LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- TwitchGuru's investigative report on the little-known underside of video gaming culture reveals that many teen and twenty-something male gamers are turning to narcotics as performance enhancers. By using powerful stimulants and creative drug combinations like Ecstasy and Viagra, they seek to gain a competitive advantage or heightened sensory experience at social gaming tournaments and LAN parties, where groups of a few to many thousand gather to connect their computers to enable multiplayer games.

With $100,000-plus cash prizes fueling increased participation at tournaments, gamers have a greater incentive to use Ritalin, methamphetamine and cocaine if they believe it will prevent fatigue and give them an edge on the competition. Event promoters and professional gaming organizations do not allow drugs but have not instituted a testing policy, effectively contributing to a potential "steroid era" for gaming in its evolution to becoming accepted as a true sport in its own right.

Marijuana and video games have been a popular combination for years, but more recently gamers relied on such energy drinks as Red Bull, Rockstar and Monster and then rapidly progressed to amphetamines and nootropics -- so-called "smart drugs" that boost cognitive abilities. The shift from recreational drugs and caffeinated stimulants to the more potent and effective narcotics does not surprise Dr. Maressa Orzack, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and the founder and coordinator of the Computer Addiction Services clinic at McLean Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts.

Orzack treats video game addiction and believes that frequent game playing can lead to many gamers trying illicit substances to enhance and prolong their play. "Amphetamines and methamphetamines are becoming popular and can certainly help you stay up for long hours and probably helps enhance the excitement," Orzack says. "A lot of gamers, particularly the addicted ones, try to find ways to avoid sleep and keep their concentration."

In an ongoing series of articles, TwitchGuru will explore gaming's new drug culture and examine how it will affect the social LAN parties as well as the future of professional gaming competitions. Filing the first report from gaming's frontlines, TwitchGuru's Aaron McKenna attends a LAN party where snorting Ritalin and consuming other stimulants is commonplace in the quest for ultimate endurance.

To read the complete article, go to:

http://www.twitchguru.com/2006/08/29/gamings_new_drug_culture/?id=tgpr&at tr=20060829-gamings_new_drug_culture

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