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Aderall Or Nothing: Anatomy of the Great Amphetamine Drought

pigrabbitbear writes "To prevent hoarding of materials and their potential for theft and illicit use, the Drug Enforcement Agency sets quotas for the chemical precursors to drugs like Adderall. The DEA projects the need for amphetamine salts, then produces and distributes the materials to pharmaceutical companies so that they can produce their drugs. But with the number of prescriptions for Adderall jumping 13 percent in the past year, pharmaceutical companies claim that the quotas are no longer sufficient for supplying Americans with their Adderall. The DEA contends that their quotas do, in fact, meet demands, and that any shortages arise from pharmaceutical companies selectively producing only certain, typically name-brand and more expensive versions of ADHD medications."

4 of 611 comments (clear)

  1. So whose actually producing the precursor salts? by Mysticalfruit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I doubt the DEA has a lab somewhere that's creating this material... or maybe they do...

    When did the DEA get into the chemical production business?

    --
    Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
  2. Re:Considering how often Adderall is abused... by MuChild · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, well, it's not that they need it to function DISCLAIMER (I am presently on a similar medication), it's that they need it to function in the highly structured, monotonous "farmer" style society that we find ourselves. If there was a way for many of these people (and many people with ADD do fine without meds) to make a living that didn't rely on organization, attention to detail, etc., then we wouldn't need the meds. I myself am trying to transition myself away from my concerta-requiring job and into a non-concerta-requiring job as we speak.

    As far as addiction goes, what of it? People are addicted, physically addicted, to coffee, and other substances all the time. It's not the addiction but the psycho-physico-emotional harm that it might do that is the problem. No one worries that people with bipolar disorder are "addicted" to their meds.

  3. Re:Ah, central planning. by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/

    If you have the time, watch. That's some scary shit right there. I'm an apartment dweller myself. I've had an adjacent neighbor move in beside me once. He was extremely paranoid and my entire apartment complex smelled like paint thinner as though someone was spray painting a car inside a unit. Most likely doing the whole shake and bake thing I bet. It could have killed many people. Several neighbors and myself complained over the course of a week. He was soon gone and so was the problem. One of my friends at another complex had his neighbor's door kicked in during broad daylight. They usually team up with a handheld make shift welded battering ram and bust the door down. Otherwise they go for the window on 1st floor units. Smash and grab for only 20 seconds and they were gone. One of the neighbors asked was the hell was going on as they were leaving (now that's a pair of balls for you) and they told her to fuck off. The police came to file yet another report. Too late. I'm sure it ended up in a bottomless pit someplace only to be reviewed by the new cold-case rookie some 20 years later.

    Of all things, you criticize the one person staunchly in favor of the drug war who himself lost the will to stay clean. If that man can fall to addiction, it's a safe bet to assume anyone can. You don't have the freewill that you *think* you do. Chemicals do modify our behavior and a false perspective of what's truly important in life.

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    Life is not for the lazy.
  4. Re:Ah, central planning. by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And a brilliant smear campaign by Randolph Hearst to get marijuana and hemp made illegal. He was a newspaper baron who also owned his own paper mills. Hemp was a threat to his wood pulp paper productions, so he used his newspapers to run "reefer madness" style propaganda to demonize it. No more threat of competition now.

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    "But this one goes to 11!"