Cocaine for Kids?

[Guest guest]

Wow! This was an eye opener...

Misty.

http://www..com

 

 

Cocaine For Kids?

By Joel Miller

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

1-12-3

 

A new study that casts doubts on whether Ritalin use for younkers

makes them susceptible for drug abuse later in life has sparked

people's attention to a little-known fact: Ritalin reacts in

Junior's brain similarly to cocaine.

 

Yes, it's true: Methylphenidate (generic moniker for the brand-name

drug Ritalin) targets the pleasure-producing centers of the brain ñ

those that produce dopamine ñ the same way cocaine does.

 

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that makes the physical side of

life fun and pleasurable. When you eat chocolate, for instance, your

dopamine level rises and you get a shot of " happy juice. " If you

relied on chocolate for continual euphoria instead of an occasional

pick-me-up, however, you'd get quite fat because your limbic system

(in which dopamine does its duty) is designed to regulate the amount

of the neurotransmitter in your system. To keep you from having too

much, it reabsorbs the stuff; thus, it'd be back to the Hershey's

every little bit.

 

It's like a mental grandma with a cookie jaróshe always gives you

enough to feel good, but never enough to spoil your dinner.

 

Drugs like marijuana and heroin cheat grandma by making her produce

more cookies than usual, ramping up dopamine production. Remember

the " I Love Lucy " episode in which Lucy and Ethel got a job at a

candy factory and the production belt started kicking out more

goodies than they could process? That's the picture. But, as Dominic

Streatfeild points out in " Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, " blow

is craftier that pot or smack:

 

" Instead of simply cranking up production in the brain, " explains

Streatfeild, " what cocaine does is to block its reuptake. It does

this by hitting a molecule called the dopamine transporter, bonding

to, and thus disabling it. As more cocaine is taken, the more

dopamine transporters are kept busy, the less dopamine is

reabsorbed, thus the more dopamine there is floating around ñ the

better you feel. "

 

What's interesting with Ritalin is that it works the same way. To be

sure, cocaine and Ritalin have different molecular structures, but

they are Tweedledee and Tweedledum pharmacologically.

 

" According to animal studies, Ritalin and cocaine act so much alike

that they even compete for the same binding sites on neurons, "

writes Brendan I. Koerner for Slate. They both vie to block the same

dopamine transporters ñ like two suitors attracted to the same girl.

 

Coke and Ritalin produce results so similar that test animals do not

even discriminate between the two drugs.

 

Writes Richard DeGrandpre, author of " Ritalin Nation, " " The

laboratory procedures that led to the New York Times' reporting

that 'monkeys hooked up intravenously will inject themselves [with

cocaine] repeatedly, rejecting food, sex and sleep,' also led to the

finding, not reported by the Times, that lab animals given the

choice to self-administer comparable doses of cocaine and Ritalin do

not favor one over the other. "

 

I suppose the paper of record thought it too much a shocker to

report that " the most commonly prescribed psychotropic medicine for

children in the United States, " as DeGrandpre puts it, is comparable

in effect to a drug widely thought to be one of the most habituating

on earth (perhaps it wasn't fit to print).

 

 

DeGrandpre notes the paradox: Why aren't all these members of Gen Rx

becoming addicted?

 

The main reason, as he points out, is that people usually become

habituated to drugs they take in non-medical situations. Plenty of

people take very strong opiates as painkillers in hospitals and

never become addicted. But if taken in different situations and with

different expectations from the user, the results could be

habituation. The drug's chemistry is, after all, only part of the

drug experience.

 

Of course, Ritalin can be had and used in non-medical contexts.

DeGrandpre notes many such cases, including kids selling their

prescriptions to their fellows instead of taking the drug, kids

stealing Ritalin from the school nurse's office, even teachers

stealing it from their kids.

 

Explains Koerner, " Recreational users frequently crush their supply

into fine powder for nasal delivery [as cocaine is usually ingested]

or, in extreme cases, melt it into an injectible solution [as

Sigmund Freud used to take his cocaine]. "

 

Despite the similarity with cocaine and the ease of abuse ñ made all

the easier by its prolific prescription ñ Ritalin remains legal and

lauded, while cocaine is profoundly illicit.

 

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30441

[Guest guest]

Yeah, Misty.

 

When I refused to routinely put my kids (patients) on Ritalin for

hyperactivity, etc., and recommended dietary changes instead, the KY medical

licensing board had an official hearing to condemn me for quackery.

