Thursday, November 4, 2010

I get to criticize an open study drug user's thoughts

Quick Summary of ARTICLE
Adderall is a drug that helps people with ADD and ADHD. Adderall is also used for many other uses in academics and even weight loss. Adderall is a new way of cheating for people with no medical disorders. The author admits to using it because everyone else does it in a competitive environment. He says he can't afford to not take Adderall even with the possibility of side effects.

Critique
I perfectly understand where the author is coming from. This would be perfectly fine if Adderall was legal. This article is very simular to the other one I wrote about ( click here). The difference is this article is from the a user's view. I disagree with people using Adderall illegally. If Adderall levels the playing field for people who have ADD then the playingfield becomes unleveled again when it is used illegally. Adderall does allow people to do crazy amounts of work in single sittings, but no one should have 15 hour study sessions anyway. There is a reason Adderall is a schedule II drug. Adderall is an amphetamine. That means that it has a similar composition to Chrystal Meth and cocaine. The drug should only be taken by people who have prescriptions for it.
for the link to this article click here

Students at Hopkins also Twitch

Students at John Hopkins University have gone to study pills Adderall and Ritalin to stay awake. One student goes on to say that some students even snort the pills. Many students say this is becoming a ”big problem”. People who take the pills occasionally may not be at risk for serious side effects but others. Abusers of study pills may get phonetic tics, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, hallucinations and cardiomyopathy. Students prefer Adderall to Ritalin because Aderall is less harsh. In addition Adderall goes for about $1.50 a pill while Ritalin goes for about $5.00 at Hopkins. Students who have prescriptions to the drugs sell them and make some profit. The problem is the willingness of students to sell the pills and the fact that they’re so cheap.
-The availability of study drugs is growing at John Hopkins University
-some students have started crushing up and snorting pills in order to study better
-abuse of study drugs can lead to health problems
-students with prescriptions are willing to sell their pills for a small profit
-study pills are sold at a cheap price, making them affordable for everyone

THE RESULTS REALLY MAKE ME TWITCH

I wanted to see if a lot of people drink energy drinks so I conducted a poll of four questions. I asked the first 10 people that I saw walking into my building. I wanted to see a rough percentage of energy drink users, how easy people it is to overdose on them, if people thought there are health risks with energy drinks, and if people liked the taste of energy drinks.

1.       Do you drink energy drinks?
7/10
2.       Do you think it is easy to overdose on energy drinks?
7/10
3.       Do you think there are any health risks associated with drinking energy drinks?
9/10
4.       Do you enjoy the taste of energy drinks?
6/7
Breaking down the statistics:
7 of the 10 people have had an energy drink in their life time. I feel like that statistic is accurate because the amount of use of energy drinks is growing. I’m not sure if it’s for the better or worse.
7 of the 10 people think it is easy to overdose on an energy drink. As I’ve blogged about before there is a web page that clearly shows that it is NOT easy to overdose on energy drinks or any substance containing caffeine. Click on the link to see what I'm talking about.
9 of the 10 people think that there are health risks associated with energy drinks. I’m really not sure if this is true because I’ve read that they can be healthy, and I’ve also read that they are responsible for heart attacks.
6 of the 7 people who have tried energy drinks think that they are tasty. I wanted to know what everyone thought about this because when I was in high school everyone hated the taste of energy drinks and the taste was one of the reasons people stayed away.
The only surprise I found was that only one person I polled thought that there are no health risks associated with energy drinks. This leads to the question a big question. Why do people drink energy drinks if they know that they are unhealthy?

Some sites I recommend based on studies and some other cool blogs to read

Here are some sites I found while doing some research. Enjoy!
I’ve never seen a web site that rates qualities of energy drinks until I saw this one. It rates all of the well known energy drinks and lots that I’ve never seen before. The blog is running for its third year, but the administrator has been inconsistent updating it. I would assume that he has trends where he either writes posts somewhat regularly or doesn’t at all.  The posts describe the positives and negatives of each drink. The posts also have the nutrition facts and the drink’s website. If I am ever curious about an energy drink this blog would be one of the first ones I would go to.
            This blog focuses on caffeine in food and drinks. It’s very interesting because in a lot of the foods we eat, we don’t even realize that there are energy supplements in them. It also covers other popular culture with caffeinated products. I enjoy looking into the lists about energy drinks. The site also informs of some health risks I didn’t know about. My favorite part of the site is the “Death By Caffeine” function, which I’ve already blogged about. It shows how much of a certain food or drink it takes to kill someone. It’s probably not scientifically proven but it’s a fun thing to waste some time on.
            I have searched for a very long time to find a blog like this one. It’s very difficult to find a blog those talks about adderall. Sadly this blogger only has one post about it, but the post is a diary about his break from taking the drug. The blogger has ADD like I do. I can strongly relate to the symptoms he felt from his break. I regularly take breaks from it in order to lose the tolerance I gain from it.
            Many study drugs were originally used for weight loss. Eventually most of these drugs became only people with ADD and ADHD. Although they are quickly growing in use by people who don’t have a prescription it’s always good to remember what their intended use is. This site covers everything from dealing with attention deficit disorder to the backgrounds to all of the drugs and treatments. The site seems like a great guide for anyone learning to deal with attention deficit disorder or just getting used to life on study drugs.
I find blog posts to be friendlier and more personal than real articles. This blog site takes everything from a site that explains ADD and drugs that fight it but puts it much friendlier. It is also very well updated on recalled drugs and how to manage the medication. I wish sites like this were much more visible because it took way more digging than necessary to find this. It has relevant information that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else.
I found a directory that puts to together many different questions, statements, and ideas about Ritalin and adderall. There are many ideas that are really interesting. I’m mainly interested in how they compared study drugs are compared to marijuana. The post says that both drugs are gate way drugs. I’m fascinated by this because marijuana is now being acquired legally as are study drugs. It makes me wonder if the perspective of study drugs and marijuana will one day trade places.
            Before energy drinks started to take over as the main source for keeping people energized coffee was the main source people would use for extra energy. This blog examines ideas about coffee, health benefits of coffee, and even videos of people making coffee. I haven’t been a heavy coffee drinker since the beginning of high school but this blog may be the one that could bring me and even readers back to drinking this hot drink.
            This is a great site to look at for anyone that wants an energy boost without drinking anything caffeinated. It shows 50 ways for someone to boost their energy. I highly recommend this site for anyone that wants to get away from a nasty caffeine addiction. The methods all seem to follow the theme of a healthy lifestyle.
I also enjoyed reading these blogs

Effects of Drugs and Misuses vividly shows all of the consequences of illegal drugs. The blog shows how dangerous drugs can be. The blog has links that give a lot of information about the drugs. The blog also has several posts that give examples of how stupid people can really be when they are high. This blog interested me because my blog’s goal is to talk about controversial study drugs and energy drinks.
            I am a huge sports fan and my roommate has ESPN on 24 hours a day. The blogger is a Yankees fan and I am a diehard Yankees fan. That easily makes this a blog I would recommend. In addition the blog is in depth with facts and fun to read. I will definitely keep up with this blog.
            I thought this blog was cool because it focuses on current events in the news and government. The blogger has so far talked about the election, 9/11 and the mosque that will be built near by the world trade center site, and the immigration laws in Arizona. He has also promised to talk about healthcare, bailouts, gay rights, the tea party, and other relevant topics in the near future. I’m excited to see what he has to say.