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Drug users use a lot of drugs

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Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#181

Post by kragen »

astrange wrote: post #139
FeepingCreature wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adderall. I can't find a Wiki cite for the specific use among coders, but it's stereotypically widespread as a nootropic.

Adderall is not meth. It does promote jaw clenching some, but it's not nearly as bad for you (as the article says, mostly because prescribed doses are smaller) and in fact is neuroprotective. I don't think housewives would enjoy abusing it, unless they're studying for the GRE.

Right, Adderall is near-racemic amphetamine, not methamphetamine. Amphetamine and methamphetamine are very similar in their effects, as discussed here, and both can easily be used at neurotoxic levels. Among their effects in therapeutic doses are weight loss and, yes, being good at memorizing things, like if you're studying for the GRE.

I'm not a big fan of any of the drug family.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#182

Post by lazerpants »

newbie789 wrote: post #168
yerwhat01010 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, are you saying that meth is popular among Silicon Valley coders and rich house wives? This is news to me.

Absolutely, yes. Meth has a reputation for being a “poor people drug” which is not really accurate. While a lot of poorer communities have been very publicly hit by it, that wasn’t at the exclusion of more affluent communities. It’s literally everywhere to some degree or another, and there are dealers that cater to pretty much everybody. (For example, I knew a meth dealer that owned a prominent local legitimate busin…

By and large I think wealthier people have more incentives to limit their drug use. They have hobbies, jobs, etc, that they probably enjoy and don't want to ruin via drug use. On the other hand when everything in your life sucks because you're completely broke there's very little reason to not use more drugs, if they are the only thing you get to enjoy.

So the mental image of meth as a poor person drug exists possibly because poor people bear a greater burden of the damage it causes.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#183

Post by cosmicglee »

lazerpants wrote: post #182
newbie789 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, yes. Meth has a reputation for being a “poor people drug” which is not really accurate. While a lot of poorer communities have been very publicly hit by it, that wasn’t at the exclusion of more affluent communities. It’s literally everywhere to some degree or another, and there are dealers that cater to pretty much everybody. (For example, I knew a meth dealer that owned a prominent local legitimate busin…

By and large I think wealthier people have more incentives to limit their drug use. They have hobbies, jobs, etc, that they probably enjoy and don't want to ruin via drug use. On the other hand when everything in your life sucks because you're completely broke there's very little reason to not use more drugs, if they are the only thing you get to enjoy. So the mental image of meth as a poor person drug exists possibl…

I take the opposite view.

I think it's more that when wealthy people use/abuse drugs, they have a way bigger financial, social, and medical safety net, so that their drug use ends up having a far smaller (and less publicly noticeable) impact on their lives and future opportunities.

Yes, people with less access to financial security have more statistical drug use, but the statistics might also be skewed by

1. the fact that non-wealthy people have more interaction with State-funded services (police, rehab, therapy, prisons), which track and report drug use more systematically & robustly than the obscenely-expensive, private, and very discreet rehab facilities the wealthy have access to

2. because of the aforementioned safety net, there's simply less likelihood of a wealthy person being 'caught' using drugs by an entity that would report those statistics (police, schools, etc).

The higher one's poverty rate, the more vulnerable one is to having their actions scrutinized, catalogued, and punished by the State.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#184

Post by treeman79 »

astrange wrote: post #138
treeman79 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was on Adderall 10mg a day. Worked as advertised. ADHD under control. Chronic fatigue fixed. Every portion of my body felt like it was being burned from the inside. I had to start tramadol to counter act the pain. It also upped cranial pressure. Causing a lot of secondary problems. This was made much worse as dosage went up. I had to stop it before downward spiral completely destroyed me. Vyvanse was a mild version…

I've never heard of this symptom! Maybe you were allergic? It does sound like SJS, in which case you should definitely quit it, but I thought that could only happen with modafinil.

I am hypersensitive to most medications. Runs in the family.

Benadryl will cause me and my kids to go completely nuts. Like climbing the ceiling of the hospital level.

Was describing that to one nurse and she almost started crying. Apparently she had same reaction and no one would believe her.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#185

Post by newbie789 »

lazerpants wrote: post #182
newbie789 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, yes. Meth has a reputation for being a “poor people drug” which is not really accurate. While a lot of poorer communities have been very publicly hit by it, that wasn’t at the exclusion of more affluent communities. It’s literally everywhere to some degree or another, and there are dealers that cater to pretty much everybody. (For example, I knew a meth dealer that owned a prominent local legitimate busin…

By and large I think wealthier people have more incentives to limit their drug use. They have hobbies, jobs, etc, that they probably enjoy and don't want to ruin via drug use. On the other hand when everything in your life sucks because you're completely broke there's very little reason to not use more drugs, if they are the only thing you get to enjoy. So the mental image of meth as a poor person drug exists possibl…

I can see your reasoning there, but from what I’ve seen that’s simply not the case in a really meaningful way.

