AHS Views

Performance-enhancing drugs are in the news again - this time it’s with sports, check out Why Isn’t There Nearly As Big A Fuss About Amphetamines In Baseball As There Is About Steroids? Some people have even suggested prescription painkillers should also be disallowed as, without them, some athletes couldn’t perform, hence, they’re performance-enhancing drugs.

Amphetamines are used as performance-enhancing drugs all over the place - not just in sports. Ritalin given to kids who are acting up in class instead focusing on their studies, college students taking Ritalin and Adderall to improve their concentration (and enable them to stay awake) while cramming for exams - it’s all performance-enhancing.

And while their performance is being ‘enhanced’, their brain is getting addled (is that why they call it Adderall?), and the individual’s potential to perform without drugs is at risk.

Some people, lots of them, get addicted to drugs like Ritalin and Adderall. And when their prescription runs out, they sometimes turn to the drugs’ illegal counterparts - methamphetamine, crystal meth, and so on - to get the effect they crave.

And some kids even drop out of college when they can no longer get their performance-enhancing study drugs. They just can’t do the work without it. What kind of employee are they going to be when they can’t even study a subject without taking drugs? Very bad scene.

Lots of people seeking addiction help started drugs when prescribed amphetamines by their doctor. When they get into treatment they may still be taking the same prescription, or they could be getting the same drugs through illegal means, or they may have moved on to street drugs.

Amphetamines have become common place. Parents of college age kids really should check and see if their kids are taking them. Once they’re of age, they can go to a doctor and get their own prescription without your permission or knowledge. You’re only going to find out if you ask.

And if they are taking them, get them the addiction help services they need. They’re like lots of other drugs - they’ll create a temporary positive effect, damage the body and mind in the process, and will make your kid dependent on them or addicted to them.

I feel sorry for these kids. They think they’re doing something wise, but that’s no way to get through college. If they need drugs there, they’ll probably need to continue them in the workplace.

Some time ago I had an allergic reaction to something I ate and my face got so badly swollen you could barely see my eyes. After a couple of days my doctor put me on steroids to get the swelling down before my face exploded. They worked, but they also had other rather intense effects in that they made my body feel and act like a finely-tuned, very powerful machine. It was great!! Fortunately, I knew about the dangers of these drugs so didn’t even consider taking them after the initial problem was handled - although I would have liked to. I think much of the prescription drug addiction epidemic that is sending people for addiction help in droves is rooted in a similar situation - the difference being that I really understood the dangers of the drugs and most people don’t.

Stimulants are a major drug of choice right now both in the U.S. and elsewhere. They’re being called ‘cognitive enhancers’ to legitimize them. Ritalin, Provigil, and so on. They’re speed, basically. With a little cocaine thrown in. And they’re being used by millions of people - everyone from college students who want get an edge to shift workers trying to stay awake and people who just want to get high. Of course, Ritalin has been used on young school kids for decades - it is one of the major drugs that opened the door to our current prescription drug addiction epidemic.

What people don’t understand is the underlying effects of these drugs. Needing addiction help is probably not the worst of it - they also cause serious physical deterioration from which some may never recover.  The side effects of Ritalin, for example, include everything from sleeplessness, loss of appetite, nervousness and tics to heart palpitations, cardiac arrythmia, hair loss, anemia, anorexia and psychosis. And, because they’re also addictive and cause severe, and dangerous, withdrawal symptoms, it’s hard to even stop taking them without professional addiction help services.

Unfortunately, many academics are sanctioning the use of these drugs, just as athletes and coaches sanctioned the use of steroids before they were outlawed in sports. Hopefully, stimulants used for something other than true medical situations will also be outlawed.

In the meantime, watch out for your friends and family. The price they pay for feeling more awake or more alert may be disaster. At the very least, if they keep taking them, the drugs will take their toll.  And it won’t be pretty. Better they should get addiction help services now than wait until disaster strikes.

More and more college students are taking prescription drugs like Adderall and Ritalin as study aids. Health services at colleges are wondering where the kids are getting the drugs - the prescriptions filled by the on-campus services don’t add up to anywhere near what’s being taken. More and more schools are going to need on-campus addiction help - and not just counselling. They’re going to need full drug addiction treatment facilities, with medically-supervised drug detox and long-term drug rehab.

Is this really practical for the educational community? Probably not. Especially since getting addiction help can take months of being in a residential treatment center where the person is completely removed from things and people that may influence them to take drugs. And if they go right back into the drug-infested college environment when they complete the program, the addiction help they’ve gotten may not be enough to prevent relapse.

I would think that a zero-tolerance policy would be the only really effective method of curbing drugs in schools. Drug testing should also be done - for all kinds of drugs. Many testing systems don’t test for prescription drugs at all, and they’re a bigger problem than street drugs in most places. And the tests should be widespread, not just a few people, and random enough so it’s not expected.

Yes, it would cost colleges a lot of money to do that. But at least half of the students in any college would prefer to not be around people who are taking drugs. And to be able to advertise they are a drug-free enviroment would be excellent incentive for parents and students to go there instead of one of the ‘party schools’ where kids are taking drugs constantly, getting into accidents and getting injured, binge drinking and getting ill, overdosing, rapes, and so on.

Parents would also be wise to ensure they get addiction help services for their kids before they go to college. That will help proof them against the onslaught of drugs they’re likely to encounter. 

