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Comment by joshuapants | Hacker News Reader

Makes sense. That said, will they not admit anyone who has a legitimate reason for prescription stimulants?

On the other hand, if legitimate use is allowed, there are doctors out there who will give you a prescription for faked symptoms.

This is a problem in regular sports too

> "It would be fair to have two Tours de France - one for the asthmatics and one for non-asthmatics," he said. "The funny result would be that the asthmatics would be much faster."

From http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2007-07-20-369...

Indeed - I competed in amateur rowing while in University (and was legitimately asthmatic) and at least 4 of the people in my crew became asthmatic during the time that we were training together...

Dosage for controlling ADD compared to that used in a performance enhancing manner is quite drastically different.

Can you quantify the difference?

No, because it isn't true. 10-20mg of adderall will treat ADHD in a hyperactive, but it will make a non hyperactive capable of repetitive tasks that require focus.

I absolutely love the stuff, but I have high blood pressure which it aggravates, so I can't take it. It isn't worth a stroke.

Why would we want to officially bias competitions toward people with ADD diagnoses?

Because we don't want people abusing drugs.

I fail to see how a policy of "you can't compete if you're taking meth" promotes drug abuse.

Good point - this could create an incentive for people to stop taking the medication that they need just so they're allowed to compete.

In WADA-controlled sports you can get TUEs[1] to solve that problem.

[1] Therapeutic Use Exemptions[2]

[2] https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/science-medical/thera...

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