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Hello all. Wondering if ADHD medications are legal there and if so, which ones?

I am thinking of taking a job in Dubai. My son, a darling 16 year old scamp who doesn't pay a whit of attention to anyone, takes adderall. Knowing that laws for this sort of thing can be much different there, I'm worried about him having to go off his meds. I don't think he could focus on a fancy young lass without it, much less his homework!

I've tried to find this info on the net, but it's quite difficult.

Thank you!

F.M.

footballmom wrote:Hello all. Wondering if ADHD medications are legal there and if so, which ones?

I am thinking of taking a job in Dubai. My son, a darling 16 year old scamp who doesn't pay a whit of attention to anyone, takes adderall. Knowing that laws for this sort of thing can be much different there, I'm worried about him having to go off his meds. I don't think he could focus on a fancy young lass without it, much less his homework!

I've tried to find this info on the net, but it's quite difficult.

Thank you!

F.M.

Here is a suggestion: just google pharmacies in dubai or look at a guide (there is a chanin called boots or something). Or go here http://www.thedubaiguide.com/index.php? ... com_search (it lists 8 phamacies) Just call them (country cod is 971 then the number), they all speak englihs well. They will be your best source. You can ask them whether they have it, or who has it, and whether or not you need a prescription (many medications do not need a prescriptiong). Call more than one...

Good luck.

Concs is correct Boots the Chemist has many stores in dubai just check whether the availability of this drug is allowed in Dubai. Also many prescription drugs in the UK are available over the counter in dubai.

You may find schooling a problem though. I would very much doubt whether any of the private american or english schools would accept a pupil with ADHD or any form of behaviour disorder. I would advise you check this out.

As the drugs are low (and sometimes not so low) grade amphetamines, you may find there are restrictions on their availability and use.

Instead of doping your kids, you might like to try alternative medicine, such as a kick in the behind and discipline.

That's a tough one and many of the schools here are not equipped to cope with children suffering from behaviour disorders, there's been much in the press about that. They are way behind when it comes to that sort of thing. So sorry to say that I would do alot of research to see if there is actually a suitable school for your son before you consider coming.

^ian^ wrote:As the drugs are low (and sometimes not so low) grade amphetamines, you may find there are restrictions on their availability and use.

Instead of doping your kids, you might like to try alternative medicine, such as a kick in the behind and discipline.

I could not have put this better myself, nice one. We are not allowed to say such things in the UK because of the PC Police, or being struck by lightening.

arniegang wrote:

^ian^ wrote:As the drugs are low (and sometimes not so low) grade amphetamines, you may find there are restrictions on their availability and use.

Instead of doping your kids, you might like to try alternative medicine, such as a kick in the behind and discipline.

I could not have put this better myself, nice one. We are not allowed to say such things in the UK because of the PC Police, or being struck by lightening.

why would you bring your kids to this country ??? with all these pathan taxi drivers heree better hide your kids far far away from here

I have to agree, having been prescribed to the stuff myself in high school I can tell you, you're better off flushing that stuff down the toilet. It is speed plain and simple, no different than the stuff on the street, and its not like he can just take it forever. Get him to learn to think and concentrate by himself, he'll have to eventually. You'll be doing him a favor. ADHD is the best scam the drug companies have ever come up with.

^ian^ wrote:As the drugs are low (and sometimes not so low) grade amphetamines, you may find there are restrictions on their availability and use.

Instead of doping your kids, you might like to try alternative medicine, such as a kick in the behind and discipline.

Thank you for such an ignorant comment. Its attitudes like yours that probably contributed to my ADHD not being diagnosed until I was 36 years old, and suicidal. I have 2 sibilings, and all 3 of us were raised with the 'kick in the behind and disclipline' that you advocate. My siblings have grown to be model citizens, I have not.
Only someone who has ADHD can understand what its like to spend your entire life struggling to understand why you cant get anything right, and how it feels, after having a conversation with someone where you thought you were both getting along well, to find out that person thought you were rude, arrogant etc etc, and you have NO IDEA why they felt that way or what you did and said wrong... Or why you keep dropping things, baning into things, and cant find anything and every 5 minute job takes an hour.