 

Namaste`

 

Walt

 

-

<mistytrepke

 

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 9:36 PM

Cocaine for Kids?

 

 

Wow! This was an eye opener...

Misty.

http://www..com

 

 

Cocaine For Kids?

By Joel Miller

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

1-12-3

 

A new study that casts doubts on whether Ritalin use for younkers

makes them susceptible for drug abuse later in life has sparked

people's attention to a little-known fact: Ritalin reacts in

Junior's brain similarly to cocaine.

 

Yes, it's true: Methylphenidate (generic moniker for the brand-name

drug Ritalin) targets the pleasure-producing centers of the brain ñ

those that produce dopamine ñ the same way cocaine does.

 

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that makes the physical side of

life fun and pleasurable. When you eat chocolate, for instance, your

dopamine level rises and you get a shot of " happy juice. " If you

relied on chocolate for continual euphoria instead of an occasional

pick-me-up, however, you'd get quite fat because your limbic system

(in which dopamine does its duty) is designed to regulate the amount

of the neurotransmitter in your system. To keep you from having too

much, it reabsorbs the stuff; thus, it'd be back to the Hershey's

every little bit.

 

It's like a mental grandma with a cookie jaróshe always gives you

enough to feel good, but never enough to spoil your dinner.

 

Drugs like marijuana and heroin cheat grandma by making her produce

more cookies than usual, ramping up dopamine production. Remember

the " I Love Lucy " episode in which Lucy and Ethel got a job at a

candy factory and the production belt started kicking out more

goodies than they could process? That's the picture. But, as Dominic

Streatfeild points out in " Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, " blow

is craftier that pot or smack:

 

" Instead of simply cranking up production in the brain, " explains

Streatfeild, " what cocaine does is to block its reuptake. It does

this by hitting a molecule called the dopamine transporter, bonding

to, and thus disabling it. As more cocaine is taken, the more

dopamine transporters are kept busy, the less dopamine is

reabsorbed, thus the more dopamine there is floating around ñ the

better you feel. "

 

What's interesting with Ritalin is that it works the same way. To be

sure, cocaine and Ritalin have different molecular structures, but

they are Tweedledee and Tweedledum pharmacologically.

 

" According to animal studies, Ritalin and cocaine act so much alike

that they even compete for the same binding sites on neurons, "

writes Brendan I. Koerner for Slate. They both vie to block the same

dopamine transporters ñ like two suitors attracted to the same girl.

 

Coke and Ritalin produce results so similar that test animals do not

even discriminate between the two drugs.

 

Writes Richard DeGrandpre, author of " Ritalin Nation, " " The

laboratory procedures that led to the New York Times' reporting

that 'monkeys hooked up intravenously will inject themselves [with

cocaine] repeatedly, rejecting food, sex and sleep,' also led to the

finding, not reported by the Times, that lab animals given the

choice to self-administer comparable doses of cocaine and Ritalin do

not favor one over the other. "

 

I suppose the paper of record thought it too much a shocker to

report that " the most commonly prescribed psychotropic medicine for

children in the United States, " as DeGrandpre puts it, is comparable

in effect to a drug widely thought to be one of the most habituating

on earth (perhaps it wasn't fit to print).

 

 

DeGrandpre notes the paradox: Why aren't all these members of Gen Rx

becoming addicted?

 

The main reason, as he points out, is that people usually become

habituated to drugs they take in non-medical situations. Plenty of

people take very strong opiates as painkillers in hospitals and

never become addicted. But if taken in different situations and with

different expectations from the user, the results could be

habituation. The drug's chemistry is, after all, only part of the

drug experience.

 

Of course, Ritalin can be had and used in non-medical contexts.

DeGrandpre notes many such cases, including kids selling their

prescriptions to their fellows instead of taking the drug, kids

stealing Ritalin from the school nurse's office, even teachers

stealing it from their kids.

 

Explains Koerner, " Recreational users frequently crush their supply

into fine powder for nasal delivery [as cocaine is usually ingested]

or, in extreme cases, melt it into an injectible solution [as

Sigmund Freud used to take his cocaine]. "

 

Despite the similarity with cocaine and the ease of abuse ñ made all

the easier by its prolific prescription ñ Ritalin remains legal and

lauded, while cocaine is profoundly illicit.

 

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30441