Speed helps with schoolwork

Sorry to come in swinging with my first comment here, but as someone who has benefited tremendously from ADD medication (Adderall), I'm insulted by the "this didn't work for me, so obviously it's bullshit" tone of your posts.

Not everyone who takes prescription stimulants experiences a "racing heartbeat," "waking delusions" or "recurring daily nose-bleeds." The kinds of effects you're describing sound like the result of TOO MUCH Adderall or Ritalin, not a safe therapeutic dosage.

ADD robs you of the ability to do anything that isn't immediately satisfying - not just homework, but things like sticking through the first few chapters of a dense novel, or practicing an instrument to get better at it. Necessary day-to-day stuff that you sincerely want to do and need to do to get what you want out of life.

From my experience (diagnosed late, at 22), a well-applied dose of ADD medicine gives you a subtle push over those hurdles that other people can normally overcome on their own. It doesn't turn you into Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction like you're implying.

I wasn't given Ritalin as a kid, and I've heard a lot of horror stories just like everyone else has. But please don't go all Tom Cruise on a certain drug class just because you had a bad personal experience with it. Just as something like MDMA can be dangerous or beneficial depending on the context, stimulants can be really helpful when you're not pounding your body into submission with them. Imagine if everyone who ever had a bad trip thought like this... shrooms and LSD and everything else would be illegal. Oh wait.

Yup, speed is a nootropic. Teach the little bastards how to deal with the potentially dangerous catecholaminergic side effects and you'll end up with a net positive gain. So what if a few eggs get broken along the way? That's life.