Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

As someone who depends on amphetamines to function daily, it’s disheartening to see their use further stigmatized. For many people like me, amphetamines help them live a normal life. The app isn’t called “meth” or “methamphetamine” and it’s not referring to a street drug.

I’m saddened to see so many equating amphetamines to illicit drugs, when that’s simply not the full story. This perception is exactly what stops people from taking their medication when they should and balking at the idea of a medication being able to help them.

While I wholeheartedly agree with the thrust of your argument (particularly that stigmatization is detrimental)...

> it’s not referring to a street drug.

Amphetamine (and other amphetamines) are certainly available as 'street drugs'. The stigmatization of 'street drugs' (and generally, drug use as part of someone's self-directed diet) is also harmful.

Exactly. If you were to describe objectively to someone the properties of alcohol or tobacco without saying the name, people would be clamoring to crack down on the "epidemic" claiming thousands of lives and costing billions.

So apps with the words pep or speed in the name are also inappropriate?

Hah! I use methamphetamine (desoxyn) to function!

Some irony there in complaining about the stigmatizing of a drug with high abuse potential then immediately stereotyping another.

Uhhh, no. I don't think this name, nor any name based on a psychoactive compound, is a bad or inappropriate name on that basis.

Cocaine is also used as a medication. We use topical spray cocaine for anesthetizing the nasal cavity and pharynx before certain procedures.

Just saying.

Speed can refer to a drug, but it can refer to a lot of other things too; people will think very different things depending on whether they see the word next to a picture of pills or one of a running shoe.

You surely know this already.

Also occasionally used in optometry (applied directly to the eyeball!) as either an anesthetic or diagnostic tool.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3885453/