ADHD is a very real condition, and now there are even brain scans which identify the areas of brain tissue which are missing or underdeveloped in the adhd person, - in other words physical evidence to prove it.

Just because an adhd person may come across as a 'right little shit' does NOT mean that there isnt an underlying medical reason.

Unless you are a medical Doctor with a specialty in mental health.... how about you keep ill informed opinionated crap like that to yourself as you don't know what you are talking about.

Yes, I am on amphetamines and for the first time on my 36 years of life, I can understand how to interact with other people, I can feel posititive and happy about life, I can focus through a meeting without having to leave or doodle about 3 or 4 A4 pages of 'stuff', I can remember to ask someone about THEIR weekend or their life, insteand of just boring the hell out of them by rambling on about myself. I can accept constructuve (and sometimes non-constructive) criticism, and people who meet me once are far more likely to actually want to meet me again. (and if you think my comment above was a bit harsh - you dont want to know what Id say 'off meds'.

I realise this is getting well off topic, but the fact is that ADHD is far far more devastating to a person that has it, than 'naughty kids' and the effects carry on way into adult hood. If you saw me off amphetamine and on it, you would probably think that when I was off it, was when I was on it (if you know what I mean) simply due to the fidgeting, anger, and incessant talking.

Anyway at the end of the day, what you think of adhd, is I guess, just one more reason that ppl who have it usually try and keep the fact quiet and deal with it alone, and its also the reason that some people are not diagnosed until they are into adulthood. What you think of adhd and how ignorant that might be is no longer of concern to me personally, and I realise that most people just cant understand it - all they see is an arrotant feather or an 'undiscliplined kid' but I do resent your opinion, simply because every time you air it, someone who may have adhd and was potentially considering getting a diagnosis and help, may decide not to - or not be taken seriously because of the ignorant opinionated comments you make. And who knows - maybe they will end up where I did, pondering the use of a rope, vs lots of pills, to end it all - having given up on ever being able to have a successful relationship and friendships. Thank god someone showed me that it wasnt just me being a totally unlovable person - and that there was a REASON for the way I was feeling.

Id ask you to either research ADHD properly so you can make an informed comment, and talk to people who have knowledge and understanding on the topic, or otherwise leave off with the judgemental comments

To the original poster to this thread Id be interested in hearing any info you ended up with on this?

maximusprime wrote:I have to agree, having been prescribed to the stuff myself in high school I can tell you, you're better off flushing that stuff down the toilet. It is speed plain and simple, no different than the stuff on the street, and its not like he can just take it forever. Get him to learn to think and concentrate by himself, he'll have to eventually. You'll be doing him a favor. ADHD is the best scam the drug companies have ever come up with.

I an only assume you were mis diagnosed, or prescribed a regime that didnt work for you. If you have ADHD 'just concentrate by himself' is about as possible as it is for a mentally retarded person to code an application to compute pi... or for a paraplegic to walk.

In either case Id like to see the reaction if someone said to the mental retard, oh stop it you just need a kick up the arse then you will be able to do math like the other kids

or told the paraplegic it was all in their mind and 'if they really wanted to' they would just get up and walk.

I have lived with those opinions all my life. I think you you have found that you can function perfectly well without meds, then you are either kidding yourself, (and asking people who know you will answer this one for you) or you dont have adhd.

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nomad ,
Thank you for voicing my exact thoughts. People do not understand mental illness is the same as physical illness. Do you tell a person with a busted knee to shake it off and stop whining like a baby? no!
-Sick of ignorance

Adderall was originally developed and marketed in Israel. There are now two generic forms on the general market, altho they are not as long-lasting or effective as the brand. (But the brand, US, runs easily $700 - $800 USD). Why don't you try contacting the Israeli manufacturer, and ask for the XR, if your son is not already using this RX...if you do not find it in Dubai. But Dubai is so advanced in other ways I would expect it to carry the #1 world prescription for ADHD.

