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Comment by betterth | Hacker News Reader

Funny thing about meth is that it's not that dangerous -- it's almost identical to adderral. The methyl group (meth-amphetamine vs amphetamine) really only improves the ability of the drug to cross the blood-brain barrier. It's basically a form of adderal with a slightly stronger bioavailability curve.

The reason why meth is a public health issue while addy arguably is not is mainly because requiring a Doctor rx, using an exact dosage with no refills, combined with the purity and safety of GMP-produced drugs, eliminates most of the issues behind meth.

I was shocked when I found how just how similar meth and adderall truly are.

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As an Adderall user, I can back this up. The symptoms of use are very similar to meth. Ever seen that "meth jingle" ad? The whole "pulling hairs out of your face, cleaning everything, etc" pitch is spot on to Adderall side effects. The difference is that Adderall side effects are dramatically more mild due to (as betterth said) a properly calibrated and reliable dose.

Also, with Adderall, you can't afford to just take more to offset withdrawal symptoms, because you only have so much. The temptation to take another as it wears off is pretty substantial, especially for long-time users.

Uh, having taken adderall nearly every day for 20 years, I can say that I have absolutely no temptation to take another when the first wears off. In fact, I tend to forget without an alarm and then wonder why I can't focus.

Nor have I ever had any compulsion to clean everything in sight or pluck every hair from my face. It certainly makes cleaning easier, but I certainly don't feel the need to do it anymore on or off of it.

You appear to have become addicted.

So you forget to take it for a couple of days? The biological half-life of dextroamphetamine is 10 hours and levoamphetamine 13 hours. That's 10 to 13 hours (since Adderall is a mix of both isomers) until just half of the dose you took is eliminated from your bloodstream. If you take something with a long half-life like that every day, it's constantly in your system. It takes roughly three days to completely eliminate a dose.

Yes indeed I often forget to take it during the weekends. I have no compulsion to take it when my prescription runs out (I often delay going to the doctor to get a refill and go a week without, especially if focus is not absolutely necessary).

I didn't realize this was unusual.

Fair enough, that doesn't sound like an addiction at all. If you're just taking it to improve concentration, you might have luck with a combination of a Vitamin B complex, Piracetam and L-Tyrosine. All are cheap and have no side effects.

Adding a methyl group does more than improve bioavailability (and it's much more bioavailable, not "slightly stronger"). While both have nearly the same effects the long term side effects are much more significant for meth. Meth is neurotoxic, even when not abused as a recreational drug.

>Funny thing about meth is that it's not that dangerous

Are you completely fucking stupid? Read these and stop spreading dangerously wrong information - http://www.amphetamines.com/neurotoxicity/index.html - http://www.aapsj.org/view.asp?art=aapsj080248

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