Adderall Abuse Risks Becoming Another Opioid Crisis, DEA Says

Landrew

Landrew

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(Bloomberg) -- The fast rise of prescriptions for Adderall and other stimulants, along with rampant online treatment and advertising, suggest the start of another drug crisis like the opioid epidemic, a senior Drug Enforcement Administration official said Thursday.

The warning is the most urgent public message yet on these types of drugs by the agency.

“I’m not trying to be a doomsday-er here,” said Matthew Strait, deputy assistant administrator in the diversion control division said in an online seminar. But he compared the current situation with stimulants to the beginning of the opioid crisis and said “it makes me feel like we’re at the precipice of our next drug crisis in the United States.”

The DEA’s position on stimulants will have a direct effect on how many are manufactured, pharmacies’ access to them and how patients get prescriptions.

Read More: Transcript: How The American Workforce Got Hooked on Adderall

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

Adderall Abuse Risks Becoming Another Opioid Crisis, DEA Says - BNN Bloomberg

The fast rise of prescriptions for Adderall and other stimulants, along with rampant online treatment and advertising, suggest the start of another drug crisis like the opioid epidemic, a senior Drug Enforcement Administration official said Thursday.
www.bnnbloomberg.ca www.bnnbloomberg.ca
 
Yeah lol, adderall is the problem, not the super potent but toxic crystal meth that's freaking everywhere, and even cheaper than weed in some places. It's TOTALLY the adderall that people are seeking to basically MAT themselves with, so they don't have to deal with the myriad problems that arise from street amphetamine use. 🙄

I mean sure, people are abusing it now just like they were 20 or 30 years ago, but the outcry over prescription uptick just looks like closing of an unsanctioned treatment pathway to me.
 
Kind of a mess. Innocent people will be harmed, no doubt, and I hope that what I say isn't too controversial. Just my opinions.

But I do think they should roll back legislation that came into effect during Covid so people have to see doctors in-person more. Maybe reform the ADHD diagnosis so it's not so liberal. Prohibit people who abuse it from getting another script for several months. Will this lead to more meth use? Probably in some cases. Nothing ideal about pragmatic legislation. The system does fail people. But it might do more good than harm. I'm not intimately aware of the statistics.

I agree that meth is the real problem, though. So much more potent, cheap, and long-lasting. Along with some misplaced sense of virtue in Capitalism.
 
My thoughts:

Opioids and stimulants are different drugs - any media shorthand referring to 'a new opioid crisis' is inaccurate and potentially quite harmful for all of the reasons that have been mentioned. We're unlikely to see high rates of overdose mortalities related to stimulant use, though we're very likely to see a higher rate of psychiatric morbidity related to stimulant use (compared to opioid use). Opioids, in general, are anti-psychotic, anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant, whereas stimulants can directly cause psychosis, anxiety, and can also lead to depressive episodes during cessation of use.

We should recognize that there has been a steady increase in Rx stimulants used medically in the past couple of decades with several studies examining windows of time 2006-2016 and 2012-2022. While they don't quite measure the same things (former being metric tons of amphetamine, latter being prescriptions issued), they demonstrate an increase in stimulants being prescribed and utilized more and more. I didn't come across specific data noting per-capita prescriptions, but I did find one study showing that average doses seem to be pretty consistent with a slight trend downward, which is a good thing. That's likely due to the ceiling effect that amphetamine and methylphenidate can have, as well as the unpleasant/unhealthy side effects experienced from high dose use (meth being somewhat of a different scenario here).

I think that the bigger picture issue is that Americans have more access to directly alter consciousness through medical and recreational psychoactives. Whether it's telehealth prescribing, ketamine clinics, psychedelic retreats, legal/medical cannabis, kratom, or ordering from gray market/dark web sites, there's likely never been more access to these types of substances to those interested in psychoactives. As a consumer society, we do what's we're socialized to do - consume. The last thing we should do is try to address all of these things monolithically - so I return to my original point that opioids (and the impact they've had over the last 2 decades) are very different than stimulants (and the impacts they have/will have moving forward). My bigger worry is the pathologizing of atypicality, and subsequently treating that pathology with very potent drugs during neurodevelopment.
 
I don't give a shit, this and the fake opiod crisis is bullshit. I hope people who need these drugs can get them. The real opiod crisis is now. Many times as many dead about 100,000 a year more now, because of illegal fentanyl. The DEA is power hungry, and this bullshit seems to be bipartisan, so the people who really need the meds, millions and millions will suffer. The recreational user will not be affected the same way as people who need these stimulants for medical reasons. Great job with the opiods, now pain patients suffer and people who were heroin addicts are being wiped out. I admit that Adderall abuse is a problem, but if the government goes after this like opiods, then a new nightmare. This government is the enemy of the people.
 
Jnowhere said:
now pain patients suffer
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And/or become new heroin addicts. Can't forget that part.

One day they're probably going to have to contend with the real cause of abuse of non-psychedelic drugs, which is that our society is fucking sick and just gets sicker by the year. Ah, who am I kidding. Society will be straight up in collapse before enough lawmakers realize it, since they get extremely cushy "jobs" with only one real downside, which is that they have to be public figures. It will be far too late for the country to be repaired by then.
 
Antares said:
And/or become new heroin addicts. Can't forget that part.

One day they're probably going to have to contend with the real cause of abuse of non-psychedelic drugs, which is that our society is fucking sick and just gets sicker by the year. Ah, who am I kidding. Society will be straight up in collapse before enough lawmakers realize it, since they get extremely cushy "jobs" with only one real downside, which is that they have to be public figures. It will be far too late for the country to be repaired by then.
Click to expand...
It already is too late, Nixon is blamed that he screwed this country's economy over when he took us of the gold standard, which means are countries currency is a fiat currency but this is only partial true, because LBJ and his "creditism" to fund the Vietnam War and his " Great Society" led to such ridiculous spending that there was way too much currency printed out of thin air. Fiat currency which is basically creating money out of thin air is LBJ's fault. Which led to, too many dollars created out of thin air. Also in 1964, they stop using silver(90%) in change( dimes, quarters, half dollars and silver dollars).
Yes to any coin collectors I am aware of the 40% silver war nickels, but that was a short run. The US dollar which is the international currency of reserve, is backed by nothing.
Throw in the national debt and unfunded liabilities and printing of money with no real backing; then it is only a matter of time and too much debt that the countries currency will be noticed to be worthless.
Then almost everyone is screwed.
 
Psychlone Jack said:
Yeah lol, adderall is the problem, not the super potent but toxic crystal meth that's freaking everywhere, and even cheaper than weed in some places. It's TOTALLY the adderall that people are seeking to basically MAT themselves with, so they don't have to deal with the myriad problems that arise from street amphetamine use. 🙄

I mean sure, people are abusing it now just like they were 20 or 30 years ago, but the outcry over prescription uptick just looks like closing of an unsanctioned treatment pathway to me.
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It is all about the public perception of the government doing it's job. They aren't, so pick on law abidding tax payers with legit prescriptions. See, we are doing something; yea terrorizing doctors and people who legitimately need these drugs.
 
Aaah but corporations can continue to poison our food, water, air & planet on the daily & that's A-okay, but wanna put what you want into your own body? That's a problem.


The DEA needs to get fucked. It's completely useless except for ruining people's lives.


Every other week we hear about this dangerous chemical in our food & that dangerous chemical in our water, etc.. etc.. And the government doesn't give a FLYING FUCK. But when somebody wants to use a drug to enhance their life a little bit, suddenly it's a "crime". It's complete & utter hypocrisy.

These fucking bastards just want to maximize human suffering at all costs.
 
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