Posted by MarkinBoston on February 8, 2001, at 12:03:31
In reply to Docs who won't prescribe stims for depression, posted by PhoenixGirl on February 8, 2001, at 9:03:17
I got really pissed off at a big "Special Report" on WWW.MSNBC.COM called "Meth's deadly buzz". Its media buzz that didn't say anything about methamphetemine deaths, despite being 33% of the title. The DEA propaganda machine doesn't address death rates from various drugs. If they did, thinking folks might compare those numbers to how many Americans die every year from smoking cigarettes (430,700 according to the American Heart Association) and question the $billions spent on the war on drugs versus benefit (reduction in deaths). Thinking folks may also wonder why people go to jail for using drugs that are less addictive and less deadly than tobacco, which is legal.
The story focuses on some individuals who were addicted to meth and the consequences. Rather than saying these people were predisposed to addiction and meth was the drug they happened to use, they implied that meth is highly addictive. Many people become addicted to alchohol, but they are a small minority compared to all the people who regularly consume alchohol and aren't addicted. I don't find amphetemines addictive, or alchohol, or pot, or cocaine, or codiene, or oxycodone, or any drug I've tried or taken.
One interesting point they made was that chronic meth abusers lose dopamine transmitters, while cocaine users don't. For long term use, cocaine may be safer than amphetemines. They explained that cocaine was a dopamine reuptake inhibitor while meth is an agonist and might have something to do with it.
poster:MarkinBoston
thread:53287
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010131/msgs/53517.html