Meth users are compared to thrill seekers

Methamphetamine use is a lot like base jumping. According to Dr. Paul Gahlinger, from the University of Utah's Department of Preventative Medicine, both users and jumpers yearn to feel more "alive."

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"Someone who experiences ecstasy, of course they are going to want to come back to it, and preferably soon," Gahlinger said.

Meth use, he added, makes shy people more sociable and sluggish people more energetic, and gives people with a fuzzy intellect instant clarity.

"For the first time I felt truly awake, completely alive," Gahlinger said, quoting a meth user.

But just like base jumping off a radio tower, downtown building or rocky cliff without a back-up chute, meth use has its risks. And Gahlinger said people know the risks.

"Education and especially invoking fear, 'Look this is dangerous, don't do it,' that doesn't work with everyone — in fact it may attract some," Gahlinger said.

Gahlinger addressed the cause and prevention of methamphetamine use during the first-ever national health conference on meth at the Hilton in downtown Salt Lake City. The conference, Science and Response 2005, brought in an estimated 900 visitors from as far away as Australia. Meth use has been popular for at least half a century, Gahlinger said. But, he said, one doesn't have to look very far to find the answer to why meth use is an issue today. It is a very powerful stimulant, he said.

"When you sit around all day doing nothing except watching TV, you think, one, 'How great life is out there,' and two, 'How impoverished your own life is,' " Gahlinger said.

Meth is also easily manufactured and easily shipped, he added.

In previous times, Gahlinger said, there were natural rites of ages that allowed young people to experience "feeling alive." Young men were sent to war and young women gave birth, he said.

"A woman giving birth, before this modern time, was more dangerous than a man going to war," Gahlinger said. "We don't have those transitions anymore. We have people who want to feel alive."