While a fierce debate rages over the dramatic rise in prescriptions for "ADHD" for children as young as four, there is another side to the ADHD medication issue-street use of these drugs.



In fact, in Australia a street name for Ritalin is "poor man's cocaine" and there are stories of kids who are prescribed these drugs, selling them to their friends and crushing and snorting the powder.

There was a ten-fold increase in these prescriptions from 1993 to 2003. This is a dangerous trend.

According to one Australian youth, "it's surprisingly easy to get dexamphetamines (a substance that is primarily used for treatment of ADD/ADHD) by pretending you have ADD, especially if someone who has been through the interview process coaches you with the right things to say."

But why would people cheat to get prescribed an ADHD drug? In 2000, the Deputy Director of the Office of Diversion Control of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration briefed the U.S. Congress on the results of studies on both animals and humans who were given cocaine and Ritalin, saying "neither animals nor humans can tell the difference between cocaine, amphetamine, or methylphenidate (Ritalin) when they are administered the same way at comparable doses. In short, they produce effects that are nearly identical."

And Australian statistics show these drugs are used on the street for the same reason. Seventeen percent of young "serious offenders" currently use dexamphetamines and benzodiazepines (chemical compounds used as anti-anxiety agents and muscle relaxants) in addition to heroin, cocaine/crack, street methadone, and morphine, and seven percent of all 14 year olds have tried amphetamines or speed (this figure includes illicit use of Ritalin or dexamphetamines).

I work as the coordinator of the Drug Free Ambassadors in Sydney, a drug educational program that is co-sponsored by churches throughout Australia and New Zealand. Humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard pointed out "...drugs set you up to get into situations which are truly disastrous and keep you that way." It is my hope that through my work, and that of other dedicated volunteers and like-minded organizations, more and more youths will get the truth about these drugs and consider a drug-free life.