[ExI] 27 psychedelics??

Rafal Smigrodzki rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com
Mon Mar 28 06:58:50 UTC 2022


On Sun, Mar 27, 2022 at 8:54 AM William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Rafal, I object to the title of scaremongerer.  In fact I think it insults
> this group, though even very highly educated people may not know just how
> bad overuse can be.  I very obviously know of amphetamines' uses in ADHD
> and so on by qualified physicians.  If I advised people not to get obese
> because of the threat of high blood pressure and diabetes, would I be
> scaremongering?  Hardly.  Clearly there are people who take uppers who are
> not aware of the dangers (not our group, likely).
>


### What did you write? "An amphetamine psychosis is among the very worst:
 *lack of concentration, delusions of persecution, increased motor
activity, disorganization of thoughts, lack of insight, anxiety, suspicion
and auditory hallucinations - don't mess with amphetamines unless you know
when to stop and can."*

What did I write? "True but irrelevant scaremongering".

Yeah, I think my characterization was correct. As I said, it is true that
massive overuse of amphetamines is bad for you but this is not relevant for
people using amphetamines under a physician's supervision, and yes, this
kind of scaremongering has scared many patients and parents away from using
amphetamines. There is a huge amount of hysteria aimed against "drugging
our children", making them "zombies" when in fact amphetamines are highly
beneficial for a lot of people. I once prescribed 5 mg of Adderall per day
to a 30-something year old woman who came to my clinic with complaints of
"not being able to do things, being distracted and stressed out". I
diagnosed her with adult ADD and she was reluctant to try, with all the
horror stories she heard about the drug but a month later she returned for
follow-up and said "It changed my life" (for the better, of course). The
risk of abuse and dose escalation is very low when amphetamine is taken
under a physician's supervision and the benefits are very well documented,
so talking about "amphetamine psychosis" except in the context of illegal
abuse just shouldn't happen.

Also, people who abuse meth do know the dangers. They know what happens to
their friends who overdo it, they heard stories, but they don't care. On
the other hand, a lot of people who could benefit from medical amphetamine
but are not immersed in the drug culture don't know enough about its safety
profile and they think they would put themselves in great danger if they
started using it, all because of scare stories in the media.

Rafal
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