Science and Society

I have severe rheumatoid arthritis, which causes constant, and sometimes serious, fatigue. This makes concentrating difficult. If one of these medications could aleviate this problem I'd take it in a heartbeat. I guess I should ask my doctor about it.

There's no news here. Students have used drugs to improve academic performance for years. When I was in college, we commonly used drugs during "hell week" (final exams). Only then, hell week really was hell and we called the drugs speed.

Just as many students and business people used cocaine as an "upper", they now use Ritalin and Adderal. Ritalin is the #1 street drug in many cities. Children are given these drugs, nearly identical to SPEED in chemical composition, at very young ages and it's causing SEVERE side effects. Side effects which include homicidal and suicidal actions and even death. The psychiatric labelling and drugging business is one of the most evil industries that has ever existed. Join the fight against it.
IT'S TIME TO FIGHT BACK AMERICA! GET IN THE ARENA. WE NEED YOUR HELP.

I'm a senior in college and have been taking adderall for approx 2 years; yes i have a prescription from my doctor. I take the 10 mg dose, which i believe is the lowest dosage, and it simply helps me pay attention for about 3 hours, while i am in a very difficult class. I don't use it at work, and i don't take it for fun. By the way, unless you are taking a larger dose, there is not a "high" feeling present from this medication. If my doctor deemed that my attention problems warranted some medication, then i think its acceptible for me to take it. It doesn't make you smarter, just more attentive and less anxious. What people should be concerned with is children who shouldn't be on this medication, taking it for pleasure. It is similar to speed in that you do not have to rest for a few hours, but i imagine if anyone were to take too much, then it would be dangerous- and please don't talk to me about similar chemical compositions of medications- i saw something in my food ingredients the other day which was chemically similar to cyanide- and im still breathing. Everyone needs to stop whining about certain people having an "edge" over others by taking medication- i could just as easily say that since mommy and daddy fund another students entire college and life, that they have the "edge" over me- a full-time student with 2 jobs. If they want the medication, go talk to a doctor- but any good doctor will not simply write you a perscription for it- you must be evaluated to see if you actually would benefit from it, and if ou actually need it-not simply want it. I would say that this or any mind-enhancing legal drugs are a far better choice than cocaine or speed. Im not willing to destroy my body to get an A and i wouldn't take adderall if i thought it would cause me harm.

Note from Ned--

Alan and Bill, I think your points are well-taken. Drug use is hardly new. I think what got Maher and his cohorts interested was the use of prescription medications that people may feel will give them an edge safely -- something stronger than coffee but weaker than speed.

If you drink a cup of coffee, you're doing as others have done for centuries. As for amphetamines, well, I was taught as a kid that they were dangerous. But a blood-pressure medication? Doesn't my uncle take that? And if it helps me do better, even if I was doing okay...is that a good thing, or is that somehow dishonest? That's the question they raised.

The bar for getting into college keeps getting raised financially and academically. You're a sucker if you're not taking stimulants.

This is our system - this is the way to weed out the elite from the peasants.

As a result, the best and brightest Americans will be pill poppers - and they will be running the country.

I'm a high school student and I'm always tired. My counselor told me that I should sign up for some extra-cirricular activities to help me get into college but I already feel like I'm burning out and I'm not even getting all As - I got 3 Bs. How do I get these drugs?

Blood is on the hands of anyone who recommends these drugs. It's not a "mind-enhancing" drug, it's a "mind-damaging" drug. In smaller doses it can act as a stimulant because the body identifies it as a poision and goes into fight or flight response. In larger doses it will kill you. That's what poisons do. They suppress normal body reactions or stimulate them termporarily because the body doesn't know what to do with it. Bottom line is that your risking your life taking these drugs. Your risking your sanity. All to often we've seen kids on these drugs shoot up schools. We try and stop the methamphetamine trade yet we allow kids to pop drugs similar to this so they can get throw a test? Sorry, getting high on speed doesn't make you smarter, it makes you jacked up on speed. Do a little research before you promote these dangerous drugs.

Why would anyone think it's cheating to take extra measures to do well on a test or presentation if the measures don't involve faking knowledge or sabotaging a colleague? Does anyone ask students or employees to certify that work or academic performance is done without cognitive enhancing drugs? I don't know whether it's bad for a person's long-term health to use these measures, but if they help you actually learn or process material, and the point of the exercise is to learn or process material, where's the cheating? Why is it "worse" than hiring a tutor, etc.?

