The new study drug on campus?

By Liz Weeker

It was 7 p.m., and even though Tricia hadn't begun studying for her midterm, she wasn't worried. She had just crushed and snorted half the 20-milligram pill of Adderall she had purchased from a friend.

The University of Southern California sophomore would study until 11 p.m. before taking the rest of the pill, and later splitting a 10-milligram with another student at four in the morning -- all while smoking marijuana to calm her nerves.

Tricia and other students across the nation routinely purchase and use Adderall illegally without a prescription to help them study.

Many Santa Clara students are also popping the psychostimulants to stay focused during midterms, finals or late homework nights.

"I probably take 10 pills a quarter and it's just during midterms and finals when I need an extra push or when I'm just feeling unmotivated and I have ton of things to do," said a Santa Clara junior, one of several sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity about their experience with Adderall.

Doctors prescribe both Adderall and Ritalin to treat Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder because they help people to focus. Some students say they pop the pills to study easily.

Others use the drugs recreationally. "I use it sometimes on the weekends so I can stay up longer and drink longer," one sophomore said.

Both drugs are related to methamphetamines and doctors often compare their symptoms to those experienced with cocaine use. They cause increased blood pressure and create a decreased need and ability to sleep.

The number of prescriptions for Ritaline and Adderall has risen significantly in the last 15 years. According to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, about 1.3 million amphetamine prescriptions were written in 1996 (usually for Adderall) and by 1999, that number jumped to about 6 million.

Last year, Shire Pharmaceuticals, a major producer of Adderall XR, reported a "higher-than expected" increase in sales of its drug.

But while the number of prescriptions written for Adderall has surged, so has the occurence of its illegal use. Obtaining the drug outside of the doctor's office and on college campuses like Santa Clara is often as easy as handing a five-dollar bill to a friend with a prescription.

"I know during finals and midterms there's a lot of people taking Adderall," one junior said.

Experts like Mark Koukkari, a pediatric neurologist from Los Gatos, are concerned about this trend. He worries that students taking the psycho stimulant without a doctor's approval are endangering their health.

"The student who abuses this medication may have an underlying medical condition that he or she may not know of which could result in a serious problem," he said.

Unknown medical conditions that could surface with the use of Adderall include heart and kidney problems, depression and other mental illnesses.

"You can't always tell if you have a psychiatric problem. That's an example of why these medications should only be taken by whom they've been prescribed," Koukkari said. "It could trigger a psychosis."

Shire's Adderall has been linked to 20 deaths and a dozen strokes in the U.S. between 1999 and 2003. Canada had banned the drug from its pharmacies in February, shortly after these findings were published.

Laurne Salacies, a physician at Cowell Student Health Center on campus, says she is only aware of one recent case here of a student seeking medical care after taking Adderall without a prescription, but that student had also consumed 14 cups of coffee.

Even though she isn't aware of any other cases, she acknowledges she may see students who are ill from Adderall, but claim they are sick from drinking caffeine instead.

"Students may not be coming forward and saying 'I was taking someone else's drug,'" she said.

It is difficult to know exactly how many Santa Clara students are using Adderall, because the biannual health survey conducted by the American College Association, does not ask its subjects about non-prescription Adderall use.

Students addicted

Adderall can be helpful for students who have ADD or ADHD, but for some who don't like the drug's symptoms and prefer not to use it, staying off of Adderall can be difficult.

One Santa Clara junior began taking Adderall her sophomore year of high school after finding out she had ADD.

"It made me feel normal. Even like having conversations when I'm on it, I feel like, 'oh, this is how you focus on what the other person is saying,' " she said.

But while focusing on school became easier and her grades were improving, she didn't feel like herself. She was more serious and had lost that "spunk" of her personality -- even her friends noticed.

After taking Adderall for two years, she made the decision to take herself off of it.

"I didn't like the feeling and I didn't want to be on drugs for the rest of my life. I mean past college, you just need to learn how to (focus)," she said.

Removing Adderall from her daily routine was difficult at first, she says. There was a time during her senior year, when it didn't seem like she could get anything done unless she was on it.

Today, the junior no longer takes her own prescription of Adderall, but occasionally buys it from a friend to help her study. "My doctor and I are trying to find a way for me to get off of it," she says.

According to Mike Ericksen, a toxicologist in San Jose, Adderall does have an addictive quality but it is more psychologically than physically addicting.

He is more concerned that students who abuse Adderall will become hooked on alternative illegal drugs.

"A lot of these people doing amphetamines they also are doing Valium and Vicodine and stuff to calm down," Ericksen said.

Abusing the system

Students have little difficulty accessing Adderall. Many buy pills from friends who have prescriptions, usually paying $5 for every 20-milligram pill.

Some are so determined to have the stimulant, they fake attention disorders to get their own prescriptions. One Santa Clara student admits he recently pretended to have ADHD to obtain a prescription for Adderall from his doctor.

Faking medical conditions to get prescription drugs is not a new phenomenon on campus. The Santa Clara reported in February that some students seek doctors who grant them cannabis cards in order to purchase medicinal marijuana.

Selling Adderall pills can be a very profitable business. Another student, who buys from a friend and claims to have sold to a large amount of the drug to Santa Clara students, said last year he set up an "extremely lucrative" venture.

The junior created a pyramid system, enlisting other students to sell for him and said he was able to make about $400 in a couple of days.

"At one point, I could look around and half of the library was on my Adderall," he said.

He even organized to fix the price of pills among other sellers by arranging a meeting.

The finance major understands the market for Adderall among Santa Clara students and fluctuates his prices according the supply and demand during midterms and finals. He likes to compare his venture "to a drug cartel."

"It's kind of like Viagra, except you get a bulge in your mind and not in your pants," he joked.

An ethical question

Students have mixed opinions concerning the morality of using Adderall without a doctor's prescription.

Some feel that using a drug to enhance one's learning is justified, as long as that person is using it moderately.

"It's just a form of cramming. It's like chugging 10 coffees," one sophomore said. "I don't think that's unethical."

A number of students explained that drinking coffee doesn't have a strong enough effect on them the night before a test, so they turn to the psycho stimulant instead.

"I don't take Adderall because I need to ... I've always been motivated," says one sophomore, who isn't concerned about addiction. "It just makes it easier for right now."

But others see illegal Adderall use as creating inequalities among students' abilities to learn.

"It's just giving you an unfair advantage, like the whole steroid thing," sophomore Tanner Lund said. "Yeah, you can take it, but then everybody feels like they have to take it to keep up with you."