Ostrava - In the bathroom of a gambling bar in Ostrava at about 2 a.m., a northeastern Czech city 15 miles from the Polish boarder, Jan* asked for a piece of paper.
The tall, lean man in his early thirties with shoulder-length hair then took out a clear plastic bag filled with glittering white powder.
He had gotten the palm-sized, one-inch thick bag for free from a friend, but he said it would only last one week. Jan ripped the paper in two and used one piece to shovel the small shining lumps of crystal out of the bag and onto the other in a long mound, which he balanced on the soap dispenser.
Using whatever bill he had left in his pocket, he leaned over to snort the chunks, then stood for a moment before he crumpled the paper and threw it away.
Cheap and glamour-less
The Czech Republic isn't worried about the cocaine craze spreading through Western Europe. Instead, authorities are grappling with state-run clinics packed with users of methamphetamine, known here as pervitin.
In 2007, the Czech National Anti-Drug Squad (NPDC) registered 21,000 methamphetamine users nationwide, accounting for over two-thirds of the estimated 31,000 problem drug abusers in the Czech Republic, a country with a population of 10.2 million.
At approximately 1,000 crowns per gram ($64), methamphetamine, which is man-made, is much more affordable and obtainable than cocaine, which has similar effects and sells for between 2,000 crowns and 2,500 crowns per gram and is plant-derived.
In the past, pervitin abuse was relatively contained within the Czech Republic. It has only recently spread to become a problem in Western Europe in recent years, with 25 countries reporting methamphetamine seizures in 2005, up from 11 countries in 2000.
According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction website, "anecdotal reports from the United Kingdom, Norway, France, Latvia, Denmark and Bulgaria suggest an increase in use [of methamphetamine]."
The site also states that methamphetamine is merged with amphetamine in most surveys throughout Europe, keeping any rising popularity statistically ambiguous.
In September, the first global methamphetamine conference was held in Prague, where professionals and experts from around the world gathered to discuss the battle against the rising use of methamphetamine.
The conference revealed that more methamphetamine users exist in the world than heroin and cocaine users combined. The United Nations Drug Office said the Czech Republic has "by far the worst meth abuse in Europe."
Self-proclaimed junkie
Jan, dressed all in black, is a self-proclaimed "junkie." As he sat at a slot machine in the gambling bar, pressing the button on the slot machine over and over until all of his money was spent, he explained his habit. Without taking his eyes away from the glowing lights of the slots, he spoke about how often he uses per day. He said, "Sometimes one time, three or four… six. You know."
He would excuse himself three more times that night.
Mark Titman is the executive chief of the Harm Reduction Center in Prague, a state-run program that offers clean needles, education and support to pervitin users trying to quit.
He explained that in fact, it is harder to stop using pervitin than heroin.
"Pervitin user [appears] okay at first look. You can see no problem." he said, "But if they want to stop, the heroin user can more easily than a pervitin user. It's very hard to get away from this situation, this dependency."
Titman went on to say that while a heroin addict physically needs the drug, a pervitin user wants it, and while there is a solid method to stopping a body's dependency, the mental fixation is a much more ambiguous force.
It all began in Germany
Methamphetamine was first popularized in Germany during WWII, when it was given to soldiers under the market name Pervitin to fight fatigue.
In the Czech Republic, home-based meth labs began to appear in the 1970s.
The drug was made with over-the-counter cold medicines. Distribution of the drug was kept between close friends, known as "squads."
Dr. Viktor Mravcik, director of the Czech National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, explained, "In the late nineties and the beginning of the new century we've seen the spread of this methamphetamine from problem drug users - injectors- to the more general population, to the recreational setting."
He added, "You can hardly find another country with similar extent of methamphetamine use in Europe."
One of the world's largest legal plants of pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in pervitin, was located in the Czech Republic until it was shut down in 2000.
This story was originally published by the Prague Wanderer, a web-zine run by New York University students in Prague, Czech Republic.
Cecilia Turner is a fourth-year student at New York University, studying journalism and politics. She is from Lenox, Massachusetts.
