Kid Snorts Ritalin to Maintain Marathon Gaming Session

[Therumancer]

The funny thing is I've been prescribed Ritalin and in my time taking it I don't remember ever getting any sort of energy boost. Seriously this kid should've gone for coffee or a Red Bull or something.

It works differantly for differant people's metabolisms, like a lot of drugs. That is one of the reasons why self medicating is so dangerous.

I used Ritalin a number of years ago when I was dealing with some sleep disorders and chronic fatigue (it was prescribed) so I could go to work. You might not have felt the differance, but I sure as heck did when I used it.

-

That said, the "funny" thing about this is that in reading about the "problems" with these gamers I'm reminded a lot of when I worked in casino security, and we had people so addicted to slot machines that they had to be carried away on stretchers, collapse from malnutrition and dehydration, and other things. We only had a few fatalities though. The most memorable though were people who got into games like craps and would literally not want to leave the table so they did things like pee and poop in their pants, stinking horribly, and sometimes having the waste dripping down over their shoes and such... totally nasty. Real life casinos are nothing like you'd expect from TV and movies with people getting all dressed up and classy. Down here the casinos I worked for were ranked #1 and #3 in the world (in general, not just for Indian Casinos, while in a decline nowadays Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun were quite a big deal... and still are to an extent I guess).

When you work there, I know this kind of thing seems more frequent than it actually is (because there seems to always be something, especially when it's your job), but the point is that this kind of addictive behavior is just part of being human, it has nothing to do with gaming.

You have people who wind up destroying themselves physically gambling (not just financiall), and if you dig, you'll notice plenty of accusations that are similar being thrown at things like home shopping networks. Gaming is just a more popular boogie man. Chances are if you look at anything you'll find stories like this in connection to it, and honestly there are plenty of legal things (like casino gambling in Nevada, Atlantic City, or reservation land.. or QVC for that matter as I mentioned) that have probably been worse for a longer period of time.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

less potent than, those of cocaine

Insufflation of Ritalin is actually typically more potent than cocaine. The effects are magnified by a tremendous amount.

It's only less potent because it's typically ingested instead.

The funny thing is I've been prescribed Ritalin and in my time taking it I don't remember ever getting any sort of energy boost. Seriously this kid should've gone for coffee or a Red Bull or something.

I imagine you were just swallowing the stuff. It makes a huge difference.

 

[winter2]

I don't know much about drugs so this might be a stupid question.. but how would ritalin help him play the game? Isn't that what they give to ADHD kids?

Would it help him focus or something like that?

 

[Kargathia]

I want to know how he justified snorting Ritalin.

Coke was too expensive, and simply eating the pills wasn't cool enough.

 

[Ashsaver]

Ta da da daaaa! FOX news founds more ammo!

Now that the kid learned a valuable lesson,i think he's gonna be fine from now on.

 

[JakobBloch]

I feel compelled to say this: This story is not funny. It is not amusing in any way. It is a tragedy. A kid had a terrible accident. Fortunately it did not go any worse then what it did. That does not make it right to laugh at it. It is not unlike laughing at a person getting run over with a car. It may be his own fault for trying to cross a road in rush hour and he may not be seriously injured (lets say he was lucky) but he still got hurt and probably needs a trip to the hospital. Laughing at it is in very poor taste.

And I blame you mister news person. The "Its effect on your gamerscore is currently unknown." crack was in very poor taste.

/End Lecture

i'm sorry but i'll have to correct you on a couple of things, first it wasn't a freaking accident, he snorted ritalin on purpose, he might not have been aware of the dangerous concequences but he was still abusing a controlled substance on purpose, so no accident.
(accidents are when you do something unintended, not when your purposeful action has negative results)

Arguing semantics. Ok I will go for that.
A valid argument but whether an action has risks, has accepted side effects or is illegal or otherwise controlled has no bearing on whether an accident happens. An accident occurs when an action has an unexpected outcome. This outcome usually hurts someone in some way. While you could argue that the kid should have known this would happen, he certainly did not expect it. Thus an accident happened. Similarly if a stuntman gets hurt doing a stunt it is also an accident because they did not expect him to get hurt. (used http://dictionary.reference.com to get my definition so nothing deep or special) All this is however irrelevant to my point which was: A kid got hurt = this is bad and not remotely funny

secondly the joke from the article was freaking hilarious.

I was not commenting on the quality of the joke. I was merely stating that it was in poor taste.

 

[Baneat]

I want to know how he justified snorting Ritalin.

Honestly, my sympathies are with the kid and his families and all, but come on. Why didnt he just buy some cocaine or do speed? I dont get what advantage he saw in Ritalin over other "uppers". It just sounds weird, someone snorting Ritalin to stay awake.

Just goes to show that legal and illegal drugs are equally harmful, anyway.

I have a great strategy for the kid to stay awake...DRINK SOME FUCKING COFFEE INSTEAD OF SNORTING RITALIN!!!

