Police: Street Drugs

ICE

"Ice" is the street name for the freebase form of smokable methamphetamine. It got its name because it looks like crystals of ice. It is almost pure D-methamphetamine. The methamphetamine molecule exists in two different arrangements that are mirror images of each other, just as the right hand is a mirror image of the left hand. When there is a right-handed and left-handed form of the same molecule, chemists call them "D" and "L" forms. D-methamphetamine makes the brain more alert but has little effect on the heart and blood pressure. L-methamphetamine raises blood pressure and causes the heart to beat rapidly, but does not increase alertness very much. Until recently, it was difficult to make pure d-methamphetamine. However, sometime in the middle 1970's, chemists working in illegal labs in Korea and Japan found a way to easily and cheaply make pure D-methamphetamine. This manufacturing technique made its way to the Philippines and eventually found its way to Hawaii in the late 1970's, where the drug first sold under the street name "ice." In 1989, "ice" came to California. While "ice" is available in major cities throughout the US, it is mostly used in Hawaii and in the major cities on the US West Coast, and in Texas.

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