The Speed of Hypocrisy: How America Got Hooked on Legal Meth

[mac_hine]

Fascinating article. Its quite long, but worth taking the time to read.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the...-on-legal-meth

[heavenlyboy34]

Haven't finished it yet, but interesting...

[mac_hine]

Haven't finished it yet, but interesting...

It's pretty long. You may want to take some adderol

[Anti Federalist]

Yes, worth the read.

Some worthwhile clips...

Most people understand that heroin and Oxycontin are both hard, addictive drugs. Not so with speed. When it comes to amphetamine, we’ve chosen a national split-screen in which doctors airily put millions of healthy children and adults on daily speed regimens while SWAT teams throw concussion bombs in baby cribs in pursuit of small-fry meth dealers.

...

In the mid-1930s, less than a decade after the first synthesis of amphetamine, the psychiatrist Charles Bradley conducted experiments with the Benzedrine salts produced by Smith, Kline & French. His conclusion was ahead of its time. The drug’s most promising medical use, reported Bradley, was a schoolhouse treatment for “problem” children. SKF didn’t like the numbers.

...

Articles about ADHD drugs are fine talking about success, work, competition, and advancement, but try finding one that calls the drug by its name: Speed. The word simply eludes us when we try to figure out why Johnny Prep is being rushed to ER. When our speed comes in a bottle covered by Blue Cross, we call it “medicine”; when it’s Blue Meth in a baggie, we don’t just call it a “hard drug,” we send out the SWAT team, declare “National Methamphetamine Awareness” day, and gawk in titillation at the poor, uninsured tweakers on basic cable.

...

The first time someone handed me 30 milligrams of Adderall, I wasn’t expecting much. As a connoisseur of crank, I thought it would be closer to the caffeine study pills we crushed up back in the more innocent ‘90s. Isn’t this the stuff they’re giving all those third-graders? How strong could it be?

Strong. My first pharma high was on par with any bathtub crank I ever bought in a Bratislava train station. It was just cleaner, with smoother slopes. After my first taste test, I never did “bad” speed again.

...

I think adults should have access to speed if they want it, without fear of arrest, as well as free addiction treatment if they need it. The problem begins, and becomes a national scandal and crisis, when socially sanctioned corporate dealers are allowed to dishonestly market these drugs through a sophisticated network permeating the medical establishment, backed by the power of modern advertising. No pimply meth dealer ever tried to tell me his product was a harmless stimulant. No Mexican cartel ever made huge buys in medical journals to corner the market on fifth-graders, or hired pop stars to push their product on young moms on national television.

[mac_hine]

Yes, worth the read.

Some worthwhile clips...

Most people understand that heroin and Oxycontin are both hard, addictive drugs. Not so with speed. When it comes to amphetamine, we’ve chosen a national split-screen in which doctors airily put millions of healthy children and adults on daily speed regimens while SWAT teams throw concussion bombs in baby cribs in pursuit of small-fry meth dealers.

...

In the mid-1930s, less than a decade after the first synthesis of amphetamine, the psychiatrist Charles Bradley conducted experiments with the Benzedrine salts produced by Smith, Kline & French. His conclusion was ahead of its time. The drug’s most promising medical use, reported Bradley, was a schoolhouse treatment for “problem” children. SKF didn’t like the numbers.

...

Articles about ADHD drugs are fine talking about success, work, competition, and advancement, but try finding one that calls the drug by its name: Speed. The word simply eludes us when we try to figure out why Johnny Prep is being rushed to ER. When our speed comes in a bottle covered by Blue Cross, we call it “medicine”; when it’s Blue Meth in a baggie, we don’t just call it a “hard drug,” we send out the SWAT team, declare “National Methamphetamine Awareness” day, and gawk in titillation at the poor, uninsured tweakers on basic cable.

...

The first time someone handed me 30 milligrams of Adderall, I wasn’t expecting much. As a connoisseur of crank, I thought it would be closer to the caffeine study pills we crushed up back in the more innocent ‘90s. Isn’t this the stuff they’re giving all those third-graders? How strong could it be?

Strong. My first pharma high was on par with any bathtub crank I ever bought in a Bratislava train station. It was just cleaner, with smoother slopes. After my first taste test, I never did “bad” speed again.

...

I think adults should have access to speed if they want it, without fear of arrest, as well as free addiction treatment if they need it. The problem begins, and becomes a national scandal and crisis, when socially sanctioned corporate dealers are allowed to dishonestly market these drugs through a sophisticated network permeating the medical establishment, backed by the power of modern advertising. No pimply meth dealer ever tried to tell me his product was a harmless stimulant. No Mexican cartel ever made huge buys in medical journals to corner the market on fifth-graders, or hired pop stars to push their product on young moms on national television.

I'll add this:

Dr. Lawrence Diller, author of Running on Ritalin, notes that amphetamines have overtaken opiates as the leading cause of admission to California addiction clinics. The ADHD drug industry response to this latest trophy-stat is hopefully more subdued than its likely reaction to surpassing diabetes drugs in 2012 as the country’s fastest growing drug category. For those who can’t afford rehab, addiction forums like QuittingAdderall.com are popping up.

New women users are driving the speed boom. In March, Express Scripts, which monitors industry trends, issued a report showing that women aged 26 to 34 have become the fastest growing market segment with an 85 percent increase in ADHDdrug prescriptions over the last five years. The age bracket beneath them, female millennials, has spiked sharply in ADHD diagnoses over the same period.

Across all demographics, national spending on speed has nearly doubled since 2008. It is now a $10 billion market accounting for more than four-fifths of the world’s pharmaceutical speed. America’s speed consumption is projected to rise another quarter by the end of 2015. The Express Scripts report concludes with a rhetorical question: “Are we over-diagnosing and overmedicating the adult population?”

[tod evans]

Speed, like all drugs should be readily available to anyone over 18...

This is the voice of experience speaking........

[heavenlyboy34]

Yes, worth the read.

Some worthwhile clips...

Most people understand that heroin and Oxycontin are both hard, addictive drugs. Not so with speed. When it comes to amphetamine, we’ve chosen a national split-screen in which doctors airily put millions of healthy children and adults on daily speed regimens while SWAT teams throw concussion bombs in baby cribs in pursuit of small-fry meth dealers.

...

In the mid-1930s, less than a decade after the first synthesis of amphetamine, the psychiatrist Charles Bradley conducted experiments with the Benzedrine salts produced by Smith, Kline & French. His conclusion was ahead of its time. The drug’s most promising medical use, reported Bradley, was a schoolhouse treatment for “problem” children. SKF didn’t like the numbers.

...

Can't emphasize this enough^^. Sodium benzoates are so potent that they're used (in conjunction with other meds, typically) to treat CNS disorders like epilepsy. It's not $#@! to play around with. We've probably all read about stupid kids having benzo parties mixing alcohol and benzos-typically at least one dies. IMO, the side effects of crack are mild in comparison.

[UWDude]

great article, thanks.

[dannno]

This article is excellent.

When it comes to speed, the national amnesia is stronger than crank.

This country has amnesia all the time about all sorts of things. In fact, in the few paragraphs before this quote, I was going to post this picture:



Interestingly, while searching for that picture I found out that an internet death hoax came out about Will Smith recently

http://en.mediamass.net/people/will-...deathhoax.html

[parocks]

great article

[kathy88]

This was a great read. I actually fell asleep reading it last night and finished it this morning. Also made a friend listen to me read relevant parts... Lol