact that the 80's were synonymous with coke seems to suggest you're right. As for your final question, I think both parts are correct. It's like a positive feedback loop. Righties are attracted to drugs like meth and coke. Once they do them/become addicted to them, they become even greater individualistic assholes.

[Taverner]

7. Drugs know no barriers. They just are.

Meth is popular among all walks, as is heroin, crack, coke etc....

The only drug that really belongs to the ultra-ultra poor is sniffing glue. Because its the cheapest way to leave your mind. ($5.99 and it will last you a month)

[Erose999]

10. The person to ask would be Charlie Sheen.

[Enthusiast]

11. Does meth make the user fucking insane?

If so that might explain the incredible level of insanity we are witnessing in elected Republicans today.

[trekbiker]

12. I grew up in a largely right wing rural community..

In my "experimental" stage in the 1970's alcohol and pot were pretty much the drug of both left and right. Cocaine was mostly right wing. One interesting drug was mushrooms. Right (redneck) friends of mine did not like shrooms and several had bad experiences on them. My left (post hippy) friends loved shrooms. I think it had to do with the way hallucinogens like acid and shrooms tear down the mental walls and psychological barriers and protections we all build up in life. Lefties would laugh and trip and righties would be terror struck. None of us were political back then in our late teens and early 20's but it was obvious who were on the left and who were on the right.

[yellerpup]

13. Timothy McVeigh was a tweaker.

He liked to sit up all night with his fake "army" buddies in the eastern mountains (LOL) of Oklahoma and dream of the revolution that would start once he brought down the Murrah Building in OKC. Meth has been a huge drug enforcement problem in AZ, OK, AR, and other places where conservatism rules. IMO, it just goes well with Rush, and Beck & G. Gordon Liddy's brand of gov'mint hatin'. It costs law enforcement in rural areas a fortune to clean up the aftermath of it's manufacture in hotel rooms and other places that have been used as labs.

[MedicalAdmin]

51. It ain't like the old days when you could just bust up the still...

... and pour out the mash.

Can't even burn it down because of the probability of shit blowing up or windage killing someone. Kinda interesting that it is basically the marriage of monsanto and Pfizer in a way. Better living through chemistry meets a bathtub.

[yellerpup]

62. Firefighters and police need biohazard suits to gather

evidence and do cleanup. Hotels/motels that were used as meth labs endanger the health of everyone who enters the room afterwards. Meth addicts are nearly impossible to rehabilitate; they abandon their kids or poison them with the byproducts of their addiction. They destroy their health and die young (or early if they are older when they begin) and it takes very little to hook them forever. Then there are the wider implications. :shrug:

[MedicalAdmin]

70. It's seriously bad juju. That's for sure.

I've helped do a clean up. Nothing beats a 100 degree day doing physicial labor in a hazmat suit.... There are some studies that once someone takes Meth it is a permanent addictive change - longitudinal studies are needed but some researchers believe that no one who takes it will ever get over it. What is known conclusively is that if it is taken even once it causes a permanent bio-chemical change in the brain.

Ironic that it was developed by the military, don't you think?

[yellerpup]

71. I did research on meth when I was working on a novel.

Also when researching the OKC bombing trying to find T. McVeigh's inspiration. My brother raised the child of a meth head from the time his mother got hooked (the kid was a young teen at the time) until she died from her addiction just after her child graduated college. Even the legendary maternal instinct is overridden by the bio-chemical change you mention. My elderly relatives have lost their life savings by supporting multiple revolving door rehabs for their addicted daughter. The effects are permanent and devastating. I did not run across the fact that it was developed by the military. Our military? Did our tax dollars pay for this swill? To what purpose, I wonder? I guess it would make soldiers who would feel bulletproof and insure that they would re-enlist in order to keep a steady supply. It is the perfect substance to ruin a person completely in a short time and never allow them to recover.

[MedicalAdmin]

74. Here's a link.

http://www.montgomerycountytn.org/County/sheriff/meth/methHistory.aspx


It was used extensively by air crews for keeping awake during long flights and to keep sharp for combat air to air combat. It's been around for a long time. It's a freaking plague.

[yellerpup]

75. Interesting that AZ has "no data" when they are

one of the most overrun of states. I actually had heard of pilots taking 'speed' to stay alert, etc., and my dad used to always have one of those OTC benzedrine inhalers that looked like Chapstick to me when I was a kid. I remember when he had to get off of it and know it caused a few tense scenes in our house back in the mid-60s, I think. It is a plague. Thanks for the link.

