Drugs commonly used for weight loss easy to get: Doc
Posted January 7, 2012 12:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s been a trend for decades, people taking drugs to help lose or in some cases gain weight. News1130 spoke with a doctor about the main substances on the market after two Abbotsford women overdosed recently.
Caffeine, cocaine and ecstasy are usually used to increase the metabolism but it could have the reverse effect on some. The most commonly used diet drug in Canada is Ephedra.
Dr. Laird Birmingham says the problem with buying any of these drugs is it’s usually off the street where the dose could be two or 10 times what it’s supposed to be.
“By trying to increase distribution they’ve reduced the cost of many of these things to the point where young people find them easy to buy. Of course, then they become addicted to them.”
He explains male teens are more likely to use drugs to control weight than girls are. The average high school male teen wants to gain 10 pounds in muscle, while girls want to lose at least 10 pounds, according to data collected by Birmingham.
“I’m surprised that women put up with this kind of crap. What a woman eats should be based on what she needs to eat to feel good. The key thing is to change our society’s perspective on eating.”
He says the solution to body image issues and to control eating disorders is parents should be eating with their kids and lunches at school should be supervised.
