Difficult question. As I document in the book, America has a long tradition of embracing synthetic ‘solutions’ to human problems, from barbiturates to Ritalin and Oxy. While at the same time demonising ‘natural’ substances. It’s a class based system of angels and demons
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Agreed. Just about any time I bring up natural alternatives to RX I get drowned in echo chambers and broken records. I suspect money heavily influences that behavior.
The Rx system of synthetics has both sides happy: big pharma and the cartels
What degree of coverage to synthetics have? Meaning, what percentage of RX could they replace/deprecate? Is there a public database that has the formulas, processing and measuring methods?
I learned how to make Clonidine, but it's super dangerous if the measurements are wrong. One mistake and the nervous system shuts down.
The Rx industry knows if it can make it synthetically the rules totally change, as with the dangerously potent fentanyl. The head of NIDA showed in brain studies that cocaine and Ritalin were indistinguishable.
No synthetic cannabis, so it depends
> The head of NIDA showed in brain studies that cocaine and Ritalin were indistinguishable.
Am I missing something here? Should we be surprised that brain scans show that two CNS stimulants were indistinguishable?
Also, that study was conducted almost 30 years ago on mice [1].
I'm a firm believer in the saying, "the dose makes that poison." In this case, I'd also say the habits make the poison too. Even if the drugs have similar effects, I've never seen someone take bumps of Ritalin off the groove in keys, grow long pinky nails to take Ritalin, cook Ritalin in a spoon with a lighter to smoke it, have nose reconstruction surgery due to Ritalin abuse, etc. (I'm not saying abuse does not/can not happen). Can you name any songs about one's love/hate for Ritalin? While we are at it, I don't think Stephen King wrote, "Misery" about his struggles with Ritalin abuse either...
I just think using cocaine to damn Ritalin is such a glaring example of a false equivalence. The comparison does nothing, but further stigma people that need help for a legitimate disorder. Whether one believes the disorder has social or biological origins is irrelevant to people actually suffering.
Sure, we can all probably agree "Big Pharma" has done plenty of good and plenty of bad, but what are the other solutions? Outside of completely turning society upside-down, many people's only solution for help is "Big Pharma."
[1] Is methylphenidate like cocaine? Studies on their pharmacokinetics and distribution in human brain
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/15427108_Is_methylp...
"Don't worry the doc said to the mother, Ritalin is as safe as cocaine, it's well proven in human studies." I'm not talking about big pharma, I talking about the bogus but common theory where drugs are hailed as good and bad based on supposed pharmacological properties. The differences are not pharmacology but society. Ps, not mice, human subjects
Aren't most drugs hailed as good or bad (as in socially acceptable) based on the short and long term side-effects more so than the pharmacological properties?
> "Don't worry the doc said to the mother, Ritalin is as safe as cocaine, it's well proven in human studies."
Is this some quote you made up to explain a point, or are you referencing something I am happening to miss? It doesn't invalidate what you said either way, I just want to make sure we are on the same page.
> I'm not talking about big pharma, I talking about the bogus but common theory where drugs are hailed as good and bad based on supposed pharmacological properties. The differences are not pharmacology but society.
How about a different drug? Alcohol has great pharmacological properties. If I am not mistaken, alcohol is one of the best anxiolytics known to man, but oooh boy does it have some awful short-term and long-term side effects. Hence where benzos come into play. They work on the same parts of the brain, and while they do have side-effect (some similar to alcohol), I'd argue they are healthier both in the short and long-term than alcohol.
It's crazy to me, how people (not you) get all bent out of shape over drugs that actually help people due to some misinformed idea about the dangers of said drug. Sure, not all drugs are perfect nor is anybody's biological make-up.
However, I imagine few people are aware that NSAIDs are related to more negative health effects and have a higher mortality rate than medically prescribed stimulants, like Ritalin, at therapeutic dosages (I'd wager even street stimulants too -- at least in the short term considering those are rarely taken in "therapeutic" dosages) though finding data on this stuff can be somewhat tricky.
From the link provided below, article by Volkow, re: cocaine and Ritalin in the brain (Eight healthy male subjects, 20 to 51 years of age):
For both drugs, their fast uptake in striatum paralleled the experience of the "high." For methylphenidate, the high decreased very rapidly despite significant binding of the drug in the brain. In contrast, for cocaine, the decline in the high paralleled its fast rate of clearance from the brain. We speculate that because the experience of the high is associated with the fast uptake of cocaine and methylphenidate in the brain, the slow clearance of methylphenidate from the brain may serve as a limiting factor in promoting its frequent self-administration.