[MedicalAdmin]

76. That kind of Data is gathered by government agencies.

In arizona that would be considered bad, wasteful and inefficient.

and your are welcome. Glad to help.

[yellerpup]

72. dupe. Delete.

[sixmile]

14. Meth is more Libertarian

Ayn Rand followers mostly, and teabaggers...

[Shandris]

15. To paraphrase a similar line...

..It's not a left thing or a right thing, it's a death thing.

[slackmaster]

16. Meth is a drug for Village Idiots

If you aren't already a Village Idiot when you start using it, you will become one soon.

[ehrnst]

19. Lower middle/working class whites are the primary users of Meth. (nt)

[reggie the dog]

20. don't most working class whites

vote Republican? I know its fucked up, the base of the right wing here in france is the white working class too, it blows my mind.

[JVS]

21. Meth is a rural drug, crack is an urban drug. The reason that meth is rural...

is that these are areas too isolated to be part of the patchwork operation that is the US cocaine supply network. Similarly, rural areas tend to get bypassed by the heroin trade, and turn to opiod painkillers. The common link between these drugs is that in the absence of the high grade illegal narcotics, people in the country turn to the legal drugs of the pharmacy as the source material for their drugs.

[madinmaryland]

25. Thanks for that explanation. That is the closest to anything that makes

sense in this thread.

[LynneSin]

29. Very difficult to build a meth lab in an urban setting - the neighbors would smell it

although I am sure there are those that tried.

[KamaAina]

35. Honolulu used to have about one apartment lab bust a month

until the big shipments started coming in from Mexico and the Philippines.

[NICO9000]

28. Don't think so

I agree with everyone posting that drugs know no particular ideology. Back in the Raygun days, I knew plenty of sorta-conservative guys who had no trouble sparking one up or hoovering up lines of coke. I've always thought that pot and the psychedelic drugs should make people more liberal as they do help op
That said, I never thought I'd see the day that meth/speed/crank would be as popular as it is these days. What on earth do you do if you stay up for days at a time? It's not like the average tweaker has some high-powered job he or she can devote all their time to ala the cocaine-fueled yuppies of the 80s.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[reggie the dog]

33. why?

Like I said i was looking at maps of counties with high levels of meth lab busts and noticed that it quite often correlated to right wing voting counties. why is this stupid?

[walldude]

39. It's not. But you are talking to people with limited drug experience

or a closed mind as is obvious by the generic answers.

Yes what you are asking is true in a sense. Speed, Meth, Coke while used by the liberal mind as well, are "aggressive" drugs and could be considered "right". While your hallucinogenics, pot, mushrooms, X, acid would be considered more "left" drugs.

Nothing is set in stone but you will not find many conservative users of hallucinogenics as the use of them expands the mind and Republicans are nothing if not closed minded.

Ignore the people who jump right out of the gate and call your post stupid, they are ignorant on the subject, it's not their fault.

[zappaman]

32. Nope

Meth has taken up residence at Venice Beach, CA.
You can't get much more liberal than Venice!
Drugs don't see age, sex, ethnicity, or religion, so drugs certainly don't see political affiliation.

[Rebubula]

34. Another awesome post...

...that tries (for whatever reason) to tie one character flaw to another and make it political.

Correlation does NOT equal causation.

I would further say that almost all Meth users are simply stupid and not concerned with politics.

[reggie the dog]

41. i never said their was causation

i simply posed the question as to whether or not their was after noticing the correlation. hence the "is" at the beginning of my op

[KamaAina]

36. Well, it makes you stupid,

so yes. :P

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[reggie the dog]

43. I asked a question.

i din't say "meth is a right wing drug" i asked the question because i noticed correlation between meth lab bust rates and voting right wing on county by county maps. i then had the idea that perhaps people are attracted to certain drugs because of their personalities and that these same personality tendencies would make us into right or left wing voters too. like that mdma gives feeling of empathy (somthing i associate with liberals, not conservatives) and meth using people tend to be arrogant and self centered (both personality traits that i would assosiate with the right wing).

[Shagbark Hickory]

40. Show me some stats and I'll tell you what I think. Until then, I'll refrain from calling you names.

Cuz I'm not an asshole.

[reggie the dog]

42. just the maps i was looking at of my home state

http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/images/Quick%20Facts/Special%20Projects/Meth/MAP1/methsz03_full.htm


http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=17&year=2004


plus take into account that meth is more poplular in places like wyoming than it is in chicago.

