By: Maria J. Concha/Contributing Writer
The first time Andrea M. Ucles took Adderall, she panicked.
“What are you on?” was the question of the day, she recalls. “I felt accelerated, I was talking too fast—people noticed,” she said. “It was the panic of going to work and having people know I was on something and not knowing whether it was legal or not.”
The senior majoring in biology and French language began taking Adderall without a prescription last fall semester during finals week to concentrate and stay more focused.
Adderall is a prescribed medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and narcolepsy.
Due to its energizing effect, many college students around the country are using it as a “study drug” without medical supervision.
“A lot of my friends use it, so I started taking it with them,” she said. “I was stressed out and couldn’t handle the all nighters with a bundle of exams.”
According to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health study, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 6.4 percent of full-time college students used the drug without a prescription.
Sean Roche, a junior majoring in political science, is not one of them. He was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder his sophomore year of college.
“I had trouble in class and paying attention in school,” he said. “I take it for school or for important activities, such as job interviews, because my grades and career depend on it.”
As with any type of medication there are possible dependency and withdrawal symptoms.
Dr. Ushimbra Buford, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami and medical director of the Jackson Memorial child and adolescent inpatient clinic, said students need to be careful when taking unprescribed medication.
“If you abuse it, you can become physically and psychologically dependent on it,” he said. “Make sure you talk to a physician; never take anything not recommended by a doctor.”
Side effects such as loss of appetite, nausea, headaches, fever, nervousness and trouble sleeping are also common with this medication.
“It was one of the worst 13 hours of my life,” Ucles said. “I felt out of it the whole day. I couldn’t fall asleep and had the greatest headache I ever had.”
Roche has also experienced its side effects.
“I do not have the jitters as before, but it’s still there,” he said. “My heart races, I sweat a lot more and I’ve had headaches, dizziness, dehydration and nausea.”
The going rate for ‘Addy,’ as students call it, in various college campuses range from $5-10 per pill and $15-20 during final exams week.
“It’s like buying a concert ticket and selling it the day before the concert happens,” Roche said. “If you have something people want and there’s a high demand for it, prices go up.”
Social networking plays a big part in finding Adderall on college campuses.
“If you want to find something, you can find it depending on how bad you want it,” he said. “You can ‘Facebook’ 50 friends and in an hour, you will have enough responses to make your choice, comparing prices to find the cheaper one.”
Considered a controlled substance, highly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration, selling the drug–even with a prescription–is considered a felony and can be punishable by state or federal law.
Lt. Rick Torres from the FIU Police Criminal Investigation Department said that it’s not a problem he runs across often, but when they do catch students, there are serious consequences.
“The student will be arrested, will be sent to student code of conduct for a hearing, and if they live on campus, their housing status may be jeopardized,” he said.
Torres so far has made one arrest linked to illegal Adderall possession on campus.
Dr. George Shepeard, assistant director of the FIU Counseling and Psychological Services Center says that it’s hard to get a percentage of students that use the drug because they are not going to admit that they are stimulant addicted.
“A lot of students do not present us with that issue, if they are doing something we do not know about, we can’t direct them to get help,” he said. “Until something happens, they don’t feel like it’s a problem.”
Dr. Eugenio Roth, an FIU professor of psychiatry and health said psychiatrists are supervised under a national prescriber record when they prescribe Adderall.
“It’s a computer system that monitors everyone that is taking the medicine,” Roth said. “If there’s any irregular spike, an alarm is triggered, and it’s entered into the system so the patient cannot get the drug.”
At UM, Buford said he hears of many cases about the non medical use of Adderall but hasn’t seen much of it.
“I hear one or two cases every six months from my medical school colleagues that have been asked for Adderall,” he said.
At Miami-Dade College, Rolando D. Tarrau, a music business major, has been prescribed with Adderall for about three years.
Tarrau is asked twice a week for ‘Addy’ from his friends at MDC and knows at least 15 people who take it daily.
“People from everywhere have asked me, especially MDC and FIU students,” he said. He said he doesn’t sell it but has given it to one of his friends.
“I gave it to one of my friends who really needed to study and had to work two doubles in a row,” he said. “But I’ve never done anything past that.”
Ucles admits she is afraid of being caught with it.
“I feel ashamed that I have to admit I need help studying and that I can’t do it on my own and having everyone know about it,” she said. “I will continue to use it when there is no way I can get things done.”
This story is courtesy of the Miami Desk, a publication written, edited and produced by students in Allan Richards’ Senior Multimedia Project class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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