If you want to understand drugs — especially meth — don’t think in moral terms. Think in dopamine points. It’s the simplest, clearest way to see what each substance actually does to the brain.
Let’s set normal human baseline = 100 dopamine points. Everything we call “pleasure,” “motivation,” or “joy” happens above that.
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Everyday Human Experiences
These are the numbers evolution gave us: • Good meal → 150 • Laughing with someone → 160 • Orgasm / sex → 200 • Exercise high → 200 • Big personal win → 250–300
Your entire emotional universe lives in this range. It’s where life feels like life.
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Legal Substances
Still playing in the same ballpark: • Nicotine → 250 • Alcohol → 200–250
These push things, but they don’t break anything.
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Hard Drugs
Here’s where the scale starts bending: • Cocaine → 300 (Basically doubling the sex high, but still within the measurable realm.)
Coke overstimulates, but the brain can still understand the signal.
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🚨 Methamphetamine: 1,200–1,500 dopamine points
This is where the chart leaves the human operating system entirely.
Meth isn’t 20% stronger. It isn’t twice as strong.
It’s six to seven times stronger than the highest natural pleasure the brain can produce.
When the brain is blasted with 1,200–1,500 dopamine points, here’s what it does — automatically, mechanically: 1. It shuts down dopamine receptors to protect itself. 2. It raises the threshold for what counts as pleasure. 3. Normal life stops registering. Anything in the 150–300 range — which is everything normal humans enjoy — becomes background noise.
Not in a moral sense. Not in a “your life will fall apart” sense. Just in terms of raw neurochemistry.
Once the system has been forced into the 1,500 range, the machinery doesn’t go back to reacting to 200 the way it used to.
This is the entire point. This is why meth has the reputation it does.
It isn’t because it’s “evil.” It’s because the numbers are insane.
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The takeaway — without preaching
If you put the dopamine scale in front of someone — the actual relative math — you don’t need scare tactics, lectures, or morality.
The numbers explain themselves. • Life = 150–300 • Cocaine = 300 • Meth = 1,200–1,500
Once you see the gap, you understand the outcome.
That’s it. That’s the whole story. Just chemistry laid bare.