Spending all your money and time on console games may be sad, yet somewhat understandable. However, snorting Ritalin just so you can stay awake and play Xbox 360 titles is ridiculous – and quite dangerous.
But that didn’t stop a 15-year-old New Zealand high school student from snorting the controlled substance using a stripped-down pen nib, which led to his hospitalization after suffering a panic attack and subsequently hyperventilating.
The son later told his father he chose Ritalin, illicitly purchased at school, as the drug of choice because it “wasn’t addictive.”
“But even though a drug may not be addictive, it can be psychologically addictive so you get psychologically addicted to the high,” the father told TVNZ.
“Being such a traumatic, emotional experience of thinking my boy was dying, to ‘he is snorting drugs,’ put me in shock. I had a hundred questions but was too shocked and drained to address them.”
The father now wants the high school to alert other parents about the risks related to illicit use of Ritalin, so those with ADHD children taking the drug can keep track of its supply and intake.
“If they have Ritalin in their houses it needs to be kept in a secure place,” he warned. “They [really] all think their kids are angels.”
Ritalin is often prescribed to treat behavioral problems in children diagnosed with ADHD. It contains the active ingredient methylphenidate, which acts like an amphetamine – producing a “high” by raising blood pressure and increasing the heart rate.
Of course, ingesting various forms of mind altering substances is nothing new for high school and college students. Then again, snorting large quantaties of Ritalin is probably not the smartest way to go about such things.