[Shagbark Hickory]

45. Unless I am confuzzled, it looks like the most meth seizures are in blue zones.

[reggie the dog]

58. They are, blue is Republican on this map and red is Democrat

Blue zones voted bush and red zones voted kerry. perhaps the map was made by an english person? at any rate in the rest of the world they do as on this map red=left (communist) and blue = right (capitalist) Hardly any meth busts in cook county (chicago) which voted kerry yet many of the counties shaded in blue (republican voting on this map) also have lots of meth lab busts.

[Shagbark Hickory]

63. Yep. Sure enough. I can't believe that many people in IL voted for bush in '04

Especially since it looks like the bluer (redder) you get, is around chicago. That's the opposite of what I would think would be the case.
How about 08 election. Same thing?

[reggie the dog]

64. cook county votes on the left all the time, chicago is in cook county

the suburbs on the other hand are often on the right but here is the 2008 map http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=17&year=2008

[Shagbark Hickory]

65. They need to swap those colors. So confusing. Anyway, was there a decrease in meth seizures in 08? n

[reggie the dog]

68. i dont have maps for 08 to see

[Shagbark Hickory]

69. Well then there really isn't a broad enough range of samples for me to formulate a conclusion then .

My original perception was that meth originated in and was most prevalent on the west coast. I know it has since spread like wildfire but I'm more inclined to think if anything, it's a left coast drug but like I said, some stats are really needed to form a conclusion based on fact rather than observation from one election poll.

[WildEyedLiberal]

73. You're from Illinois but you think rural meth use is about politics?

How clueless can you get? Do you even know how meth is made? Anhydrous ammonia is a major ingredient in meth-making, and it also happens to be a very common for use on farms. The ingredients to make meth are far easier to find in farm country than they are in the city, and similarly, rural areas don't get the coke and heroin traffic that cities do. It's a matter of access, not politics. That's why your OP is getting well-deserved scorn.

[ileus]

44. I think you'll find most methmouths are nonpolitical.

[Kievan Rus]

46. Unrec. Not everything is politicized.

[Bucky]

47. I've always thought of meth being more neoliberal, although it aligns with Chicago School economics.

Republican drugs are more your oxycontin, Thalidomide, and Doan's Back Pills.

[RadiationTherapy]

48. It does seem that the behaviors of meth heads are more "amygdala oriented"

than that of pot users.

[JonLP24]

49. I'm a far left guy

and I used and loved the drug. No longer use but that is because it is not as prevelant as it used to be.

[SOS]

52. George Carlin succinctly explained all drug use

He said people use drugs because drugs make them feel better.

The meth question is probably one of distribution.
Imported drugs like cocaine end up in cities and don't make their way out to rural areas.

So the folks in these "under served" areas cook their own (horrible) stimulants.

Demand and distribution are a more likely explanation than political views.
Seems unlikely that a hard core tweaker would bother to vote, one way or another.

[spanone]

53. no, it just makes you imitate a winger...the empty eyes, reduced brain-function

[YellowRubberDuckie]

54. Meth is a drug of POVERTY.

I don't know if it has political leanings, but most of the people who take it are uneducated, so maybe.

[uppityperson]

57. That could be a correlation except I know educated people who use it also.

Meth is everywhere, people I know who use it are from all over the political spectrum. Not sure if or why it is primarily rural, due to it's toxicity when being made perhaps? I know people who are educated who started meth, some who aren't. I'm not going to make a broad statement based on who I know, because it seems like all sorts.

[Blue_In_AK]

55. Well, as you've mentioned,

there IS Wasilla, the right armpit of Alaska.

[eridani]

59. More like a rural drug

Sort of like crack is an urban drug.

Rural areas are more socially conservative, though often populist.

[w8liftinglady]

60. I live in Meth Mecca. Most of the meth heads I know are apolitical

meth is cheap and easily addictive.

Rural meth labs seem to be the trend.

We are 90% Republican... but I don't think these folks voted.

[old mark]

61. K&R- It is a drug for stupids...If you are not stupid when you start, you rapidly become so....nt

[rucky]

66. Meth is an All-American drug.

It appeals to our sense that we need to do more, better, faster. Or conversely, we're not successful because we don't do enough, well enough or fast enough. But once you enter the rat-race that is meth, you learn that you can never hold that edge for long without more, more, more... Then it begins to wear you down. Then it destroys you.

In America, the arc of the meth addict is an enhanced version of the arc of the American Worker.

[HughBeaumont]

67. Greed, Reaganomics and bastardry are right wing drugs.

And those shits just can't lap themselves up enough of them!





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