State:: California
Occupation:: Richard Gicomeng, Founder of Drug Use Education (DUE) Process Initiative (www.DrugUseEducation.org)

Diagnosed in 1979 at the age of 19 with narcolepsy and what today is known as ADHD, I was treated with Desoxyn and my 2.0 GPA doubled overnight… I went from Secondary Ed major to Communications to Aerospace Engineer… Working for NASA… In 2002, I moved to California and because Desoxyn is Methamphetamine HCI, a physician accused me of “SPEED ABUSE”, as I was to discover 18 months later when my inability to get treatment for narcolepsy/ADHD had forced me to apply for SSDI. Once on Medicare, I was able to find a physician to treat me. I went back to work but my treatment stopped and a sleep attack during a meeting put my job in jeopardy and I was let go.

Recently, I spent six months waiting for a clinic to treat me. But they didn’t. They billed Medicare but never provided treatment or testing. During the course of 6 months, I was incorrectly diagnosed with schizophrenia and the treatment they provided resulted in serious anxiety. Doctors I have never seen send me bills and bill Medicare. This is not the way it used to be.

If we want decent healthcare for the next generations, we need to provide the younger generation with medical and pharmacological training in grades K12 and have individuals citizens take a greater share in their healthcare treatment. We need to revolutionize drug policy, replacing the fear, ignorance, and shame with knowledge discipline, and trust, expanding medicinal use of drugs and reducing the social use, limiting abuse potential. The more medical education that the public has, the more effective providers will become in research and advancing medicine.