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And sure, I understand if someone needs to just trust a bureaucrat to bootstrap themselves to the point where they can make decisions. But your original comment was talking about parents making these decisions for kids, which is quite dodgy if they're in denial that these are mind altering substances.
You seem much more pre-occupied with vague conspiracy theories about how bureaucrats work to the detriment of society than an actual topical discussion about medication or the article linked here.
Drugs (as used by you and colloquially as something to get high and negatively connotated with health outcomes) and medications are not the same thing.
Yet you pretend they are, without taking into account the contrasting realities of how medication is vetted and approved.
Nobody is trusting a overworked bureaucrat, because that's not how this works.
People far more qualified than you can imagine using standardized processes and thousands of people vet medication before it becomes available to the public.
Ritalin hs been around for decades.
I am all for informing the public and empowering people to make autonomous decisions for their health.
I am against people playing moral superiority when actually all they're doing is spouting non-scientific conspiracy theories about some bad bureacurats following an evil plan drugging the populace.
I don't see how calling out someone's reaction to the word "drugs" is "an angle of bad faith". If someone has an emotional reaction to the reality that a doctor is proposing giving their kid mind-altering substances, that indicates they haven't gotten to the point where they're able to judge it rationally. The answer isn't to shy away from the reality!
So yes, unfortunately the first step to making an informed decision is getting past the fearmongering propaganda pumped out by all the anti-illegal-drugs campaigns. And yeah that sucks, but it's certainly nowhere near the biggest hurdle to self-actualization that our society perpetuates.
If people have the same denial about anti-depressants, then my critique applies as well. But an allowance for the need to bootstrap would seem to apply more, plus the generally more complex mechanisms and nuanced effects making it harder to understand the effects for yourself.
Adderall saved my life. YMMV
Nope, completely depends on the country, both for EU and non-EU. Nothing special about EU in this case. Plenty of EU countries where "Ritalin" is 100x better known than "methylphenidate". Don't take your bubble and extrapolate it to a federation of 450 million people with 27 countries.
> Oh, and by the way: wherever you are is not the center of the world.
If you were going for the "most ironic HN comment of 2026 award", it's a great attempt!