![KURT’S STORY:Rock legend Kurt Cobain started on Ritalin at age 7. Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, believed that this drug led to his later abuse of stronger drugs. He committed suicide with a shotgun in 1994. Love was also prescribed Ritalin as a child. She described the experience this way: “When you’re a kid and you get this drug that makes you feel that [euphoric] feeling, where else are you going to turn when you’re an adult?”](/sites/default/files/page16-image01-kurt-cubain-ritaline.jpg)
A study supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that users of Ritalin and similar drugs “showed the highest percentage of cocaine abuse.”
Because a tolerance builds up, abuse of Ritalin can lead users to consume stronger drugs to achieve the same high. When the effects start to wear off, the person may turn to more potent drugs to rid himself of the unwanted conditions that prompted him to abuse the drug in the first place.
Ritalin itself does not lead the person to other drugs: people take drugs to get rid of unwanted situations or feelings. The drug masks the problem for a time (while the user is high). When the “high” fades, the problem, unwanted condition or situation returns more intensely than before. The user may then turn to stronger drugs since Ritalin no longer “works.”
A study of 500 students over a period of twenty years found those who used Ritalin and related drugs had a greater likelihood of using cocaine and other stimulants later in life.
According to a 2005 study, teens who abuse prescription drugs are twelve times likelier to use heroin, fifteen times likelier to use Ecstasy and twenty times likelier to use cocaine, compared to teens who do not abuse such drugs.
