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"The Smart Drug" - An Illegal Study Aid

By: KARLY STILLMAN, Daily Staff Reporter Published October 28, 2012

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While many students chose to turn a blind eye to illegal activity on campus, there is no denying that it takes place. Home invasions, laptop theft, adderall abuse. MORE LIKE THIS Adderall abuse? As many students would argue, adderall is in no way an illegal activity and can certainly not be grouped in with these serious crimes. Can you imagine receiving an adderall-related crime alert? A female student was found at 1:30 A.M in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library taking two pills of adderall. Police Officials confirm this medication was not prescribed to her. This situation, although all too familiar, would never make it to a crime alert.

However, that does not make it acceptable, or legal. According to Michael Klein, director of the FDA, When a person takes a legal prescription medication for a purpose other than the reason it was prescribed, or when that person takes a drug not prescribed to him or her, that is misuse of a drug. College students in todays day in age are always searching for and discovering new ways to get ahead, without stopping to consider that this extra edge could be considered academic misconduct, or worse, a crime. Adderall is a narcotic composed of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine used to stimulate the central nervous system in order to treat and control symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is more widely prescribed today than it was ten years ago, due to our societys growing obsession with and reliance on medication. Adderall has also become a front-runner in todays pop-culture with television plot lines about adderall-addictions and songs like Timeflies Adderall and Redbull. This prevalence of learning-enhancing drug misuse here on campus connects to the larger issue of academic misconduct. Popping pills to get ahead in school is absolutely a form of cheating, in that it is unfair to the students who do not take the medication to get this extra push. Because we as a community have done little, if anything, about this problem, it is becoming more of a norm than a trend. Students look at this type of cheating as no big deal, thinking to themselves, everybody does it. Some may argue that these issues are not important in the long run, and that at the college level, the only important thing is to get the good grades. However, students that need cognitive-enhancing drugs in order to get work done will continue to rely on those drugs to concentrate and get anything done for the rest of their lives. A reliance on medication can start in college, continue through graduate school, and still exist in the working world. U of M student Jessica, who chooses to keep her last name anonymous, is interviewed about her own reliance on this medication, in which she expresses her opinion that it does not give her any sort of an advantage over her classmates not taking the drug. I could easily be diagnosed with the disorder and prescribed the medication that wouldnt be academic misconduct. So what makes this any different? The casualness of this students argument is commonly heard across our campus. Instead of misusing this drug to write a paper or cram for an upcoming exam, use time management and productive study skills. Before you pop that pill in the Undergraduate Library at 1:30 A.M, think about the harm you could be doing to your body, your academic standing, and the law.

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