And PS: don't ever let anyone talk you out of keeping your child on Adderall. I have seen too many heartbreaking examples of teens,or children, pulled off this, either because it became unaffordable, or the parents were bullied into basically hurting their own child, by witholding it in favor of "training" or "discipline" or other stupid and cruel "treatments" for a condition the child cannot help. Much like a diabetic or near-sighted individual cannot help such conditions. (In the US, ADD/ADHD is FINALLY removed from the list of "disabilities," due to the prevalence of adderall as an adequate treatment. And now is termed just a "condition," like needing glasses, or needing heart meds.

**But one formerly brilliant teen, very heartbreaking, living in Florida - a beautiful state but very redneck and backwards in many areas, not at all pro-children - who was making straight As when living with his mother, enrolled in the toughest international pre-college program there is, fluent in French, looking forward to a career in public service or intelligence, like his mum, happy, active, athletic, lots of friends ... got trapped at his redneck florida father's one day, who refused to return him to his mom after a short annual summer visit. The teen had only 1 year left of pre-college, finishing high school 2 years early because he was so smart,and he would have also accumulated a year of college credit, ...but the father, alcoholic, chain smoker, very abusive, kept the teen a virtual prisoner. Changed his name, and hid him, kept him penniless so that he could not run away, and they were living out in the midst of horrible 100+degree florida nowhere ... the closest bus many miles away, and the teen was trapped. The FIRST THING THE FATHER DID WAS TAKE THIS VERY SMART, POLITE, HARDWORKING, PROUD OF HIMSELF, SELF CONFIDENT young teen,OFF ADDERALL, AND THEN HE NEXT COMMENCED THE MOST ABUSIVE, HORRIBLE BRAINWASHING PROGRAMME, TELLING THE TEEN MANY TIMES EACH DAY HE WAS "STUPID," A "DRUG ADDICT" A "MOMMY'S BOY," AND OTHER HORRIBLE THINGS... and that he just needed to "shape up" and do without his $600/mo prescription. (He also withheld expensive asthma meds,and chain smoked around this poor child, whose whole world suddenly turned into a nightmare.)

The teen dropped to straight Fs, and police brought him home one day, and called his mother themselves, because the teen had not stopped crying for 3 days straight. The redneck Space Coast, NASA "tech writer" father - fat, ugly, good ole boy, so many cigarette butts in his front yard it looked like an ashtray (with his mother, in contrast, because she was well educated and worked always in govt, intelligence or higher level corporate, he lived in luxury homes, by the sea, and had a normal life with God, prayer, school, vacation, family time, etc. When his mother found her teen and saw where he had been forced to live - no food, just whiskey and cigarettes, no soap, the teen barely able to breath and clearly suffering, gasping for breath and emotionally a wreck, she started crying.

The teen never recovered. From this horrible "visit" with his father. The father only wanted more money. He had no one's best interest at heart. This teen wanted to be an ambassador, or, very bright in math, to work at NSA. To live abroad. He was very bright, and very kind hearted. The father exposed him to the most horrific sexual and other abuse, male johns, and who knows what else. The teen was so harmed he will suffer his entire life. And NEVER have the life God intended him to have. Taking him off adderall, it turned out, was his father's STEP 1, in "controlling" this teen,or rather, "brainwashing." Because he was told by some of his "john" friends, that it meant the teen would be confused, easily persuaded to do "anything," and so on.

I guess it was a lot like throwing a child outdoors in the winter, and making sure you stole their coat first, so that the suffering would be that much greater. Their physical stamina and emotional state and ability to focus, that much worse. Or it would be like taking a child's leg braces or glasses away. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO SUCH A THING? TO THEIR OWN BIOLOGICAL CHILD?
And, even if the teen had not been so intentionally and horribly and sickenly abused and traumatized and destroyed by his father, taking him off adderall, that he had been on since first grade, right when he was being approached for NSA fellowships, and State Dept Scholarships and was almost through a very hard academic global program of great prestige, that would have guaranteed his future.. killed him. And the father told "his" child - "you dont' need to go to a fancy university. you will stay right here and work in a walmart if I tell you to, til you are dead." (and turn over all of his earnings to his father, for bourbon / cigarettes, I think was the plan.)

