Your roommate, your friend, or the person sitting next to you in your Monday/Wednesday/Friday 8 AM class has done this. Maybe even all of them have. It happens all around college, and even high school, campuses everywhere. They think it is safe, but they do not know the dangers. They say, “just this once,” and they think it is okay. One in four college aged students has misused prescription drugs (2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health). Prescription drugs are defined as controlled substances that are illegal without a prescription from a doctor. Non-medical use of these pills has been a rapidly spreading issue on college campuses in the past ten years and is growing to be as serious as alcohol abuse. Using these medications has risks including chances of addiction, overdosing, or death. People who have misused prescription drugs are also linked to other high-risk behavior like binge drinking, marijuana, cocaine, tranquilizers, and prescription pain relievers because people will chase any high they can get once they believe using any kind of drug is safe. This leads them to look in other categories of drugs too. For many, the abuse of prescription pills begins as early as high school with a category known as "smart drugs" or “study aids.” 

These pills, called stimulants, are used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but for a lot of students they are used as a tool for academic performance enhancement, or sometimes just plain recreational use. They are extremely accessible just about anywhere if you’re looking and are used a lot. How is it so easy? A recent college graduate at Elite Daily explains in a 2015 article:

As it turns out, getting a prescription for drugs like Adderall is relatively simple. In most cases, to determine if a person has ADHD, a self-report checklist is administered, thus making it very easy to feign your answers. In a 2008 study, as many as 93 percent of students in a college course were able to fake the appropriate pattern of ADHD symptoms after having studied the diagnostic criteria for just five minutes (Strickler). 

Especially when the drug boasts benefits like being able to focus and earn higher grades, students will absolutely not think twice about the long list of dangers that inevitably follow the abuse of addicting prescription drugs. Students justify using study drugs because of their academic intentions, but the drugs do not discriminate with their side effects. It does not matter if you are taking the drugs to get high or not; the risks are still there. Personally, I have several friends who have taken Adderall before important standardized tests during their high school careers or just to catch up on a heavy load of assignments. Another scary and noteworthy thing about the abuse of these prescription drugs is that it is not sold by the stereotypical drug dealer. The pills are sold amongst peers. My friends who are prescribed ADHD medication conform to the culture of college and are either pressured or tempted into selling their extra pills to peers who are looking to use them for non-medical use. I even know a girl who has ruined some of her closest, most cherished friendships due to her addiction to Vyvanse because she will do anything to get her next pill. It is not even shocking to see little blue Adderall pills crushed down to powder featured in a Snapchat video story next to a laptop and open notebooks, but the students who use such drugs are either unaware or simply do not worry about their gambles. The misuse and abuse of stimulants is a real, dangerous, and growing problem for students everywhere who more than likely do not believe it is an issue that affects mental and physical health.

Why do students feel the sad need to use drugs to enhance their academic performance? Why is their natural intelligence not enough? College students misuse stimulants in order to improve grades, concentrate, reduce stress, and forget about problems. Students take them to perform better, comparable to an athlete who uses steroids. Common justifications for taking these “study aids” include using them to stay awake and to concentrate while doing schoolwork. The truth of the matter is that some students fall under the pressure to be the best and the brightest and they think that they cannot be this without the aid of illicit drugs not prescribed to them. Students struggle to balance everything in their busy lives. Young adults may be juggling sports, organizations, work, or keeping up with a social life. They may simply be distracted and unable to concentrate. Whatever they have going on, they also face the pressure of high academic stress and doing well in school. In order to keep up with students’ busy lives they will take medications typically prescribed for ADHD like Adderall, Ritalin, or Vyvanse to pull all-nighters or cram studies in. An article published on CNN claims “students say they take these stimulants for the ‘right reasons,’ to be more productive in classes and to stay afloat in the sea of intense competition” (Yanes), but their “right reasons” have wrong repercussions. Elite Daily brags about the use of Adderall in an article, “if you've slept through every single philosophy lecture of the entire semester, and you're 18 hours away from taking the cumulative final, Adderall can be your saving grace” (Strickler). Students either receive pressure from parents, try to compete with friends or peers, or self-inflict stress on themselves to be perfect or excel in academics in order to have a successful future. However, there are healthy ways to put pressure on yourself and unhealthy amounts. Similarly, there are also healthy methods of motivation and unhealthy methods. Taking drugs in order to be self-satisfied is absolutely unhealthy both emotionally and physically.

All drugs have side effects and come with a list of risks. When prescribed, they come with warnings, but what happens when the users are not the ones who are prescribed to these medications? 81% of 1,800 college students (DeSantis 2008) thought illicit use of ADHD medication was either "not dangerous at all" or "slightly dangerous." It is easy for users to believe that taking prescription drugs is safe because the primary source has to be a doctor and they are of course approved by the Federal Drug Administration, but once these drugs are being misused, the long lists of hazards and consequences are a factor to consider. The abuse of prescription pain medications can lead to many problems including increases in blood pressure or heart rate, organ damage, addiction, difficulty breathing, seizures, heart attack, stroke, or death. (National Council on Patient Information and Education). ADHD stimulants increase neurotransmitters like dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, which is obviously not natural. Seeker, an educational YouTube channel, posted a video about students taking study drugs:

As more of these chemicals are released and their reuptake is blocked by the drug, more dopamine floats freely in the brain, but according to another study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, the clinical benefits of cognitive enhancement get outstripped by other less medically desirable effects like addiction and a study published in a journal Brain Behavior states other risks like psychosis, heart problems, and even sudden death. One study published in the American Heart Journal found that young adults who abuse amphetamines have a greater risk of getting a tear in the main artery leading to the heart. Another study published in The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, found that long term amphetamine use can lead to permanent changes in the brain (DNewsChannel).

