The chemical methamphetamine hydrochloride is generally just known as methamphetamine. Common street names for methamphetamine include crank, speed, meth, crystal meth, and crystal tea. It has been a popular drug of abuse for many years in the United States in its conventional, powdered form, which is usually snorted, ingested, or injected.
Ice is a potent, smokable form of methamphetamine, while crack is a potent form of freebase cocaine.
The substances are smoked in a similar fashion and both provide the user with an immediate, intense high and increased alertness. Unlike the 15-minute high produced from using crack, the high from smoking ice can last from 8 to 24 hours. In contrast to cocaine, which is derived from the refined leaves of the South American coca plant and then imported, ice is synthesized in a chemical laboratory. Crack is usually packaged in glass or plastic vials and sold in small quantities of 300-500 mg. Ice is used by placing the substance in a glass pipe, heating it, and inhaling the resulting vapors.