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Higher Education
On-campus dealing and trading in such drugs as Ritalin, Adderall, Dextroamphetamine (Dexadrine) & other stimulants is not at all uncommon anymore.
A dealer with even minor connections can make profit margins of 3- 500% at any time - even higher during exams.
Forgetting all the nasty things that these stimulants do to your heart and entire metabolism, with such drugs as Dexadrine, you are really getting close to the general effect of doing meth because you're high for 10 to 12 hours.
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Spotlight On
Arizona
May 2008
For the past three years, the National Drug Intelligence Center has identified methamphetamine as the primary drug threat in Arizona.
In Pinal County, the percentage of high school students using the drug is twice as high as among students across the state.
Cindy Schaider, director of the Casa Grande Alliance, said that because many drug users are able to hold full-time jobs, methamphetamine usage is showing up in greater numbers in workplaces throughout Pinal County, and it's not just teens and young people who are using the drug.
"Some teens and young adults use meth so that they can party all night and work during the day," Schaider said. "But even older women become addicted to meth, often when they try it to lose weight. You will lose weight on meth, but you'll also lose your teeth and your bank account."
Because methamphetamine can be eaten as well as smoked, snorted or injected, it is easily transported to the workplace or classroom, where it often goes undetected, according to Schaider.
She said drug users will sometimes place a few drops of the drug in their coffee or another beverage and take that drink to work with them.
"Someone could put some in their drink and be sipping it all day and no one would ever know," she said.
May 30th, 2008
Source - Casa Grande Valley Newspapers
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Can Performance In And Of Itself Become Addictive? Here's something to consider. If you get accustomed to using an artificial stimulant like Ritalin and Adderall to get you through a bind or a stressful time and it does the job for you with no major side-effects, you're going to continue doing it. After all, why wouldn't you? From the performance standpoint, it works, and if you suffered no side-effects, there's no obvious downside. So you've crossed at least one milestone, which is your acceptance of using a chemical to "bridge the gap" so to speak. So now you're operating at a certain performance or achievement level, and not only do you begin to expect that of yourself, so does everyone around you who are in any way meaningful in your life. And that's logical because we all like to perform well and achieve, and we like to please people that are meaningful to us. But here's the problem. Like all drugs that are abused, what starts as the solution to the problem ends up as the problem. If you train your system to expect artificial stimulation every time you need some, your system is going to do what it does to all substances that introduced to it - it's going to adapt. And by adapting, it's gradually going to require more of the substance to produce the same result. So the problem is not whether you get addicted to the drug, the problem is that a lot of people become, for lack of a better expression, addicted to the performance and achievement and rewards that using the drug produces. So we're not suggesting that the use of lesser stimulants than methamphetamine or crystal methamphetamine are going to swing the door wide open to someone becoming a regular meth user and an eventual meth addict. But let's be realistic - it's certainly leaving the door unlocked and slightly ajar isn't it? So at the end of the day, it's up to the person in question as to whether they're comfortable with that door being even slightly open and obviously, that's a personal decision. The Meth Mom Meth is currently the only drug where the number of female addicts is roughly equivalent to the number of male addicts. A huge percentage of women today are running households by themselves, or have carved out a lifestyle so demanding that they literally don't have enough hours in the day. And in some cases, methamphetamine becomes the answer to do more in less time. As a result, more and more organizations are being formed by mothers who are in recovery from methamphetamine addiction. If we can trust the surveys and studies, it's felt that about 25% of women in recovery from meth began their "drug taking career" using meth as a method for weight loss or energy boost to keep up with duties at work and at home. Intense Guilt Not that methamphetamine isn't a bad enough addiction in and of itself, but consider what it must be like to be a meth abusing mother, because once the "cloud" of active addiction has lifted, there can be a great deal of guilt. Care and protection of their child is under normal circumstances, a mother's first priority - one of their most primal and fundamental instincts. But meth can eat through that in no time, creating the illusion that mothers addicted to meth are evil people who don't care for their children. The fact is, a full blown meth user doesn't care about anything except the drug because the drug has placed itself at the top of the survival instinct hierarchy. How big a problem is it? Well, if we look at one survey done in Iowa, 43 percent of women entering the prison system this year said meth was their drug of choice. And remember, among its other qualities, meth is a great self-image and self-esteem booster - which can be a god-send for many women today who as they say, "have never felt comfortable in their own skin," or "worthy." Meth addiction is often linked to women with post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder and depression. Many treatment centers report that as many as a third of their female residents have an existing or previous mental health issue. "Mentor Moms" In the world of methamphetamine, there are few bright spots, but this is definitely one of them. A program that began in January of 2007 is designed to convince drug-abusing mothers to get help for their addictions before things get so bad they permanently lose their parental rights. The "Mentor Moms" program pairs recovering drug addicts who were also at one time in jeopardy of losing their children with women addicts presently facing the same ordeal. The mentor provides insight as to how they kicked their own habit, and shares their experience in working through the "maze" of government departments and red-tape that are necessary to go through to get children back. This is a terrific example of "one addict helping another," which is basically what most 12 step programs are all about. This is a fantastic initiative, and we sincerely wish them all the success in the world.
Another Systemic Factor Underlying Meth Use So once again, we have another level of complexity concerning the meth issue and this one is "systemic" in nature as well. So long as we have a system and a culture that insists we go faster, work longer, hit more home runs, stay thin, jump higher, get the kids to soccer, karate and ballet, we're going to have a percentage of the population using and abusing what begin as "performance enhancers" and end up as life depletors. We live in a society in North America that's hounding you morning noon and night to acquire more "things." For most people, just to have the quality of life their parents had, they have to work twice as long and twice as hard. And this is an environment perfectly suited to stimulant drugs like meth. Not All, But Some Not every "soccer mom," that gets involved with meth becomes a full-blown addict, but unquestionably some do. Not every student trying to live up to their parents expectations ends up homeless and sharing dirty needles with other meth addicts, but some do. And not every employee will begin using meth to excel in the workplace, but the figures suggest some do. One thing we know for sure. The multi-billion dollar meth trafficking trade does not exist on hard-core addicts exclusively - just look at our "Other Faces Of Meth" in the "Misinformation About Meth" section. Meth users increasingly come from all walks of life. And whether it's tens of thousands of people, or millions of people who are the "other" meth users, you can multiply that figure by the number of people that love them and the number of people that they affect in any way. And that will give you an approximate idea of the damage and misery that meth can and given enough time, will inflict. You just can't use a drug like methamphetamine for any length of time and come away unscathed; it's going to eat a part of you up - that's the price you pay, it's part of the deal. It's a case of "caveat emptor" - let the buyer beware.
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