DRUG 'CONNECTION' BEGS TO BE EXAMINED

The article of Sept. 22 in The Reporter about two people apparently
overdosing on drugs at the Marian College campus seems at first glance to
be simply another tale of youthful drug abuse. But there are connections
that beg consideration.

The article noted the two victims were mixing cocaine, Adderall (an
amphetamine) and a type of sleeping pill. Adderall is commonly prescribed
as a treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD-erall). Adderall and
other stimulants used for the same purpose, like Ritalin, can produce a
cocaine-like high.

With record numbers of children as young as 2 or 3 being prescribed these
drugs, they are being passed around among students and used for non-medical
purposes. Yet, for some, they seem to be effective.

But these legal drugs are also apparently becoming "gateway drugs" to the
use of illegal drugs like cocaine. In addition, Adderall is an amphetamine.
So is meth(amphetamine), which we hear so much about these days.

Now if a drug can be an effective treatment for ADD, how can its bootleg
version be the scourge the DEA is painting it as? Can a drug be both abused
and an effective, even essential medication?

Which takes us to the DEA's other campaign of late, such as raiding medical
marijuana dispensaries in states and localities where voters have approved
the medical use of marijuana. One recent victim was the WAMM dispensary in
Santa Cruz California, where 85 percent of the patients are terminal. In
the course of storming WAMM's medicinal pot garden, DEA agents terrorized
patients, including handcuffing a crippled post-polio victim on oxygen.

Is it possible that marijuana, like meth, is both an effective medicine and
a substance that can be abused? Certainly marijuana is a much safer
substance than meth, whether manufactured by a drug company or at a meth lab.

The meth lab version is the modern equivalent of the backwoods still during
alcohol prohibition.

It's a symptom of the demand for speed. Americans like their stimulants,
whether it's a cup or 10 of coffee, caffeinated sodas and drinks, No-Doz
tablets, Adderal, Ritalin, cocaine or meth. Americans like their pot, and
they like their booze.

Society would be much better off if we began treating substance use and
abuse as a public health matter rather one of criminal justice. Humans like
to alter their consciousness. It's time to recognize this basic human
trait, like most of Europe and other nations like Canada have, and start
working to reduce the harm, not maximizing it as our current policies do.

Gary Storck

Madison