• Severe weight loss - sometimes up to 50 - 100 pounds.

• Rotting teeth - teeth may first turn gray, then black; gum disease brought on by constriction of the gums' blood vessels can cause loss of teeth.

• Body odor - user loses interest in personal hygiene. The chemicals used to manufacture meth are excreted through the perspiration and emit a bad smell.

• Scars and open sores - hallucinations cause the user to scratch or gouge at imaginary "bugs." The body also releases histamines which causes itching.

• Inability to sleep for hours or days, followed by severe agitation and a sedated crash lasting many hours or for days.

Psychological/Behavioral Symptoms:

Due to the drug's ability to overwhelm and over-stimulate the users' nervous system, chronic meth users may experience any or all of the following:

• Initial euphoria - a feeling of great happiness or well-being; bliss.

• Depression - feelings of sadness, dejection.

• Delusion - a false belief held as a result of self-deception mental disorder.

• Psychosis - a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by deterioration of normal intellectual and social functioning and by withdrawal from reality.

• Paranoia - a chronic psychosis characterized by delusions of persecution or of grandeur.

• Violence - physical force exerted to violate, damage, or abuse.

From Meth - The Great Deceiver - produced by the California Department of Justice, Crime and Violence Prevention Center (916) 324-7863, www.caag.state.ca.us/cvpc - See also: Stop Drugs www.stopdrugs.org.