Drugs as a whole are incredibly expensive as a lifestyle. Often times you’ll hear about poor people committing crime to support their habits and it’s understandable to think that they use drugs at a higher rate.

However more affluent people can simply afford the drugs, so when you hear about the mistakes they make while intoxicated it’s framed in a different narrative. Instead of some random poor person doing a robbery for meth, you read a story about a Hollywood actor getting into a car accident or a popular sports player committing sexual assault, or a singer going to a “retreat for exhaustion.”

This group has much more ability to control the story.

Humans are humans. The value proposition of “awake, alert, focused, euphoric, horny” appeals to people equally regardless of one’s bank balance.

Rich people aren’t noticeably smarter about avoiding these pitfalls as far as I can tell. They have bad days, make bad decisions, and develop bad habits just like everybody else.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#186

Post by newbie789 »

cosmicglee wrote: post #183
lazerpants wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By and large I think wealthier people have more incentives to limit their drug use. They have hobbies, jobs, etc, that they probably enjoy and don't want to ruin via drug use. On the other hand when everything in your life sucks because you're completely broke there's very little reason to not use more drugs, if they are the only thing you get to enjoy. So the mental image of meth as a poor person drug exists possibl…

I take the opposite view. I think it's more that when wealthy people use/abuse drugs, they have a way bigger financial, social, and medical safety net, so that their drug use ends up having a far smaller (and less publicly noticeable) impact on their lives and future opportunities. Yes, people with less access to financial security have more statistical drug use, but the statistics might also be skewed by 1. the fact…

Incredibly well put!

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#187

Post by newbie789 »

astrange wrote: post #139
FeepingCreature wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adderall. I can't find a Wiki cite for the specific use among coders, but it's stereotypically widespread as a nootropic.

Adderall is not meth. It does promote jaw clenching some, but it's not nearly as bad for you (as the article says, mostly because prescribed doses are smaller) and in fact is neuroprotective. I don't think housewives would enjoy abusing it, unless they're studying for the GRE.

That’s true! Prescription Desoxyn is though.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#188

Post by newbie789 »

eurasiantiger wrote: post #121
m-ee wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless this is a regional thing I wonder where the doctor even got that idea, I wasn't even aware people snort meth until now. Meanwhile I walked past two people lighting up after leaving a job interview in soma last week. Any doctor who's worked in the ER or psych ward in SF would be familiar with how its used, meth induced psychosis is very common around here.

No such thing as meth-induced psychosis. Yes, people might appear psychotic while under the influence, but that is not psychosis in the clinical sense. The few that do lose their rationality lose it because they don’t sleep for weeks. They likely also live in an unsafe environment which keeps them in a perpetual state of survival stress. Survival stress + not sleeping + stimulants —> psychosis. Very rarely any of the…

I don’t know exactly how to respond to this. You’ve clearly got some strong opinions on this and maybe for good reasons.

I suppose I agree that environmental stress, survival stress, and PTSD are all common in the addict community. That’s true.

In my experience though, meth-induced psychosis is a thing. For example, if you understand the following sentence you either have seen or done it!

I once snapped/ghosted 3 points in one draw in order to scare off some gangsters, then the shadow people came.

After that I thought I could talk to programming libraries out loud. Not in a fun way. Meth induced psychosis is absolutely a thing.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#189

Post by painfulpox »

newbie789 wrote: post #32

Former meth addict here. > The average crystal meth addict uses about 500 mg a day. And they snort it, which probably produces about double the peak plasma level as taking it orally. So they're getting the equivalent of 1000 mg oral amphetamine daily... 500mg sounds about right, but from my experience the most common route of administration (in the western United States at least) is smoking, not snorting. Because so…

Methamphetamine HCl can be vaporized by itself. What is true for cocaine is not true for other drugs. Freebase methamphetamine is an oily liquid at normal temperatures. Almost all methamphetamine is the hydrochoride salt. It is what gives it the crystalline structure.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#190

Post by [deleted] »

yerwhat01010 wrote: post #113
newbie789 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meth does not make you crave any type of food. If that were the case Desoxyn would not be FDA approved for weight loss. “Meth mouth” is caused by the fact that it dries your mouth out, you grind your teeth a LOT, and is often observed in people that have used drugs long/hard enough to find themselves no longer taking care of their health in general, let alone oral hygiene. This often is coupled with financial ruin an…

Wait, are you saying that meth is popular among Silicon Valley coders and rich house wives? This is news to me.

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