Page 10-Wednesday, June 9, 1982-The Michigan Daily
Speed market flourishes in city
I
(Continuedfrom Page 1)
especially females, are turning to pills
instead of turning away food.
BUT SPEED GETS the system so
worked up, hunger is forgotten. Another
reason speed is preferred to over-the-
counter drugs is that speed is stronger
and more dependable. It will keep you
going - but it is also harsher on the
body than an over-the-counter drug.
David, who desperately needed to get
a "hit" to keep him studying, works as
a waiter at two restaurants and takes
classes at the University. He doesn't
sleep much, but he is hoping to earn
enough money and learn enough
Chinese to go to Taiwan next year.
"I went in to Health Service for a sore
throat," David said as he pecked a
cigarette and quickly blew the smoke to
the side. "The doctor took my blood
pressure and said, 'Boy, you're not
going to see 30.' "
DAVID LIT another cigarette and
continued, "I know I'm killing myself,
but I have no time to do anything but
survive right now."
David, only 20 years old, looks like he
has survived a world war first hand.
His eyes, veiled in a netting of blood
vessels, are sunk into a face still
covered with more peach fuzz than
beard.
"If I run tomorrow, I can bring my
Renta a r
from
Eco no-Car
We rent to
19TYR. OLD
STUDENTS!f
blood pressure down in no time," David
said. He laughed, "You know, I'll
probably have to take something to get
me going so that I can go running."
IT IS A vicious cycle. You take speed
to get things done. Two days later, your
system it so drained of energy that it
takes a day or two to recover. But
there's more work to do. Maybe it's a
term paper, or a reading assignment.
Or may a shift at work. And you need
more speed. Though not an addiction at
first, speed becomes a necessity. But
the vicious cycle turns faster and
faster. Faster than the stacatto of the
prickly tingling in your fingertips and
nose that sometimes come with the use
of speed.
You need speed now because your
body depends on it to get up in the mor-
ning like other people depend on a cup
of coffee. Although you know that what
you're doing to your body is lethal, you
have no time to recover. Not until the
semester's over, at least. Not until all of
your work is finished. Then you can
relax. Not yet, though ...
RHONDA SMITH, a registered nurse
who works in both the Emergency unit
and Poison Information at University
Hospital, knows of a girl whose body
couldn't wait for her to relax.
"She came in just before
Thanksgiving," Smith recalls. "Only 21
years old, and she died of a heart at-
tack. We couldn't figure out why. There
wasn't anything, you know, drugs or
what-have-you, in her system to the ex-
tent that it would cause a heart attack.
She was pretty healthy too. But then we
went into her purse and found some
pills. Amphetamines. They probably
gradually did her in."
Smith said that not many people
come to the Emergency Unit on a speed
overdose because their friends can
usually "bring them down." People are
afraid of getting involved both with the
police and a reprimanding medical
staff, she said.
IRONICALLY, THE University
Hospital plays a significant role on the
supply side of the speed market in Ann
Arbor. Medical students, and more
frequently, the immediate family of a
doctor, find ways to siphon the drugs in-
to the mouths of the general public.
For instance, the son of a University,
Hospital doctor would merely walk into
his father's study, reach into an enor-
mous glass display jar full of capsules
and pills, and take out whatever his
customers requested. His father very
recently caught his son with his hands
VARIOUS SAMPLES OF the drug known as 'speed' are displayed.
in the cookie jar, so to speak, and his
clientele had to look elsewhere - but
not very hard - for a new supplier.
Speed is most commonly recognized
as a white pill resembling penacillin, or
in small tablets. Other pills, such as
large black, translucent capsules
known as Black Beauties, a
biphetamine, or capsules resembling
perhaps Contac cold medicine are also
popular.
THE PRICE FOR a hit, or a pill,
ranges from 25 cents to one dollar,
depending on how much is available at
a given time. Around finals and mid
term time, speed averages 50 cents to a
dollar-twenty-five a hit - if you can
find it.
Choose from small
economical cars to
vans.
Special
WEEKEND
rates
Pick up services
upon request
We accept
cash deposits
OPEN 7
DAYS A WEEK
ECONO-CAR
A GELCO COMPANY
438 W. Huron
761-8845
ANN ARBOR
Cocaine deaths triple,
ATLANTA (UPI)-Cocaine deaths
have tripled in the past six years and
many users who don't die suffer such
ugly side effects as facial disfiguration
and hallucinations their skin is
crawling with insects, federal health of-
ficials said.
The National Centers for Disease
Control, citing recent statistics from
the National Institute of Drug Abuse,
said almost 10 million Americans are
now snorting, injecting or "freebasing"
the drug, which a study in the 1970's
concluded had little effect on society.
Edgar Adams, associate director for
epidemiology at the National Institute
on Drug Abuse, said latest figures
showed 61 deaths in 1976 and 272 deaths
in 1980. Cocaine-related emergencies,
he said, were up from 1,200 in 1976 to
4,400 in 1981.
THE CDC SAID the dangers involved
in cocaine use "include consequences of
both acute and chronic use."
Acute toxicity, similar to that caused
by amphetamines, is characterized by
nervousness, dizziness, blurred vision
and tremors, and may lead to con-
vulsions, cardiac arrhythmias and
respiratory arrest, the health agency
said.
Chronic use, the CDC said, can
produce ulceration and perforation of
the nasal septum, weight loss, insomnia
anxiety, paranoia, fomication , a sen-
sation as of small insects crawling over
the skin, and hallucination.
ADAMS EXPLAINED heavy cocaine
use could cause the bone structure in
the nose to collapse. He said the drug
could also cause a decaying in the nose
and "cocaine window," which is a hole
in the nose.
The CDC, in its weekly Morbidity and
Mortality Report, said there had been
changes in the route of administration
In dorms, speed is the most expen-
sive, and the lowest in quality, because
the dorm residents don't know where
else to look for it, and in many cases,
they really don't know what they're
buying.
On the top floor of a notorious Univer-
sity dorm, "The Doctors" is scrawled
across a memo board on one of the
doors. "Doctor" is slang for a pill ped-
dler, and behind the door of "The Doc-
tors" memo board live not pre-med
students; but three engineers: Ari,
Bob, and Phil. Phil did most of the
talking.
"I CAN SELL you some speed for 60
See SPEED, Page 11
study says
of the drug from inhaling or "snorting"
to intravenous administration and
freebasing, or processing the concaine
into a pure form by removing the
hydrochloride base and then smoking
the freebase.
Smoking and injecting cocaine into the
bloodstream results in more immediate
and direct absorption of the drug and
produces a quicker and more intense
euphoria, while at the same time sub-
stantially increasing the possibility of
acute toxic reaction, the health agency
said.
Two-thirds of the self-reported
cocaine users were between the ages of
18 and 25, according to the agency.
Males outnumbered females by more
than two to one, both in the use of
cocaine and in the number of non-fatal
cocaine-related emergencies. More
whites used the drug than non-whites,
by a ratio of 7-1.
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