Adderall Use Increases on Campus

It was during his junior year at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kan., when Chris Turner* first had an urge to try something different.
He was a successful student, at least by his standards. He passed his classes and had plans to attend Kansas State University after graduation.
But still, something felt different. He felt behind, and he wanted an edge.
By then, Turner knew about the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The condition intrigued him, and Turner frequently felt that he himself might suffer from the disorder, but he never consulted a doctor to ask questions or seek a proper diagnosis.
“[I] wasn’t able to stay focused during classes,” he said. “There were 30 people in each class which was kind of a lot coming from smaller classes in previous (years). There was more to divert your attention, and so when you hear about people beginning to get diagnosed with ADHD and hear about the symptoms, then you kind of start to think that it might be something that you might have.”
Above all, he felt he could do better and though he tried, he never found an answer for his lack of attentiveness and motivation in the classroom.
It was during that junior year of high school though when Turner’s close friend approached him, and offered him a dose of Adderall for the first time. The small capsule was a prescription-strength amphetamine-based stimulant used in children and adults to combat the symptoms of ADHD.
The offer was simple and intriguing to Turner. Others used it and he felt it gave them the edge he was seeking, and so he accepted the offer.
“I was like ‘Yeah sure,’” Turner said. “So I did, and then just noticed I was about a thousand times more involved in my classes for the rest of the day.”
There was no doubt in his mind that the pill had helped. In fact, Turner said he used Adderall a few more times throughout the remainder of his high school career, even though he still never saw a doctor.
The exchange he made with his friend at St. Thomas was illegal, and Turner said he knew it, but that didn’t bother him. To him, the use of Adderall was an academic aide, not drug abuse.
“I think it was purely academic,” he said.
He had found the answer he was seeking, temporarily at least. It was the tool to combat his distractions.
And Turner would soon learn after graduating high school, Adderall is extremely popular to several students for just the reason it helped him that year.

Arriving at K-State
When Turner arrived for his freshman year at K-State in the fall of 2008, he pledged a fraternity house on campus, and immediately was drawn into the social and academic atmospheres that college life offers.
He had only taken Adderall a few times in high school, and didn’t plan on using it again—unless he received a proper prescription.
But it wouldn’t take long for the stress and pressure of college to trigger the thought of using it again.
It didn’t help that Adderall was even easier to attain at K-State.
While he stressed he didn’t plan to use it again, Turner’s workload quickly piled on, and he sought that extra edge once more.
“It just happened,” he said. “I just heard about people using it and how much it helped them with their homework, and so I kind of tried it again. I figured I had a six-page paper due two days later and was just like ‘All right I’ll just take it just for this paper.’”
The atmosphere of living in a fraternity house provided Turner with the opportunity to use the Adderall almost as often as he needed to. But he had to pay for the pills this time, which cost him about $5 to $10 apiece.
The accessibility to the pills amazed him.
“It [was] probably like a one phone call away kind of thing.” He said. “You kind of know who has it, so it’s very easy to get a hold of.”
The fraternity house is where he met Tim Parkin*, also a sophomore at Kansas State. Parkin didn’t have a prescription for Adderall either, but curiosity and the accessibly within the fraternity house and on campus, allowed him to take advantage of the drug with relative ease.
“I knew there were a couple of people within my fraternity that were doing it.” Parkin said. “I tried it a couple of times and it was something that was beneficial for me.”
Together the two of them bought doses of Adderall from members in the fraternity house and around campus whenever they felt they needed an extra boost in their studies or homework. It’s a practice that has become common among college students across the nation.
“It was just for studying for tests usually,” Parkin said. “I took it a couple of times a week before tests or busy weeks.”
It’s a habit that has become increasingly common on college campuses across the nation. According to a to New York Times story a study focusing on college campuses reports that as many as 20 percent of students report using Ritalin or Adderall for academic assistance.
“I have noticed and been able to observe the tendency or the increase in prescription medication to manage all types of behavior,” Travis Linneman, professor of sociology and doctoral candidate at K-State said. “Stimulants such as Adderall tend to be the most common one, and it just makes sense that as kids transition from secondary education to post-secondary education that they would come to college and they might be presented with the opportunity to abuse these drugs more readily.”
Parkin, who began using the pill during his sophomore year at K-State, said immediately noticed the effects.
“There was definitely a difference,” he said. “My tests. I felt better prepared for. With that being said I was at a point, that spring semester when I was on it, I used it as a crutch. It made me feel good because I was actually studying more, and I felt motivated to do it.”
Linneman said students often times use school to justify their abuse of the pill.
“I think some of the deviance related to it is reduced when you think about in terms of doing something pro-social,” he said. “Using this drug not recreationally in a deviant manner to get high or do whatever else, but to be able to accomplish an acceptable task reduces at least some of the cultural consequences of it.”
The Dangerous Side Effects
Taking Adderall does come with its costs. The small pill has some heavy side effects that come with it, some that may be more severe than the typical user may expect.
According to a New York Times Article and a study conducted by the American Journal of Psychiatry, "sudden death" one of the rare side effects of Adderall use among children and adults.
Most of these "sudden death" cases were seen in children who had suffered cardiac abnormalities before taking Adderall, however there were still a small number cases of "sudden death" in children who did not previously suffer from heart conditions.
According to a report from Psychiatric News, there were 20 reports of "sudden deaths" associated with Adderall use, 14 of which were children, while six were adults. In the United States, 12 children were victim of "sudden death."
"These deaths were not associated with overdose, misuse, or abuse," Health Canada said, which eventually took a step to ban the pills from use for
While the United States never took the step to ban Adderall, the FDA did issue a formal warning addressing this rare phenomenon in the use of Adderall.
More common side effects of Adderall use include weight loss, dizziness and trouble sleeping.
Parkin said his doctor discussed these side effects with him during his initial visit.
"He just wanted to check on some things but was a big hesitant," Parkin said. "I guess somewhat reluctantly but said ‘This is how it is going to be but I guess we can try this out', but he did offer alternatives.”