That's the Florida Space Coast / good ole boy network or outlook. Florida has great beaches, but terrible schools, huge issues with poverty and not a lot of sophistication or future for most of its citizens. And all they expect is to work in a walmart or mcdonalds. But that's not what you want for a teen with a 170 IQ, fluent in french, very bright, who had studied so hard his entire life, because he wanted to go into government or intel and serve the common good. Who had a nice, normal, sheltered life with his stepmom and baby stepbrother, and who deserved to be happy. And nurtured. And helped, not prevented from, living up to his potential.

I think it is the worst thing in the world to deliberately hurt a child over and over and over, to the point where you damage them forever.
In Islam we support the concept of Shariah, and as a Muslim, I strongly support this concept, for harm to children.

But also as a mother, and someone who has worked with autism, and coached schools and non-profits, at times, in strategies and interventions, I have NEVER seen an ADD or ADHD child or adult, who took adderall for the wrong reason, or to abuse it, (it's too expensive, and medical marijuana, if one is so inclined, is free now all over the US), and who did not desperately need it, just to stay on a level playing field with everyone else. **And because ADD/ADHD, genetically and statistically, tends to co-exist with very high IQ, it is even more of a tragedy, to withhold it from anyone. Because you are knocking them down that much further, than you would knock anyone else down. You are making that much MORE of a harmful difference in their lives, than you would in the life of a less intelligent person or child. If the average ADD IQ is 160+; and the average human IQ is about 145, that's a lot of destroyed leadership or common good potential, in the world's ADD population, if /when such individuals are not supported by adderall. ON Adderall, this teen blossomed. Flourished. For YEARS. In kindergarten, teachers had tried to tell his mother he was either autistic or "retarded." She persisted and kept saying her son was actually very bright, and something was wrong with the school then, not with her child. And so finally, after neurologists tested and confirmed ADD, and this teen started on adderall in early first grade, it was like turning the light on.

*****
Good luck with your move. And with your child's nurturing and success. It's too bad every child cannot have a loving home and at least 1 good and loving and competent parent. AND.. that police and others in the US, are not better trained, to intervene earlier, to protect children from harm. Like this father on the Space Coast. I was thinking the other day, how many rejections I have had lately, in pretty tough govt. consulting here in DC. And how some remarks had really been hurtful, because I have been working 7 days/week, often til 1 am, trying to put business back after a year of ongoing losses and clients not paying. Even large defense contractors. For lack of money here. But what if you were deliberately exposed to your own father, telling you many times a day how stupid or crazy or worthless you were... and the suddenly, on top of that, you suddenly could not even think well, or focus, and on top of that , all of your teenage dreams were killed by your own father telling you to give up thoughts of Europe or government work and go work til you're dead in a local deli. And you had to watch your former peers, in nice clothing and nice cars, stop in perhaps and buy things, maybe make fun of you, or be degrading, and then go on their successful confident way... and you knew your future was more sexual abuse, or you were starving or you had no clothes or you couldn't breath, but you had no money for a doctor and because of no adderall you coudlnt' even imagine sorting out the effort of finding anything on you own, a helpless young teen with no money, no phone, no transporation, no friends...

People like this father, or the indifferent adults who must have watched this teen struggling to breath - that is the worst feeling in the world, like your chest is closing in and you cannot get air, when you have asthma, it is terrible and frightening - and watched him drop from 135 lbs to 70 lbs!!! from NO FOOD and ABUSE!!! - and DID NOTHING... are why I think God invented Shariah law.

nomad ,

Well said!

--- Dec 19, 2014 ---