[Crystal Myths: Methamphetamine & Misinformation]
Because it is a powerful stimulant which increases energy and libido along with its early association with motorcycle gangs, meth has been unfairly accused as the underlying cause in numerous rape, assault and murder cases. Even liberal poet Allen Ginsberg in his 1965 interview with the Los Angeles Free Press complained, “All the nice gentle dope fiends are getting screwed up by the real horror monster Frankenstein speed freaks.” Even today sensationalist stories like the following persist:
Father beheads 14 year old son he believes was possessed by Satan.
Four-year-old girl discovered beaten to death by her parents.
Ex-National Guardsman steals tank . . . crushes cars.(lmao)
In each of these cases, Meth was deemed the culprit. Grisly details of the above were used by the DEA in testimony before Congress and the Attorney General of California in his re-election campaign. Anyone even remotely familiar with the effects of meth know such accusations to be ludicrous. Even the US Department of Justice was forced to admit no such link exists. The findings were reported in Meth Matters – a study of abuse of the drug in five western cities, issued by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) in 1999 during a meeting of the Methamphetamine Interagency Task Force. It revealed that meth users were “significantly less likely than other drug arrestees to be charged with a violent offense.” Jack Riley, director of the NIJ’s drug-abuse monitoring efforts, said the results were not surprising. It’s a common misconception that methamphetamine is concretely linked to violent crime. I’ve never seen that before, just as it was never observable with cocaine,” Riley said.
In an Australian study of 309 active methamphetamine users, 18% had experienced a clinical level psychosis in the past year.
I've been doing meth pretty much daily for almost a year and never once has it made me violent.
I've never hallucinated from meth. There was one time I got mildly delusional, but I was very aware that it was an effect from the drug and not reality. It happened about 48 hours into a binge after a ~150mg dose(I didn't mean to do anywhere near that much :( ).
Meth does not cause non violent people toact violently except in very extreme cases.