The legality, a constant battle on campus
Even though he didn’t have a prescription, Turner was never worried about the legality of his involvement with buying and selling Adderall.
And he’s not alone.
According to a study conducted by the Psychology Health and Medicine Journal in August 2002, 35 percent of college undergraduates at one university, reported to have tried prescription amphetamines without a proper prescription.
That statistic doesn’t surprise Turner.
“I think it’s more casual than a regular kind of illegal drug,” he said. “I would say 75 percent of the people that use it illegally, use it for academic purposes instead of recreation. That is probably one of the biggest differences.”
Ronnie Grice, chief of the K-State campus police department for more than 16 years, admits that controlling the distribution of Adderall and other prescription drugs throughout campus is a difficult task. The campus department has received very few reports of illegal use of Adderall, which creates a difficult scenario for officers.
“Adderall is a difficult drug to detect abuse in.” Grice said in an e-mail interview. “We are aware of the illegal use, but have taken very few reports. They are easily concealed from roommates and family, odorless, and can be perceived as prescribed drugs.”
But if students are caught, the penalties are harsh, and even include prison time. Those who are actually caught by law enforcement illegally selling Adderall to students face the same punishment as selling any other illegal drug in the amphetamine category. Engaging in the buying or selling Adderall is considered a schedule-two, controlled-substance drug under the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s five level list, with schedule one drugs considered as the highest offense. Other drugs categorized as schedule two include cocaine, morphine and methamphetamine.
It’s a tough system that Linneman says many students are not aware of, and could easily fall victim to.
“In those cases the rationality of our drug system is designed to get street level dealers of all drugs,” Linneman said. “(It) files everybody under the same kind of rubric and doesn’t have anyway of being flexible.”
After using the pill for some time and becoming familiar with its effects, both Turner and Parkin said they felt an urge to make the process legal.
So during his sophomore year, after using Adderall illegally for three years and becoming familiar with its effects, Turner sought out medical help.
“The reason I wanted to get prescription was to kind of make it official,” he said. “I thought I should at least go to a doctor and see if I did actually have it (ADHD). It wasn’t even necessarily to go there for a prescription, it was to go and see if I actually had ADD, and see if I could make it legal or legitimate.”
But what he discovered during his appointment with his psychiatrist was the diagnosis process was much different than he anticipated.

The fuzzy diagnosis process
Turner discovered that there is no one universal method of testing for ADHD, despite the sharp increase in diagnosis. Studies show that the diagnosis of ADHD have increased 3% per year from 1997-2006.
Typically patients, like Turner, will encounter a simple question-and-answer session with a therapist where they discuss their symptoms in the classroom or daily life.
At his office in Topeka, Kan., Dr. Bob Alan said he makes sure to fully evaluate his patients when diagnosing ADHD often meeting with his patients several times.
“What I’m looking for in the diagnosis is obviously a deficit of attention,” Alan said. “I kind of reverse those words a little bit. So I’m checking the ability of the kid to pay attention and also I always look at how the family interacts with the child that is going to get a lot of detail and how the ADHD plays out at home.”
During his visit with a psychiatrist, Turner said he discussed openly his previous experience with Adderall, and was surprised at the ease of which he received his diagnosis and eventually an legitimate prescription for Adderall.
“If you have a Mountain Dew you will have all of these symptoms,” Turner said. “It’s kind of shady I would say.”
It’s a situation that Linneman, who worked for 10 years as a high-risk probation officer in Riley County Kansas, said he has rarely seen with any other drug.
“It’s really different,” he said. “I don’t know of any other drug that is that difficult to develop a diagnosis or treatment.”
A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Services found that 4.5 million children ages 3 to 17 years of age have been diagnosed with ADHD. Boys were more than twice as likely as girls to be diagnosed with the condition at 11 percent, while 4 percent of were likely to be diagnosed.
It’s that increase in diagnoses that has stemmed a feeling of familiarity and is fueling the trend of abuse on college campuses, Linneman said.
“I think that it is so common and so often used and engrained.” He said. “We prescribe so many more psychotropic and behavior management drugs in this nation compared to other nations. I think we have normative value or normative standards for it.”

Living legally with Adderall
Adderall has had an impact of both Turner’s and Parkin’s life and after experimenting with Adderall they have both received legitimate diagnoses and prescriptions for their conditions
They now face the temptation of selling the drug themselves as they have an supply themselves. It’s part of living with a label of ADHD.
“I don’t want people coming up and asking all the time if they can buy,” Parkin said. “But I will do it for the financial benefits, and so they can see the benefits themselves.”
It’s the same process both Parkin and Turner went through themselves when curiosity led them to discover their condition. Now, medicated school looks different, in a good way.
But it is clear their needs to be an education process provided to college students across the nation to combat the abuse of prescription medication, and according to Linneman education is the answer.
“Combining clear non-exaggerated information about the risk of any drug and making that available to all students and allowing students once they are educated or informed to make their own decisions.” he said.