In Portland, Oregon, prescription drugs and heroin are the drugs of choice. At Reed College in Portland, one student died from a heroin overdose and two others came close to it in the last few months. If Reed is like any other school, 7% of the students are addicted to alcohol and 20% need some type of addiction help for drugs, alcohol, or both.

Teachers and students alike will also be using prescription stimulants (Ritalin and Adderall) like they are coffee - except those drugs are more similar to cocaine than coffee. In a recent survey it was found that 20% of scientists use Ritalin and other stimulants, and 30% of college students use Ritalin or Adderall.

In Portland, heroin is and has been a drug problem for a long time. Not cracking down on this problem in the city may be the reason Reed is now having a problem.

In most areas of the country at least 89% of students know heroin is dangerous, and 11% think it is safe once or twice a week. That doesn’t mean 11% will try it, but enough of them will, and you will definitely end up with heroin addicts and some deaths.

School administrators have their work cut out for them. Obviously martial law won’t work.  In a school like Reed, where students have a mind of their own, drug education may help.  Students from a college like this can also do more to protect their classmates with intervention and safety measures. If your friends or fellow students are taking drugs or drinking, get them the drug addiction help they need.

Here’s the million dollar question for today: Why does the University of Pennsylvania want more people on drugs? 

On one side we have sites like Addiction Help Services trying to help people stop using drugs and alcohol, surveys such as the Monitoring the Future Survey, the DEA and local law enforcement trying to end drug trafficking - we even have President Bush and the National Institute of Drug Abuse trying to end prescription drug abuse in this country.  All of these activties are trying to stop drug abuse and prevent the need for addiction help.

On the other side we have schools like the University of Pennsylvania and their Center for Cognitive Neuroscience promoting more drug use.

The idea that Ritalin might make you more focused is not really in question; it will, it is speed, similar to cocaine, crack and methamphetamine.

But there are broader issues about prescription drug abuse that come into play. I certainly can’t say I’m smarter than a neuroscientist or even a rocket scientist, but if any of the psychologists or psychiatrists from the University of Pennsylvania read the news , they would see that controlling prescription drug use among the young has become a huge problem. Perhaps they think it will go away if everyone is on drugs with a prescription from their doctor.

From Harvard to Stanford to the University of California at Santa Barbara, Ritalin abuse is rampant. It is clear their advertising campaign is working. Some surveys say that 30% or more of college students use prescription stimulants. One in five high school students are using them and, in one Florida high school, Ritalin and Adderall are the drugs most used by the student body.

To promote the use of Ritalin for everyday “cognitive use“ is outrageous and dangerous. The tests may work in a lab, but does the lab take into account all of the risks to our society? Is anyone in the lab aware of the casualties of prescription drugs and the number of people who now need addiction help services to get off them? Do they know how many people wind up in the hospital or the morgue?

Perhaps the school president, Amy Gutmann, should look into this to see if some “vested interest” is paying for this research. It is ridiculous to see scientists, professors and leaders promote this concept - and they promote it proudly as the wave of the future.  If anyone from the University needs addiction help services they should find them - now, before they become one of the casualties.

“Addicts need guidance, not judgement” is the headline of an article about the TV show Intervention and the fact that it humanizes addicts - to think of them as people with a problem who need help, drug addiction help, instead of people of “poor morals” who refuse to improve their situation.

What many people don’t understand about drug addicts is that, these days, many of them became addicted when they were given drugs by their doctors - painkillers, tranquillizers, antidepressants - and when it came time to get off them, they couldn’t.

Others may have started very young, perhaps with Ritalin, Adderall or some other drug supposedly used to handle a ‘disorder.” Ritalin, for example, is similar to cocaine. Whe you’re eight years old and using cocaine, and continue to do so for years, it’s got to be pretty hard to get and stay drug free later in life.

Prescription drug addiction is the worst epidemic this country has ever seen. Think twice before allowing someone you care about to go on these kinds of drugs and if they’re already on them, consider getting them the drug addiction help services they need. Don’t judge, just help. 

I read two articles about the same subject today - both promoted the idea that ADHD drugs don’t add up to the need for addiction help. One was entitled “ADHD drugs not linked to future drug abuse,” and the other was “Without Substance: ADHD meds don’t up kids’ drug abuse risk.” I found the articles interesting. The headlines would make you think that ADHD drugs are safe - except that both articles say that if you start taking ADHD drugs at the ripe old age of, say, eight, you may be at higher risk. My bet is that if you start taking them at age 12, it’s worse. But I haven’t read the studies yet. The other thing the headlines don’t say is that 44% of kids who started taking Ritalin after age eight had substance abuse problems. I would guess they needed or, perhaps, still need addiction help as well.

The studies were reported in the May issue of the American Journal Of Psychiatry. Psychologist Salvatore Mannuzza concluded that the 44% have other problems that caused the drug abuse – that the drugs (Ritalin or Adderall) were not the problem.

However, his quote shows that his ideas are speculative: “These volunteers likely became adult abusers because of this condition, not because of stimulant treatment as children.” This sounds like a conclusion based on opinion - not really very scientific. Also the study was started 17 years ago, long before the problem of prescription drug abuse became the problem it is today. There are millions of kids on Ritalin and Adderall - let’s hope 44% don’t need addiction help services.