Junior Evan Schwartz, a Hatchet columnist, argues that prescription ADD drugs should be legalized for unprescribed consumption.
If students who aren’t prescribed these pills take them anyway, and more students take them for their intended effect than as a substitute for stronger narcotics, then why are they still only available by prescription? Eventually the question becomes: why aren’t pills like Ritalin or Adderall available for all students?
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I completely disagree. Using Adderall without a prescription is cheating, just as using steroids in athletics is cheating. Legalizing it just gives it a legitimacy which it does not deserve.
You wrote “If doctors are prescribing them at ever-increasing rates, potential side effects seem to be a diminishing concern. So why not give everyone the ability to use these pills?”
Potential side-effects are not a diminishing concern; it is simply that the tests for ADHD can be vague, and some practitioners do not administer them properly. Just because something is prescribed with great regularity does not mean side-effects are not a concern; it means an illness is wide-spread.
This is just a terribly written piece.
I don’t even want to go into how unfounded this op-ed is. The writer needs to do his homework before arguing for something so irrational. These drugs are classified as Schedule II Controlled Substances because there is potential for dependency and heart failure if the patient has high blood pressure or other heart problems. I would love to see an op-ed by a medical professional refuting this column.
Have you ever used Adderall? It’s not particularly dangerous, but it’s still a serious drug with side effects. I’ve taken it and stayed up for the next 14 hours and then slept through classes, all while not eating or drinking . It doesn’t really improve your concentration, it just increases your tolerance for rote learning. I certainly couldn’t write an essay with it.
It’s telling that you call Adderall a Methylphenidate when the reality is that its an amphetamine, similar (but much safer than) to methamphetamine.
Get your facts straight, these drugs might be widely used, but it doesn’t make them harmless.
this is insane. I went my entire college career without using adderall and I did fine – suck it up and do the work. All the kids I used to see staying in the library all night popping adderall spent 80% of their time talking, smoking cigarettes, or looking at dumb websites online. gimme a break.
My son is a sophomore-junior at GWU and passed on this piece to me. If I can Evan’s email address I’d like to pass on an article I wrote that appeared in the Harvard Crimson several months ago entitled, A Misuser’s Guide to Adderall. Evan repeated several urban legends about Adderall and prescription stimulants that I think unintentionally will mislead readers. Please have him or an editor contact me if possible.
Editor’s note: The Crimson article can be found here.