 So, not only are users putting themselves at risk for addiction, they are also causing damage to the brain. The National Institute on Drug Abuse recognizes the prescription drug problem in America and warns, “Using stimulants like Adderall or Ritalin can make you feel [paranoid]. It also can cause your body temperature to get dangerously high and make your heart beat too fast. This is especially likely if stimulants are taken in large doses or in ways other than swallowing a pill.” These dangerous side effects are often forgotten.

When people start using a substance, almost no one believes they are going to develop a problem. There is almost never an intention to become addicted. Adderall is a prime example of students’ substance abuse. It is the second most common form of illicit drug use on college campuses, behind marijuana (Schwartz). Especially since the popularity of these pills has just risen in the past ten years, the long-term risks cannot even be fully studied. There is no telling what the effects will be after years of Adderall misuse, so this generation of young people using Adderall are essentially the guinea pigs, making it potentially even more dangerous. A comprehensive study was published in an international journal titled “Drug Safety” that focuses on risk management of drugs and medication. It was conducted using social media to track and collect data about Adderall abuse, 

The vast majority of tweets discussed Adderall use in a joking, sarcastic, or casual manner. Observed tweets [included:] ‘I need adderall. Can't focus on studying or finishing these reviews’, ‘this whole no adderall for the past 3 days is really getting to me #StillDoingWork #DontKnoHowTho’, ‘Does anyone have adderall? #desperate’, ‘adderall + school = winning’, ‘wish i had adderall to get my room cleaned faster’, ‘Adderall stockpile for finals’, ‘We would all graduate with a 4.0 if adderall was sold over the counter’, ‘Running on coffee and Adderall’, ‘yay for adderall-induced optimism #givemeaprescription’, and ‘Adderall, Coffee, Red Bull. Epic focus. Or a heart attack’ (Sarker).

The study provided specific evidence about the lack of seriousness surrounding misuse of prescription pills for non-medical reasons. The number of tweets mentioning Adderall peaked during the traditional time of final exams for universities, showing that students use these pills to cram in their studying. Young people that publish these tweets for all to see are shining a glorifying light on Adderall misuse. They could not be more wrong.

This abuse is real and affects real people. Two blue pills were all it took in her sophomore year of college at Brown University. Casey Schwartz was offered the “study aids” by a friend who was trying to get rid of the medication. She stayed awake all night and that was the beginning of her long, painful struggle with abuse. In a New York Times article, the serious addiction she faced is summarized. Casey’s young adult life began to spiral completely out of control as she lost weight, sleep, and her willpower. She shares the story of a scary experience about a specific week where she was using a lot of pills to compensate for her lack of sleep and started to feel dizzy, shake, and struggled to breathe. An ambulance brought her to the nearest hospital where she was diagnosed with an amphetamine induced anxiety panic attack after taking too much Adderall. The rest of Schwartz’s article is both eye-opening and disturbing because of the way she addresses her experience with addiction. She turned to message boards after not being able to quit the drug on her own, 

One post, in particular, has stayed with me, a mother writing on QuittingAdderall.com: I started taking Adderall in OCT 2010. And my story isn’t much different than most. ... The honeymoon period, then all downhill. I feel like I cannot remember who I was, or how it felt, to go one minute of the day not on Adderall. I look back at pictures of myself from before this began and I wonder how I was ever “happy” without it because now I am a nervous wreck if I even come close to not having my pills for the day. There have been nights I have cried laying my daughter down to sleep because I was so ashamed that the time she spent with her mommy that day wasn’t real (Schwartz). 

Addiction is a very real danger that no one really associates with abusing stimulants, especially when taking a pill just to perform better in school. It is not a thought that crosses one’s mind because they have good intentions to do well on an exam or a paper, but it should be. These drugs lead to dependence and can cause addiction because they affect the way the brain’s reward system works. The brain and the body adapt to drugs in their systems leading to tolerance and when use stops, withdrawal occurs. Addiction becomes existent when a person uses the drug regardless of negative consequences and the drug becomes one of the most important things in life. 

The small boost that comes from study drugs is not worth the significant risks. Like Consumer Reports says, “Popping an ADHD pill like Adderall or Ritalin to enhance your studying and boost grades might sound tempting” (Mitchell), and sure it can be difficult to deal with the pressure of performing well academically, but there are much safer and much smarter ways to study, and there are alternative methods of approaching stress. It is important to balance risk with reward. The side effects are too serious to be popping pills without a prescription just to study. The only way for users and potential users to realize the dangerous game being played with prescription drugs is for awareness to be raised. This threatening issue needs to be treated like one by all, including doctors that are the ones writing the recommendations to patients. Students should be educated about the side effects and possibilities of the worst-case scenario by their high schools and universities since this is the setting where it is most popular. Before the abuse continues to grow even more than it already has, students need to know that study drugs are wrong, dangerous, and do not provide the answer to the test.
