this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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I have family with ADHD, depending on the pharmacy, its either "amphetamine salt" or occasionally "methamphetamine something" (I forget). Yea, it's a variation of methamphetamine, and disingenuous to say otherwise, as the idea is to keep a specific area of the brain stimulated (it's been a long time since I read up on it).
That's not a criticism of the drug. I've seen the impact first hand for someone who I'm close to. It may be over diagnosed today, but ADHD is a real condition.
These are wildly different medications. Meth is occasionally used for ADHD when nothing else works, but it requires careful medical supervision, for life. A pharmacist subbing out your amphetamine salts for meth will go to jail. Adderal is not meth, any more than caffeine is adrenaline, or morphine is fentanyl.
You say you "have family" with ADHD; do you mean you have multiple different family members on different medications? Because 9 outta 10 times someone tells me they know someone on "meth" for ADHD, they've misread methylphenadate; Ritalin.
Those are some really bad comparisons. Caffeine and adrenaline have nothing to do with each other. A better comparison might be maybe heroin and morphine?
Methamphetamine and the amohetamines in Adderal aren’t all that different. Same mechanism of action, similar pharmacology. Meth is actually sold in the US as a Desoxyn. It still blows my mind that it’s Schedule II (classified as having legitimate medical uses) when cannabis is still Schedule I.
The issue is typically one of strength, contamination, and overall effect. Ignoring chemical differences and impurities, it’s like giving Fentanyl to someone expecting Oxycodone.
Doing that (without adjusting the dose) would likely kill them because difference in potency (and LD~50~) is absolutely massive. The difference in potency between Desoxyn and Adderall exists, but it's way, way, way smaller than that. In terms of the riskiness of drugs that may be "laced" with their more-potent counterpart, they aren't even slightly comparable.
Nobody's going to OD and die because they accidentally got some Desoxyn in their Adderall.
If the dose is adjusted methamphetamine is indistinguishable from amphetamine in its subjective effect. Desoxyn is prescription methamphetamine.
Indistinguishable no, but both are stimulants approved to treat ADHD and have similar effects.
If the dose is adjusted, fentanyl has a similar effect to oxycodone as well.
It is subjectively indistinguishable from lysdexamfetamine (Vyvanse/Elvanse) at equivalent dosage in several ADHD patients' opinion.
The only prescribed methamphetamine is Desoxyn.