How Methamphetamines Can Lead to Violence |
Violence associated with psychoactive substance use has long been recognized as a contributing factor in assaults and homicides. Although doctors can’t diagnose a person whom they haven’t personally evaluated, psychiatrists can identify substances that have been used to promote violence and also those that individuals with volatile or violent behavior histories should avoid. The strongest and most reproducible association with partner or interpersonal violence is alcohol. In addition, stimulants like cocaine (often with alcohol) and methamphetamine have been attributed to violent crimes. Experts have also linked other drugs to violence, as in the Manson Murders and other high-profile cases.
Studies of assaults, homicides, and emergency department injuries repeatedly demonstrate that a substantial portion of violent incidents involve acute alcohol intoxication in the perpetrator, the victim, or both. Alcohol’s psychopharmacologic effects, like disinhibition, impaired executive control, emotional lability, and heightened reactivity to perceived insults, combine with reductions in the risk/benefit analysis of consequences, facilitating escalation from conflict to physical violence. Unlike illicit cocaine and methamphetamine, alcohol’s contribution to violence is not limited to specific psychiatric phenotypes, accounting for more assaults and homicides than all illegal drugs combined.
Methamphetamine users are sometimes called “tweakers” because of meth-induced agitation, insomnia, quirky speech, and repetitive behaviors. In past amphetamine subcultures, meth users were also called "cranksters," a slang term describing irritable moods.
David Smith, M.D., the founder of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics, described the end of the 1968 "Summer of Love" with cannabis and psychedelics. Smith famously argued that “speed kills,” and attributed to methamphetamine use the collapse of the Summer of Love. His core insight was that stimulant pharmacology, social context, and availability combined to produce violence and social disintegration in a way that psychedelics essentially did not. Smith observed that early Haight-Ashbury culture was shaped by LSD and cannabis, which tended to promote introspection, emotional openness, and non-violence. As methamphetamine became more prevalent—introduced largely through biker gangs and illicit supply chains—the Bay Area vibe changed from peace and love to one of paranoia, irritability, sleep deprivation, impulsivity, aggression, tribal feelings, and territoriality.
It is not just San Francisco. Studies of meth epidemics link the drug to elevated rates of assault,