NAME — Albert Chen
AGE — 19
NAME — Robin Wetherill
AGE — 19
The students' names have been changed to protect their privacy. All three have abused Adderall, an amphetamine commonly prescribed as a treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder, part of the same family of medicines as Ritalin. Adderall can increase a patient's attention span and improve his or her ability to follow directions.
All three students first decided to take the pills because they were worried about tests. "I was nervous about going into high school," said Penelope. "I wanted to get good grades."And then, when exams came up, I got even more scared 'cause I had never even taken an exam and my teachers had told us how hard they were and everything."
Penelope turned to her sister, an honor student, for advice. Adderall had helped her sister get through finals, so Penelope decided to take the drug, too.Maynard also followed a sibling's example as the pressure of exams drew near.
"I was doubled up in math classes my sophomore year, and I would study but I couldn't really focus," he said. His brother suggested Adderall, and Maynard's friend shared pills from his Adderall prescription.Students noted that this stimulant is easily accessible.
"I had friends that were prescribed to it," Penelope explained. "They had been on it for so long that they didn't want it anymore and they'd just give bottles away . . . and they knew I liked it a lot."Connie diagnosed herself and decided she could benefit from Adderall.
"I just thought that I did have ADD, and I just wasn't prescribed the medication. . . . I just kind of prescribed myself to it."But experts, including Dr. Melanie Margiotta, who is a family practice physician with specialized certification in drug addiction, said that these students are putting their lives in jeopardy.
Using Adderall without a prescription or at higher doses than prescribed "can cause increased blood pressure," said Margiotta, who is a staff physician for adolescents with Fairbanks Hospital, which treats patients for alcohol and drug addiction."It can cause increased heart rate. It could lead to your heart arrhythmias and even having to be hospitalized," she said.
Connie described her first experience with the drug: "It might've been at the end of first semester (sophomore year) for finals, and I was just really nervous. . . . I used 20 mg. . . . By the end of the day I just felt like I was gonna keel over and die. . . . My heart rate was really, really fast."With side effects like the ones Connie described, why take Adderall?
"My grades were better," said Connie. "They rose like a letter grade. . . . It was a lot faster to complete work and not have homework.""Those were my best grades I ever got," confirmed Penelope.
The teens discovered more than one way to use Adderall illegally."I took it for weight loss for a while because it suppresses your appetite so much," said Penelope. "Some girlfriends were more up for it because they knew the weight loss effects of it."
Added Connie: "Some people open the capsules and they snort them. I guess they use it for a high."Both girls, however, agreed that Adderall abuse is most commonly used for academic purposes.
At high-stress times at school, Penelope said most of her friends took the drug, and it was accepted. "They understand the pressure of school and everything. . . . I never had anyone . . . try and talk me out of it."Maynard said that using Adderall isn't common, but no one seems upset about it.
"It's not seen as that big of a deal. . . . (Adderall abuse is) not normal, but it's not looked down upon. You know, you're not looked at any differently for doing it," he said.But Connie's friends were angry with her.
"My friends, they are really against me taking it. . . . I was only taking it for educational reasons, but I think they thought I was taking it just because it was, like, a stimulant."For Penelope and her friends at Cathedral, once-moderate use of Adderall became an epidemic.
"The word got around. . . . after a while people started using it more and more."Penelope even began selling it -- first to her sister, then to friends and finally to people she barely knew.
"I'd sell to my friends cheaper than I'd sell to someone I didn't really know. . . . During finals week it (the price) would go as high as you can sell them basically." She once sold a bottle of 40 pills for $400.Penelope soon discovered that Adderall was not as wonderful as she had first thought.
"I got really irritable when I took it, and I lost a lot of friends 'cause I'd just get mad at them for absolutely no reason. After a while . . . you can't sleep at night. If I took it at the beginning, in the morning, I wouldn't be able to sleep that night and I wouldn't go to bed. Then I'd have to take Adderall the next morning to keep myself up at school. So it just became a cycle."Other people realized the drug had drawbacks, too, and its popularity slowly decreased in Penelope's class at Cathedral.
She now warns others against ever using Adderall."I hate it now," she said. "Don't take it 'cause you'll just end up hating it. It's almost like cocaine -- once you take it, you can't really stop taking it. I don't want my kids touching that stuff after I saw the effects it had on me."
Maynard, by contrast, plans to use Adderall in the future. "I will probably take it for a big test or finals or something like that," he said.But he recognizes that it's illegal; he would be upset if he were a father and his own kids used the drug.
Still, the three teens didn't seem to worry about getting arrested for using the drug; it's a Class D felony to use Adderall without a prescription, and a Class C felony to possess it on school property.Nor did these youth see the drug's abuse as a form of school cheating.
"Kids also use caffeine. Yeah, Adderall is a little bit more of a kick than caffeine, but I see it as long as you're not using cheat-sheets and whatnot, then you can do whatever you need to do to get that grade," said Penelope.Dr. Margiotta said teens who abuse Adderall do need to worry -- about death. Taking Adderall could cause a stroke, heart attack or lead to other more dangerous drugs that could kill them, too.
Connie has chosen to avoid using Adderall this school year."I'm definitely gonna work harder, and pay as much attention in school as I can. Then I won't really need it,'' she said.
Connie and Penelope agree that teenagers are most responsible for stopping Adderall abuse."I guess the kids just have to learn for themselves," said Connie.
"I think the students, they need to spread the word. . . . It's not good for your heart. It's not good for you. Afterwards, I have a really hard time now concentrating. People need to let others know how much it really does suck," Penelope added.Maynard, however, believes that Adderall abuse is almost inevitable.
"(The only way of preventing abuse is) just taking it off the market completely 'cause, I mean, if someone has Adderall that they're not gonna take, it's gonna get used somewhere. Like, it's probably not just gonna sit there."School administrators are aware of the problems with Adderall, but there is little they can do to solve it, students said.
That's because some kids are prescribed Adderall and use it legitimately, and it's hard to sort out who is truly abusing it.When her mother caught her sister abusing Adderall, Penelope said her mom called the school and asked: "How can you let this go on?"
As a result, Cathedral is cracking down on illegal use, Penelope said.Cathedral High School Principal David Worland said that the school has clear, published protocols regarding prescription drug use and abuse, and sometimes students have their own perceptions of what's going on.
"Our protocol is to inform parents and check very closely to make sure that the student is taking the right amounts at school (if the medication is prescribed during the school day)."To do this, we require that he or she take it in front of an adult. This is our way of trying to stop a problem, if there has been one."
Worland also said he's grateful when parents call school administrators to discuss problems like these."The way to get a handle on drug use in the schools is for families to work with the schools in helping us monitor their child."
Still, Penelope says, it was "the pressure at school and how seriously school is taken" which originally drove her to take Adderall illegally."I was so nervous about my grades and what my parents would think if I got that D on that final, so I had to get straight A's. Maybe if I realized that my parents really didn't care if I got a C on a final exam as long as I was trying, then I may have actually tried on my own without the Adderall."
REPORTERS: Katie McDowell, 14; Clare Welch, 13.
Originally published 10-21-06
Copyright 2006 Y-Press