skullaria wrote:

One percent of adults ages 20 to 64 now take the drugs, according to Medco, which administers pharmaceutical benefits for managed care companies.

"I think this shows a clear recognition and new thinking that treatment for A.D.H.D. does not go away for many children after adolescence," said Dr. Robert S. Epstein, the company's chief medical officer.

Theraputic doses of stimulants is indeed preferable to cocaine abuse.

Maybe there is just nothing worth paying attention to for a lot of people. Let's just drug the nation, as long as they are paying into THE SYSTEM.

When people want to pay attention to things that they deam worthy of paying attention to, and can't... its a problem. For some people, a.k.a. those with A.D.H.D. there is a basic ability to focus and this seriously impacts their quality of life. For these people its such a problem that their lives are dramatically improved by stumulants. So yeah, drug em. Make em more effective human beings at whatever they do, be it squarish or subversive. Better living through chemistry.

To be honest, I've never met a well-informed person that actually believed that ADHD was a myth, a creation of a lazy or malformed society, etc. There's good science indicating differences in brain structures and function between typical and ADHD brains: MRIs, EEGs, PET scans, yadda yadda yadda. Its real. In the past these people were relegated to being fuck-ups and under-achievers, are much more likely to wind up in prison, abusing drugs, etc. Now we can do something about it. We should. Even if some people like to take whole LOT of these drugs, just for fun.

Yes it sucks to drug kids that can't pay attention to terrible public school lessons, and cubicle slaves that can't do their mind-numbing drone work. But fixing public schools and cubicle world are really separate issues to physical deficiencies in brain areas that impart selective attention.

Wow... rant triggered.

RE: Use of Attention-Deficit Drugs Is Found to Soar Among Adults - New York Times