I Used to Love Meth Until I Learned about its Roots in Fascism

Meth: It's one of those things we all love. For many people, myself included, meth is more than just a crystal shard, it's a lifestyle. But what I learned recently about meth shook me to my core. Behind every shard of meth, was a man, and that man's name was Adolf Hitler.

I know this sounds crazy, but hear me out. When I started Googling "facism" for the first time after the election, I was appalled at what I read about Nazis, but what really shocked me was finding out that meth was actually developed by Nazi scientists in an attempt to create super soldiers. I was speechless, meth being used for evil? I couldn't believe it.

At first, I tried not to think about it, but the next time I hit the pipe, I felt weird. I have friends who are Jewish and gay. I used to never understand why they kept begging me to stop smoking meth every day. But now it finally clicked. Smoking crystal in front of them reminded them of the struggles they and their families had to go through. Walter White, to them, was just another Himmler.

Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. When I smoked meth with others, I noticed their swastika tattoos for the first time. Were they always there? Or did I only start noticing them now? It was the subtle things like this that I had been blind to my whole life.

The scariest takeaway from this: meth has become ingrained in the American way of life. It's not enough for just me to quit. People stared at me for tweaking at ShopRite, they didn't stare at me for enabling fascism. We need to do better, America, and build a culture that looks past meth, and cares about history.

It's crucial we build a better world, one where we can separate the art from the artist. If we can get our meat humanely, why not mix cough syrup, iodine, lye, and muriatic acid into a boil in a way that oppressed minorities can get behind. When will Congress wake up and fight the real evil?

But for now, it's not enough to just quit smoking meth, I have to fight the injustice I helped support, I'm going to do something that isn't rooted in evil, that will maybe help topple the rising tide of fascism. This speedball's for you, Bernie Sanders!