Especially those where "productivity" in shitty jobs is expected and rewarded, and in communities that are oppressive and, let's be honest, fucking boring.
It's a rare person who won't escalate their use of amphetamines in such circumstances.
Many of the problems of methamphetamines can be attributed to the illegality and gross impurity of illicit sources. As with all addictions, non-judgmental clinical assistance is the only reliable solution, even if that requires indefinite supervised use of prescription medicines or alcohol.
Paul Erdős, one of the great mathematicians of history, used amphetamines. But he had pure legal and quasi-legal sources and he never escalated his use. He tried not using amphetamines occasionally and felt that hurt his ability to do the math. I'd speculate he's one of the rarer people who could use amphetamines as an anti-depressant. Brain chemistry is a complicated subject.
Personally, I'm not fond of any drugs, legal or illegal, except maybe beer, and I can take that or leave it. I usually leave it when I feel I'm gaining fat and losing muscle. The first time I got drunk was in my twenties, while most alcoholics start drinking heavily in their teens. But I do have a dangerous family history.
I joke here on DU sometimes that when I want to get high, all I have to do is quit my meds, which are currently anti-psychotics and an anti-depressant. My own depression is not the stay-in-bed sort, it's the "I think I'll go swim with the sharks" sort. There's a strong OCD component to it. I used to run obsessively too, so much that my knees and hips curse me all day and night.
Back to your original post, I think the "War on Drugs" has killed and maimed too many people. It ought to be easy for anyone with an addiction to get help, without fear of entanglement with our sometimes barbaric legal system. We also need to start thinking about what's wrong with our communities and society that so many people suffer addiction.
If people were dying left-and-right of cholera, we'd want to know where it was coming from, we'd want to know the fundamental reason people are getting sick. Is our sewage treatment inadequate? What?
Addictions are just another illness, but maybe we don't want to know where that's coming from, maybe we don't want to know what's fundamentally wrong with our society. Or maybe deep down we do know, but we don't want to face it.
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