With pharmacies unable to fill prescriptions, many ADHD patients are turning to Craigslist to buy illicit pills online

With pharmacies unable to fill prescriptions, many ADHD patients are turning to Craigslist to buy illicit pills online

Peruse an online marketplace like Craigslist, and you’ll find coded classified ads for “Study Help” and “Study Hall”, or calls looking for a “Study Buddy”. Despite the scholarly language, these aren’t people looking for pre-final cram session. They’re plugs for Adderall: the trade name for a combination of amphetamine salts long prescribed as a first-choice treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s a drug that is, of late, in perilously short supply.

The US National Institute for Mental Health estimates that ADHD affects 4.4% of adults between the ages of 18 and 44. The number of adults treated for ADHD has increased in recent decades, attributable to the wider destigmatization of diagnosing the disorder in adults as well as the Covid-19 pandemic and its knockback effects on adult mental health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that adult prescriptions for ADHD medication increased by 7.9% between 2020 and 2021, compared with a 1.4% average annual increase between 2016 and 2020. In 2021, doctors authorized in excess of 30m prescriptions for Adderall, serving nearly 4 million patients.

But over the past two years, many of patients have been unable to procure their prescription, due to manufacturing shortfalls. With the delta between demand and supply widening, some adults with diagnosed ADHD are forced to forsake CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and other drug retailers, and turn elsewhere.

      • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
        337·
        9 months ago

        In theory, perhaps. But for anyone who’s actually taken or abused it, and especially to anyone who’s taken or abused both, they’re remarkably similar, particularly in how addictive they are.

          • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
            135·
            9 months ago

            Here on earth, that’s the reality of it. Welcome to the planet. Adderall is just low-grade meth.

              • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
                124·
                9 months ago

                No, I have decades of experience with amphetamine addicts, while you’re sitting here, splitting hairs. There’s such a thing as reality, and I suggest you acquaint yourself with it.

                • ABCDE@lemmy.world
                  6·
                  9 months ago

                  There’s such a thing as reality, and I suggest you acquaint yourself with it.

                  Also ironic.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          111·
          9 months ago

          Maybe for meth heads. For people with ADHD the difference between adderall and desoxyn is massive as is it for people who actually study the pharmacological effects. Desoxyn is a huge burst with lots of jitters as opposed to a calm but firm focus

          • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
            216·
            9 months ago

            I never mentioned desoxyn. But thanks for the strawman.

              • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
                19·
                9 months ago

                I do. I just think trying to split that hair is a clumsy and obvious straw man.

                • ABCDE@lemmy.world
                  9·
                  9 months ago

                  The person, like everyone else here, is trying to engage properly in a conversation. You throwing out “strawman” this and “strawman” that doesn’t add anything. The person gave an example of what they have experience of, and the difference between two ‘methyl’ meds. The only person splitting hairs here is you, who sees any attempt at a discussion as a personal slight.

    • Staiden@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      131·
      9 months ago

      Adderall and Ritalin is in no way the same as meth. I used to say the same thing and then I tried meth. That shit is crazy. One bump half the size of a pea and you are up for 24 hours straight. Coming off it was terrible. I just cried for a few days straight I did it for a month and never again. Shit kinda fucked my life up at that time.

      • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
        117·
        9 months ago

        Your personal anecdote has no bearing on my decades of experience with dozens upon dozens of addicts. All I can say to that is congratulations on not becoming one of them.

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
          111·
          9 months ago

          Ritalin and meth are not the same, don’t be silly. I’ve be prescribed the former and taken it a while, and tried the latter a few times. Meth is bonkers, not even close.

          • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
            114·
            9 months ago

            I know, silly. You’ll also notice that I never mentioned Ritalin, so thanks for the straw man. I have only mentioned Adderall and meth. If you wish to discuss Ritalin, I suggest you join a different discussion.