Intriguing thread. May I add just one other observation? It seems to me that certain kinds of older drugs with bad "criminal records" so to speak, are being replaced by far more expensive drugs that are practically the same.

For example, what kind of twisted parent would give his kid amphetamines? Yet parents everywhere are doling out Ritalin (a kissing cousin of dexedrine) every day to relieve their kids'classroom squirming. One poster on another thread expressed surprise when I referred to Ritalin as "speed", because she said the stuff calmed and focused her. I offered her this quote:

" I first encountered Ritalin in 1966 when I was in San Francisco doing research for a book on the psychedelic or hippie movement. A certain species of the genus hippie was known as the Speed Freak, and a certain strain of Speed Freak was known as the Ritalin Head. The Ritalin Heads loved Ritalin. You'd see them in the throes of absolute Ritalin raptures...Not a wiggle, not a peep...They would sit engrossed in anything at all...a manhole cover, their own palm wrinkles...indefinitely...through shoulda-been mealtime after mealtime...through raging insomnias...Pure methyl-phenidate nirvana..." (Tom Wolfe Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died )

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articlesprint/WolfeSoulDiedP.htm

And that other hot-selling drug for ADD, Adderall? It's nothing but a cocktail of three flavors of amphetamine . But there's no evidence that it's any better than good ole straight-up dextroamphetimine!

Seems there's more marketing than medicine behind the new drug culture.

Phil