Out of Focus Principles
The Use and Misuse of Adderall on UNC's Campus
David Hodges
March 2006
As the deadline for that 10-page archeology paper approaches, you realize you haven’t stepped foot into a library since printing out the syllabus. You’d like to think the time spent sneaking kegs into the community bathroom on your hall was worth it, but the paper is due tomorrow in less than 6 hours. What should you do?
For many students, the answer has become simple: pop a couple of Adderall pills, and soon you’ll start putting the pen to the page like your last name was Shakespeare.
Adderall is a growing cause for concern at many campuses across the country due to its improper use as a study aide rather than its intended purpose as a prescription drug. UNC-Chapel Hill is no exception.
Using Adderall to gain an academic edge raises important moral questions, and this drug and its effects have been covered as recently as last December’s issue of Blue and White as well as a Daily Tar Heel feature story in March 2004.
Adderall is prevalent. In an informal survey of 106 UNC students conducted in the Pit by the Carolina Review staff, 10 percent reported having used it to study.
In that same survey, 67 percent of students reported knowing someone else who has used Adderall to help them study.
College-aged people (between the ages of 18-25) are more likely than any other age group to be abusing prescription medications, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
But what exactly is Adderall, this little blue pill?
Adderall is an amphetamine, which is a stimulant similar to speed, and is most typically prescribed to treat patients with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD for short). The drug boasts the ability to increase attention span and ability to follow directions, while at the same time decreasing distractibility, impulsivity, stubbornness and aggression.
Some unwanted side effects of Adderall include dizziness, insomnia, euphoria, depression, headaches and, in rare cases, psychotic episodes. Health Canada recently suspended the sale of the drug because of the possible association of sudden, heart-related deaths. The FDA did not follow suit, but instead requires new warning labels explaining the drug’s potential risk.
Prescriptions for Adderall are relatively easy to come by. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS for short) will not diagnose a student with ADD, but they do fill prescriptions for Adderall and refer any student who asks to off-campus providers that will diagnose ADD.
But what should the student with the 10-page archeology paper do? Another student who has asked to remain anonymous recounts a similar tale:
“I had a paper due, and I put it off until the night before,” he said.
There was the Adderall borrowed from a friend sitting on his desk. It had sat there for months, unused, but always present in case of emergencies. This was clearly an emergency.
“It produced a lot of words,” he said. “You just type whatever’s in front of you. It makes your pulse race.”
He took only half of the pill out of fear. Fear of its effects on his brain, fear of becoming dependent and fear of crashing afterward. The little blue pill’s immediate effects lasted half an hour, but it ended up becoming an all-nighter.
“Looking back it was just something I did because I didn’t know what else to do.”
While a one-time use of Adderall isn’t likely to create an instant addiction, continued use of the drug does create dependency according to psychiatric experts. Patients who use Adderall describe a depressed “crashing” feeling after its effects wear off, a feeling as if their energy had been drained.
But the consequences aren’t merely physical.
Adderall is considered a Schedule II drug under North Carolina law, which means that it has “a high tendency for abuse [and] may have an acceptable medical use.” It also means that it is actionable under the Instrument of Student Governance.
For a first offense of possessing Adderall without a prescription, the minimum sanction is suspension for one semester. For a first offense of manufacturing, selling or distributing Adderall, the minimum sanction is expulsion.
“Given that expulsion is the most stringent sanction available to the Honor System, this is a serious penalty,” said Matt McDowell, undergraduate student attorney general.
McDowell also said that only “a few cases” of potential Adderall possession had been reported during his term, and that no cases of manufacturing, selling or distributing had been reported during his term.
“The number of cases involving Adderall is relatively small, especially when compared to the number of marijuana possession offenses reported,” McDowell said. “But the Adderall cases are obviously very serious.”
And so, the legal questions answered, the moral questions remain. Adderall is easily considered by many to be the same as cheating. In the Pit survey, 46 percent of students reported being upset by other students who took Adderall to study, compared with the 12 percent who reported supporting other students’ decision to use Adderall. The rest of the respondents were neutral.
Un-prescribed Adderall use is analogous to the steroid scandals of Major League Baseball. It gives its user an unfair and unearned advantage over fellow classmates, and it is a refusal to acknowledge universally acceptable ethical standards of equality.
This issue attacks the very heart of academic integrity. Students are trading hard work and effort for an easy substitute: a little blue pill. A little blue pill that makes schoolwork more bearable, a little blue pill that takes off some of the pressure, a little blue pill that echoes the soma-influenced world of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” where citizens used a fictional drug that helped them escape the reality of totalitarian government.
Maybe that’s not quite the direction where things are going, but the comparison is eerie. Our anonymous friend made a C- on his paper. An unhappy ending, but a hard-won lesson. He says he’ll never do it again. The truth about Adderall is unquestionable in the face of the facts. It’s against the law, it’s despicable to classmates, and it is potentially both dangerous and addictive without physician advice. Quite simply, using Adderall without a prescription is wrong and morally defenseless.