• HelixDab2
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    4 months ago

    easy access to powerful stimulants and sedatives

    modafanil

    Jesus fucking christ. This is terrible journalism. Modafanil is NOT a “powerful stimulant”. It’s in an entirely different class of drugs than amphetamines, or even methylphenidate. It’s most commonly prescribed to people with sleep apnea or nacrolepsy, because it helps you feel awake and aware without having any of the less desirable effects of stronger stimulants. On a typical dose, all you’ll notice is that you aren’t passing out from exhaustion (and it’s not particularly fast; the effects take about 45 minutes on an empty stomach); you just feel awake. Someone that’s taking modafanil isn’t going to seem coked out, nor are they going to be tweaking.

    As far as taking alprazolam with alcohol, you have to take a LOT in order to be likely to suffer anything worse than a blackout. IIRC, the comedian Stephen Fry attempted suicide by taking an entire bottle of alprazolam and washing it down with alcohol (vodka?), and ended up waking up on his own two days later. I’ve done it, unintentionally; my memories of that night are very, very hazy. Alprazolam is not a particularly powerful sedative, and it’s far, far safer than stronger classes of sedatives, like barbiturates.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      It literally says that in the article. Just, apparently, further down than you read:

      MODAFINIL WAS DISCOVERED in the 1970s by French scientists and was first handed out to pilots to help keep them awake and on task in the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S. military started to use modafinil in earnest around the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the time, it was heralded as a massive improvement over previous stimulants: stronger and more effective than caffeine, less physically addictive than amphetamines. “These medications aren’t stimulants like the old military ‘go pills,’ there are few if any side effects when taken as prescribed. They simply stave off drowsiness until the medication wears off, then you naturally fall asleep,” one knowledgeable source writes.

      But that “taken as prescribed” caveat is crucial. When handed out willy-nilly, outside a doctor’s supervision, modafinil can pose serious risks, notes Dr. Rachel Teodorini, a researcher at London South Bank University’s division of psychology who has examined the drug and its effects. “If people have cardiovascular problems, heart problems, or blood pressure issues, it could cause things like strokes or heart attacks,” she tells us. And while modafinil doesn’t appear to physically hook patients, “there’s an element of at least psychological dependence. Tolerance builds up, and you need more and more.”

      • HelixDab2
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        4 months ago

        Right, but when RS makes wild claims in the title - “‘Awash in Speed’” - and then calls it a “powerful stimulant” in the first paragraph, that’s just irresponsible. Or intentionally and willfully deceptive, because the only drug commonly referred to as speed is amphetamines and methamphetamines. Or all three at the same time.

        Given that RS isn’t exactly a neutral source regarding Trump (and hey, I think Trump can eat a bag of dicks, and I can count the number of Republicans that I would vote for on the fingers of one foot), I lean towards it being all three at the same time.

    • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Alprazolam(Xanax) is one of the strongest anxiolytics made. Times one hundred with alcohol. You are trying to downplay the seriousness of this revelation

      • HelixDab2
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        4 months ago

        No it’s not, and I don’t need to downplay it because it’s not that fucking serious.

        Seriously, if you’re worried about modafanil and alprazolam, of all the godawful shit that the Trump administration did in their official capacity, then IDK what to tell you. That’s not even a fucking blip on my radar for the garbage that he and his administration did, and I don’t see why people want to treat this like it’s some huge revelation that is going to affect who they vote for. Because if this is your tipping point, and all the other stuff wasn’t enough, then your moral compass needs to be recalibrated.

        • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Xanax is very serious, if it is so unimportant why did you take the time to type out your comment and reply downplaying it. You are defending Trumps White House drug use, perhaps it is you who needs to recalibrate their moral compass

          • HelixDab2
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            4 months ago

            On the scale of drug abuse in general, and on the scale of maliciousness engaged in by Trump and his administration, alprazoplam is not serious. It’s right up there with huffing nitrous.

            Oh no! They did bars of Xanax! Oh, and Trump tried to get Pence killed when he certified the election, tried to strong-arm Brad Raffensperger into commiting election fraud, sucked Putin’s dick for four years, and on, and on, and on. There’s so much really, really bad stuff that worrying about the illegal use of safe and effective prescription drugs with fairly low rates of habituation used by tens of millions of people daily in the US is dumb. For fuck sake, when you compare this against stealing and storing highly classified documents about the US nuclear arsenal in his fucking bathroom, a bathroom that could have been accessed by hundreds of people, it’s not even on the chart.

            Shit, I don’t even think that what someone does or doesn’t use is any of my goddamn business, in much the same way that I don’t think Bill’s affair with Ms. Lewinsky was any of my business (…as long as she wasn’t coerced), especially since it’s very unlikely that either of those drugs would significantly alter Trump’s chimp-throwing-shit-at-the-walls decision making “process”.

        • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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          4 months ago

          Well, ever since they ran that hilariously fake story about gunshot victims not receiving hospital treatment due to Ivermectin overdoses, I’ve gotten in a habit of treating all of their reporting as potentially fraudulent. And this headline certainly isn’t helping to restore their reputation.

          • HelixDab2
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            4 months ago

            Eh, apparently a lot of reputable news outlets fell for that one. They–and others–were reporting on a story done by KFOR, and didn’t do any independent fact checking.

            • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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              4 months ago

              From what I remember, it was Rolling Stone who broke that story, or at least managed to give it national attention. Many of those other outlets probably trusted them to have done their homework and only reported it because they did.

              But that’s exactly how fake news spreads, isn’t it? One outlet runs a sensational story and everyone else simply reports on it, assuming they did their due diligence. When it eventually turns out to be a hoax, they just issue a correction, but of course that doesn’t get nearly the same amount of attention, so most people miss it and continue to spread unsubstantiated rumors.

              I bet if you asked around on the street, you’ll still find people who believe that this is a thing that actually happened during the pandemic.

      • EatATaco
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        4 months ago

        It’s really what you get when you don’t RTFA and respond to a quote used in the headline.

          • EatATaco
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            4 months ago

            Funny attempt to avoid admitting you are wrong.

            • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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              4 months ago

              What am I wrong about? Is it not misleading to talk about “speed”, which is commonly understood to be a street name for amphetamines, when the actual reporting is only about Modafinil, which is a completely different substance?

              Amphetamines are Schedule II controlled substances while Modafinil is Schedule IV (i.e. a regular prescription drug). The headline is making it sound like they were throwing raves at the White House when actually they were just using a stimulant that’s slightly more potent than caffeine. There is no “high” from Modafinil in any way that’s even close to what you get from amphetamines. I know this because I’ve tried both for my ADHD.

              High doses of amphetamine can make you aggressive, exuberant, and take wildly miscalculated risks. It can produce delusions of grandeur, paranoia, and various other dangerous behavior. Modafinil does neither of those things. It just keeps you from falling asleep.

              • EatATaco
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                4 months ago

                Literally the article explains this, they used a quote from someone in the administration. Ya don’t even know if the person quoted us wrong, only that the known drug that the pharmacy was handing out Willy nilly to staff was modafinil. Your complaint is that they used the word speed and it’s just another stimulant not normally referred to as speed.

                It’s nit-picky at best.