I read an about the damage meth does to you and how it takes way too long to recover from it. How is Ritalin different even tho chemically they are cousins?
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Ritalin isn’t “safe”. It’s just that people perceive the benefits as outweighing the side effects.
The damage caused by drugs is dose dependent. A 1000mg dose of Tylenol will help your headache. A 7000mg (less if you are older or already have liver damage) dose will severely damage your liver. It’s the same thing with illegal drugs. Smaller doses might be safer but larger damaging doses will get you high.
FYI Tylenol won’t get you high in large doses so don’t try it
Whoever said Ritalin was “safe”?
Both amphetamine and methylphenidate are predominantly dopaminergic drugs, yet their mechanisms of action are distinct. Methylphenidate acts as a norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitor, while amphetamine is both a releasing agent and reuptake inhibitor of dopamine and norepinephrine. Also at doses people are given Ritalin is not high enough to cause euphoria if taken properly and does not appear to cause addiction. Amphetamine’s including meth are also dopamine releasing agents as well. More likely to cause euphoria and addiction. That said amphetamines can be used safely at low doses, but people using meth are taking high doses. I don’t know if we know what the actual damage meth causes in the brain, but it causes excitation in the neurons which at those levels I believe can cause neuron death leading to impairment even if a person stops taking it.
In the short term the brain tries to bring the stimulation by dopamine down to the normal level and does so by removing dopamine receptors from the cell surface. This is why people taking meth inevitably end up taking more to get the same effect. The brain is trying to get dopamine stimulation back to normal, and the meth user is taking more to force the brain to be stimulated by the dopamine. Also in the short term, if a meth user stops using, their brain now has down regulated dopamine receptors that will take a bit to return to normal (assume short term meth use). As a result they will feel quite bad for a while as their dopaminergic system has been disrupted from normal.
1) You dont smoke ritalin/concerta
2) Dosages for managing ADHD wont get you high no matter what. Dosage for smoking Crystal meth is a hell of a lot higher
Hydrogen peroxide and water differ by one oxygen molecule. Just because something is chemically similar to something else doesn’t mean they’ll have a similar biological function.
May I ask how similar is meth to mdma? Or they are very different? I also read the eli5 about meth and got nervous about mdma because I do it seldom, once every two months something like that, but would like to know
Lot of stuff to unpack here – 1) Amphetamine has two isomers – dextro d- and levo L- levo is mostly inactive except for nasal congestion and/was used in Vicks inhalers – Dexedrine is all Dextro (in the 60s and 70s commonly abused see Rolling Stones song “running for mother’s little helper”) – Methylphenidate (Ritalin) was developed to reduce abuse – it does but also can cause so issues and then all patents around it were gone – Adderall is a mix of salts – but in fact is barely different from Dexedrine and is a complete marketing BS – it is the the same thing as Oxycotin vs Percodan – just repackaged and the FDA bought the companies BS. Vyannase is a prodrug for Amphetamine and is also BS it comes on slower and lasts longer. Ritalin is what should be prescribed for ADHD unless there is some issue.
Methamphetamine has some additional qualities that make it slightly like MDMA or Cocaine and thus more abused than other Amphetamine compounds – in the 60s there was a drug Desoxyn that was Methamphetamine plus a small amount of Phenobarbital to reduce “jitters” – a drug abusers dream
Desoxyn and Oxycotin were formulated in pills that “could not be crushed to be abused” – by hand – a nice hammer could make short work of both.
All forms of Amphetamine and Opiates are readily abusable and any claim to the contrary is BS and a marketing ploy – and in the case of Ritalin a much safer drug is being ignored by Pharma marketing to sell addictive drugs
it’s all in the dosage. Fentanyl is used many times a day in any surgical ward. It’s a great pain reliever. But in the hands of an amateur, it is often fatal.
Substances can be chemically “similar” but vary widely in their effects on the body. For example, take MDMA, (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine). Though it may share some of the psysiologic profile of the “meths” or “uppers” it also largely doesn’t. It has a distinct empathogen signature not necessarily found within it’s class. That being said, you gain an appreciation for organic chemistry once you learn how simple functional group replacement (amongst many things) can largely affect 1) what the chemical is and 2) what it’s effect can have on the body
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