Like,I don't fucking get it.

Do you have any idea what coffee does after 48 hours awake, if you take it enough to be aware enough to actually play competently?

No, but you've made me want to try. I just might, actually.

 

[Knight Templar]

The funny thing is I've been prescribed Ritalin and in my time taking it I don't remember ever getting any sort of energy boost. Seriously this kid should've gone for coffee or a Red Bull or something.

You're not supposed to take it "so and so" hours before you intend to sleep because it messes with brain activity.
It basically fakes being awake, your brain stays up but your body is still tired.
It only really becomes a problem if you take it incorrectly, or shouldn't be taking it at all.

Whenever I go on or off it I have a day or so where I get quite lethargic as by body adjusts.

 

[Scrythe]

Scary thing is, I actually knew a guy who used to snort coke for really long WoW sessions.

I used to remind him that you could get the same results if you double-fisted some Spike [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Shooter], but eh... to each their own, I guess.

 

[kouriichi]

Anyone else have a flashback to Fallout: Newvegas, when the shaman yells at you, "TAKE DRUGS, KILL A BEAR", or am i the only one?

OT: Im glad the father doesnt blame video games. He was smart not to just randomly jump to the conclusion. Chances are, the boy was told to snort it from the kid he got the pills from.

Now for the kid who game him the pills. He should be disciplined hardcore. ((all pun intended))

 

[Kopikatsu]

Eh. Kid gets drugs from classmate, snorts kiddie cocaine...

Why does anyone care about what happens to him? He lives...he dies...same shit.

 

[Icehearted]

This is what happens when you don't keep the energy drinks coming.

Also this...

 

[Starke]

I want to know how he justified snorting Ritalin.

Honestly, my sympathies are with the kid and his families and all, but come on. Why didnt he just buy some cocaine or do speed? I dont get what advantage he saw in Ritalin over other "uppers". It just sounds weird, someone snorting Ritalin to stay awake.

Just goes to show that legal and illegal drugs are equally harmful, anyway.

Availability. He could get Ritalin, he couldn't get cocaine?

Like I said, dont you need some sort of prescription for Ritalin?

Its easier for me to get cocaine because the drug store wont hand me any ritalin without a doctors prescription.

A kid at his school was selling/giving the stuff to him, apparently.

 

[aba1]

He's 15, he's going to make mistakes. Lets hope he's alright.

normaly I would agree but common snorting ritalin has to be pritty stupid I mean why dont I just go drink anti freeze n start licking everything I see its just poor decision making at its finest.

 

[Sevenkilts]

FFFF That's practically the next town over from me. I thought this stuff only happens in other countries. Hope the guy is alright but it highlights the seriousness of the drug control problem in New Zealand. Good to see the father realises that his kid wasn't the innocent victim of video games that many others would make him out to be.

 

[blackdwarf]

meh, meheehehhheeehh, muhahahiihihiho. MUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

i'm sorry, this is is just funny. yeah, he could died, but only because his owns actions, which were pretty stupid.


hiha!

 

[Lenin211]

We need to restrict game sales! If we can stop them from playing games, they will be safer!

 

[Liquid Paradox]

Methylphenidate is not a Narcotic, it is a stimulant.

Just saying.

Edit: Because my posts ended up sounding a little trollish, I'll add some more. First, That the reason he snorted Ritalin is because this way, the methylphenidate will be absorbed by the capillaries in his nose, entering his bloodstream with almost full force. The only way it could have hit him harder is if he had found a way to inject it.

Secondly, to all you mean-spirited people laughing and talking about Darwin awards, calling him an idiot and what not... well. I had no idea that there were so many people here at the escapist who have never done something stupid! Let's ignore, shall we, the fact that substance abuse is a constant problem all around the world, particularly for kids.

Here is what probably happened. The Kid who sold/gave him the Ritalin told him that it was prescribed by a doctor, which means that it's safe. Because a doctor would never give a child a dangerous substance, right? And then this same kid, who has never taken a class on Psychoactive substances (and therefore, knows nothing about Pharmacodynamics), happens to have learned that you get a waaay bigger high when you grind it up and sniff it. So, he tells the 15 year old from the article That if he wants to stay awake, he should do the same. 15 year old tries it once, gets super high, and nothing bad happens, but man was it awesome! Next time, it's still awesome, but for some reason, not quite [i/] as awesome, so he snorts two instead of one. Then, the third time he decided to pull an all-nighter, he just snorts two right off the bat, then snorts another around midnight, and suddenly his team is wondering why his character isn't moving or shooting anymore.

So... Yeah. Let's all call the kid a moron, because obviously, each one of you knows what Pharmacodynamics even means without Wikipedia.

Oh, and for those of you saying take coffee instead of drugs? Errm... Caffeine is the most abused Psychoactive substance in the World. Second is Nicotine. Third is Tetrahydrocannabinol (T.H.C; the active ingredient in Marijuana).