METHAMPHETAMINE DANGEROUS DRUG OR MEDICINE?

Concerned citizens of Hawai’i with family members in rehabilitation centers are calling for a Statewide investigation into the prescribing of legal methamphetamine-based drugs by Hawai’i doctors and psychiatrists, following a University of Hawaii study showing that the meth ingested by birth mothers causes brain development problems in their infants.

“We’ve had the idea that street meth is a social threat to island society, but the new UH study provides crucial evidence that street drugs and meth-based legal drugs prescribed for ADHD and other conditions are both detrimental,” says Bobby Newman, a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor. “Why would a society police the use of street methamphetamines while allowing others to profit from it by law?”

In addition, such pharmaceuticals are often unprescribed when consumed on the Manoa Campus of the State’s university, Newman said, based on a recent article published in The Honolulu Advertiser. He added consumers should obtain as much information as possible when being prescribed Desoxyn® (methamphetamine hydrochloride) for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specifically for children ages five and up.

Other drugs to research carefully are Adderall (amphetamine-dextroamphetamine), a central nervous system stimulant that affects chemicals in the brain and nerves contributing to hyperactivity and impulse control. And Ritalin, which is listed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as a Schedule II stimulant, is in fact right alongside cocaine.

The meth study by UH scientists was published in the April 15 issue of Neurology, the Medical Journal of the American Academy of Neurology at www.neurology.org. Brain scans were performed on 29 children aged three and four years whose mothers used meth while pregnant and 37 unexposed children of the same ages. MRI scans used diffusion tensor imaging to measure molecular diffusion in the children’s brains, which can indicate abnormal microscopic brain structures that might reflect abnormal brain development.

“Methamphetamine use is an increasing problem among women of childbearing age, leading to an increasing number of children with prenatal meth exposure,” said study author Linda Chang MD at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu. “But until now, the effects of prenatal meth exposure on the developing brain of a child were little known,” she added.   

“Our findings suggest prenatal meth exposure accelerates brain development in an abnormal pattern,” said Chang. “Such abnormal brain development may explain why some children with prenatal meth exposure reach developmental milestones later than others.”

Something has to be done about it.

Bobby Newman has helped educate over 26,000 Hawaiian children, distributed over 11,000 Parent Drug Education Kits to help with the ice epidemic and help to significantly reduce illicit drug use in Hawaii.

For more information on drugs and addiction, contact Bobby Newman at bobbyn@narcononhawaii.org or 866-373-2809. You can also visit www.narcononhawaii.org