Pringle - Adderall Online/Kiddie Coke - Black Market Profits In Plain Sight

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Fri, 24 Feb 2006 22:29:26 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Pringle - Adderall Online/ " Kiddie Coke " -

Black Market Profits In Plain Sight

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gang, Here, gang member-journalist, Evelyn Pringle, documents that

the stimulant, Adderall, has become an easily obtainable street drug

of choice. It is being abused by increasing numbers of high school

and college students all across America. Vince

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_evelyn_p_060224_adderall_online___bl.htm

 

February 24, 2006

 

 

 

 

Adderall Online - Black Market Profits In Plain Sight

 

 

by Evelyn Pringle

 

Dubbed " Kiddie Coke " , Adderall is being abused by increasing numbers

of high school and college students all across America. It's difficult

to quantify the extent of the abuse among students due the

availability of the drug through legal prescriptions and on the internet.

 

Adderall is an amphetamine, a class of stimulant drugs that were

widely abused when prescribed as diet pills until they were banned for

that use more than 2 decades ago. However, according to clinical

social worker, Catherine Wood: " The mother's little helpers of the

1960's and 1970's are all available now on the Internet. "

 

Adderall maker, Shire Pharmaceuticals, cannot claim ignorance about

the obvious rise in profits resulting from the sale of one of its top

selling drugs on the internet to people without a valid prescription.

And therefore, in addition to enjoying the black market profits in

plain sight, Shire must be held accountable for any and all harm done

to customers who unwittingly purchase Adderall online.

 

As for legal prescribing of ADHD drugs, in the last 10 years, the

number of preschoolers taking the drugs has tripled and the number of

school-age children has multiplied by 20, according to the November

20, 2004 edition of Learning. Of the more than 2 million children

prescribed ADHD drugs, Adderall users represent about a quarter of the

market.

 

More and more high school students are using the drug illegally. A

2004 University of Michigan study on non-medical use of amphetamines

in schools nationwide, found 4.9% of 8th graders had used amphetamines

in the previous year, 8.5% of 10th graders had used the drug, and with

12th graders, one in 10 seniors admitted to non-medical use of

amphetamines.

 

Another 2005 report from the Partnership for a Drug Free America,

based on a survey of more than 7,300 teenagers, also found one in 10

teenagers, or 2.3 million young people, had tried prescription

stimulants without a doctor's order, and 29% of those surveyed said

they had close friends who have abused prescription stimulants.

 

The use of ADHD drugs by college students is on the rise. Beyond the

legitimate prescription of such medications lies new territory marked

by illegitimate and inappropriate uses of stimulants, " practices that

are often not even covert, " according to Dr Richard Kadison, chief of

mental health at the University Health Services, Harvard University,

in the September 15, 2005, New England Journal of Medicine.

 

" Increasing numbers of students, and sometimes their families, " Dr

Kadison says, " request medication to provide an " edge, " even if the

students have no clinically significant impairment of functioning. "

 

Many college students report what they call " pharming " : using

stimulants for recreation, to work more efficiently, and to lessen the

need for sleep. A July 2005, Student Drug Research Survey of

University of Maryland students found Adderall was the third-easiest

drug to get at the University after alcohol and marijuana.

 

Because stimulants have been widely prescribed to children for

decades, college students think Adderall is safe and know the symptoms

to describe to get a doctor to write a prescription. The challenge for

physicians, Dr Kadison says, is to determine which patients have a

legitimate need for medication, particularly given recent warnings

about the safety of some of these drugs.

 

The widespread tolerance of Adderall use resembles the blind eye too

many parents cast on teenage drinking prior to the 1990s. And since it

is primarily considered a study drug by many students, even students

who are anti-drug have divided opinions about Adderall use. Typically,

" Dealers " have valid prescriptions for the drug and sell their unused

pills to friends for little or no profit.

 

But the fact remains, under federal law it is illegal to possess a

Schedule II drug, such as Adderall, without a prescription and yet

ironically, college students are using Adderall illegally in hope of

doing better on law school admission tests.

 

Shortly before taking the Law School Admission Test at the University

of Colorado, Carrie, a college senior, downed an Adderall with her

breakfast of eggs and toast. " I'm nervous because I'm taking a test

that will determine the rest of my life, " she said in an interview

with the Wall Street Journal, on November 8, 2004.

 

Carrie had no prescription for the drug but had bought 10 pills for $2

each from a friend's roommate. She took practice tests with and

without pills, she told the WSJ, before deciding that Adderall would

help improve her score.

 

Another pre-law student, Chul Yim, a graduate of the University of

Nevada, who has a job in Washington, on Capitol Hill, told the WSJ,

he's wrestling with whether to use a stimulant before he takes the Law

School Admission Test.

 

" I really can't fail, " Chul says, " because it's not just me that's

failing. I fail for my parents and my entire family. Even if it bumps

my score up an extra point, it's worth it. "

 

These pre-law students obviously have no knowledge of the possible

legal consequences they could face for using Adderall illegally.

Serious criminal laws apply to the use of the drug and if caught,

their plans for a career as an attorney would be history.

 

An article titled, " Students buy Adderall from students with

prescriptions despite physical, legal and ethical consequences, " in

Grinnel College's Scarlet & Black Newsletter, Volume 122, Number 15,

Feb 10, 2006, lists the criminal laws and penalties that apply as:

 

(1) Classified by the DEA as a Substance II, the same legal category

as cocaine and heroin. For first time possession of between five and

49 grams, the minimum federal sentence is five years.

 

(2) If death or serious injury occur, the minimum sentence is 20 years.

 

(3) Individual first time offenders can be fined up to two million

dollars.

 

(4) If a first-time offender possesses more than 49 grams, the minimum

sentence is ten years and the maximum is life imprisonment.

 

In addition, the health risks associated with Adderall can be lethal.

Concerned about the risk of sudden death or serious injury associated

with stimulants used to treat ADHD, on February 10, 2006 the FDA's

Drug Safety and Risk Management advisory committee said the drugs

should carry the most serious type of warning label.

 

The proposed " black box " statements would inform doctors, patients and

parents of the uncertainty regarding the risk the drugs may pose to

the cardiovascular system. The label for Adderall has included the

warning since 2004.

 

An FDA review of its own databases found reports of 25 deaths in

children and adults between 1999 and 2003, and 54 cases of serious

cardiovascular problems, including heart attack, stroke, hypertension,

palpitations and arrhythmia.

 

The FDA said it has tallied an additional 26 deaths between 1969 and

2003 in patients on the drugs involving death by suicide, intentional

overdose, drowning, heat stroke and from underlying disease.

 

The rate of possible underreporting is unknown. The adverse reactions

system of reporting is voluntary and said to only represent between 1

and 10% of actual adverse events.

 

" Does the FDA get 10 percent of cases, 20 percent? Nobody knows,''

said Kate Gelperin, a medical officer in the FDA's Office of Drug

Safety. Any link to the drugs " is really only a rough estimate, " she

told the panel.

 

The FDA may also undertake short-term studies into the effect of the

drugs on blood pressure, heart rate and the heart muscle itself, said

Dr. Peter Gross, chairman of the advisory committee.

 

The unsolicited recommendation was a surprise and caught the FDA off

guard. The agency is not required to follow the advice of the panel

but it generally does.

 

When asked why the committee approved a recommendation they had not

been asked to consider, Dr Gross said: " No. 1, because of the

seriousness of the side effects - the sudden deaths. No. 2, there is a

sense maybe the diagnosis of ADHD is being applied where it shouldn't

be applied, " according to the Associated Press on February 10, 2006.