Learned Today::Things I like to Blog About: Ritalin : Neurotopia

Ever since I read the new yorker article on cognitive enhancement drugs (ritalin adderall), I’ve been trying to finagle my way into at least trying them, sadly no go. Luckily no go,  It still is tempting, but if ritalin is pretty much like cocaine, I say no go and fear for all the children who take ritalin for ADHD.

Ritalin works the same way. Really. Sub Ritalin in for cocaine here and you have the same effect on DA and NE as you would with cocaine.
Sounds scary, right? Not quite so much. There are other factors with drugs than their mechanism that determine how they will make you feel. Cocaine has a very short active period, only about 20 minutes total. That’s not a lot of time, but the first rush is REALLY intense. Ritalin has a much longer active period, between 2.5 and 5 hours, depending what kind you use. And the WAY people take it makes a difference, too. If you, say, snort cocaine, it gets through the mucus membranes in the nose and into the bloodstream very quickly, giving you a rush as it hits the brain quickly. Ritalin is taken as a pill, which means it needs to get dissolved in the GI tract, and is often dissolved over a long period of time in long release formulas. This means that it comes on to your CNS very slowly, and won’t slam your transporters and have intense effects. And keep in mind that most people taking Ritalin are taking it in very low doses, doses too low to really feel good when taken orally (snorted is another matter), though high enough to increase concentration and focus.
So that’s Ritalin. Like cocaine, but not. Sci will save the debates for later.
via Things I like to Blog About: Ritalin : Neurotopia.