I've been on a beta blocker for five years. I'm not a student but I can see how this drug takes the edge off anxiety and slows your heart rate. I heard some people take it for stage fright.

I don't know anything about pier presure for these kids. My daughter is a layed back kid, as I was. There's no presure on her. I don't know if these anxioties are because of how their raised or does it develope itself? Just wondering. Thanx

jen... when you say adderall is similar to speed, i think you mean adderal is speed. it is composed of an amphetamine salt; and by not sleep for a few hours, you mean stay up all night studying and then heading to your exam.... then yeah thats this stuff does for most people who abuse it.

it works as a quick fix... and if by making you smarter you mean "cram a bunch of stuff in your head write it down a few hours later and then forget all of it after your high ends and you crash" then yes, it makes you smarter.

When I was a college student, the majority of my classmates were take unprescribed ritalin and aderall to allow themselves to stay up for 4 nights straight to study. Taking these medications to "enhance performance" is no different than baseball players taking steroids to enhance their performance. The fact that most college students not only don't consider it cheating, but don't understand that it is illegal to take prescription medications with a prescription (they are getting it from their friends) says a lot about where our society is these days. The majority of these kids are the ones who go on to get their MDs, PhDs, and law degrees. Great. I'm glad ABC finally did a story on this.

It is sad but we are now a Pharmaceutical culture. Remember that song by the band Steppenwolf? “God Dam The Pusher Man” ? I could see a documentary about Pfizer and Merck and Bristol/Meyers and Squibb (along with our doctors/AMA) and any of the other big drug pushers of today with that music in the background. Where is our FDA? Lobbied into compromise and into bed with the pharm- boys? “In order to control a population you keep them ‘Preoccupied’ (working/busy/struggling), ‘Misinformed’ (confused) and ‘Drugged’ (Alcohol, Pharmaceuticals and Televison/DVDs/Gameboys).” Was that Hitler or Stalin (Quotation)? At any rate our kids are zombies!

I do not believe in taking drugs of any kind but I always knew that college students were taking drugs and its widespread. Why are they taking drugs and why are they so stressed out. Back in the early days students didn't take drugs. Maybe their staying up to late partying and boozing, not enough sleep. You can't have it both ways. You either set your goals and accomplish what you set out to do or your wasting your time going to college.

I wonder what other kind of drugs Obama took besides cocaine. Besides being a boozer I am sure he took the same drugs as mentioned on these comments. That's why so many young people are voting for him because he's in their category.

Mariann Pepitone: I agree with what you're saying. These kids now aren't sleeping enough, partying is sooo like way important to them. Parents have absolutely no restrictions at all. Back in our days, curfew on weekdays was 9pm. Thru childhood we were in bed by 8pm. My daughter is 13 and in bed by 9:30. she sleeps a full 9 hours. High school and college kids can still go to bed by 11pm and still sleep at least 7 hours. Tops 8. As for heavy homework, my daughter has that and she's done in 2-3 hours. If more parents would just put their foot down these kids wouldn't have nervous breakdowns, peer pressure, taking meds for staying awake or meds to fall asleep. It all comes down to how the rules are set at home.

Mom, your comparison of college age adults to your teenage daughter is inaccurate at best. As a graduate student, I can tell you the amount of homework given in college is rather high compared to Jr High. Ocassionally an 'all nighter' is required. Wake up, at some point you will indeed have to cut the apron strings.

Marianne- you don't get it..These kids are NOT out partying!! They aren't taking drugs so they can party and study. These kids are asked to be superheros to get into med school, law school, college, etc! They are working full time jobs, volunteering, and are trying to make good grades. Have you seen a medical school application lately? Do you have any idea what it takes to get into professional school? At my high school, everyone was up until 1 or 2 in the morning doing homework. We went to school from 8-3, then soccer/football, etc. practice, and then home to study, but we had 5/6 hours of homework a night. If you didn't get your homework done, you got a failing grade.

She has enough freedom on the weekend hanging outside with her friends, of course with a watchful eyes of mine. I trust no strangers in our courtyard. But when it comes to education, she needs plenty of sleep. Thank God she's a A & B student. My brother who partied most of the night, not only failed subjects in college, he was sleeping in class. He got hooked on these frigen pills and became a druggy. It hurts when we had to put him away twice in a drug rehab because he was always crying and wanted to kill himself. Took over 20 years but now he's doing excellent. I don't need my child to go thru this horid life. He couldn't be controlled, whereas I was easy to control and I had a wonderful childhood right up till I got out of college. No booze, no drugs. And mega sleep.