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OPINION & EDITORIAL

Over-prescribed pill imperils students

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Also by Max Schlusselberg:

Physicians in pocket of pharmaceutical industry (November 9, 2007)
Landlord greed crosses boundary (October 12, 2007)
Milwaukee gang rape exemplifies state's prison woes (September 14, 2007)
Second Amendment out-of-date (April 20, 2007)
Internet lacks standard of decency (March 20, 2007)

by Max Schlusselberg

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

It's that time of the year again. No, not the holiday season, instead I mean the time when The Badger Herald publishes its annual article addressing the blood-curdling, stress-induced stomach ulcers created by finals. When discussing finals I could talk about the student body's frantic attempts to keep GPAs higher than their Saturday night blood-alcohol content. Or perhaps I could even delve into the Wisconsin Code of Academic Conduct and how the seemingly vague wording leaves room for the swindling plagiarist, who is ironically cunning enough to do a close reading of the Honor Code — yet not intelligent enough to merely read "Hamlet" for his literature class — to cheat legally through the use of loopholes. I've decided to spare you of all the above cliché critiques on finals, and instead focus on an issue that is not created by finals, but rather intensified by the workload of the semester's end.

For numerous students, or at least me, the morning of Friday, Dec. 1 brought the painful recognition that the month of finals had arrived. As if this rude awakening wasn't troubling enough to my freshman mentality, I was then faced with the realization that the academic events of the fall semester up to this point were more vague and hazy than the night before. Assuming that I am not the only student out of thousands who came to these conclusions on that Friday morning, I must not be the only one with the question of how to mentally compile and organize almost four months of essentials into one wad of knowledge that can be regurgitated into a cumulative final.

As students try to cope with spending more hours in the library, many search for a crutch to help them through those very necessary all-nighters. For more and more people this aid is coming in the form of a "smart-pill," more commonly branded as Adderall. These drugs are prescribed in very high numbers to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, and for the student who suffers from ADHD, Adderall can be the solution to reclaiming focus and controlling disadvantageous symptoms associated with their attention disorder. However, for the student who has no such learning disorder, Adderall can be used as a theoretical academic steroid.

Under the influence of Adderall, the student who is stuck permanently in the body of Clark Kent becomes a scholastic Superman. Hours of work that would usually result in a mental breakdown become almost enjoyable as the effects of the stimulating drug allow the user a variety of mental perks, such as an increase in motivation, short term memory, alertness and focus.

I know, it sounds great! I bet you're wondering why every man, woman and child doesn't get his or her own prescription. Well, rest assured my friend, they almost do. Between the years of 1999 to 2003, approximately 30 million prescriptions of Adderall were written. It's been a great ride for Shire Pharmaceuticals, Adderall's creator, as the company's sales of the wonder drug have soared more than 3,000 percent since 2002. This ludicrous jump in sales is really no surprise when considering not only the drug's street rep as an incredible brain-booster, but also that acquiring a prescription to Adderall is frighteningly easy. Adderall is undoubtedly over prescribed, and although the exact figure is unattainable, it is safe to say that a sizeable amount of this superfluous Adderall is diverted from the prescribed user.

Aside from the drug's negative effects, which include but are not limited to headache, insomnia and risk of dependency, the vast use of Adderall by students is alarming. Although a campus filled with sleep-deprived, amphetamine-addicted students is worrisome, there is another aspect of Adderall use to consider. Allow me to make an analogy: When athletes are training for a major sporting event, they often must succumb to mandatory drug testing in order to maintain that no illegal substances, such as anabolic steroids, have been used to gain an edge. How is the student preparing for a major exam such as a final, while using Adderall, any different from the athlete using steroids? A student who is able to illegally attain these brain steroids and stay in the library studying throughout the night as if forced to at gun point is clearly going to have the edge over the exhausted student who passes out into his textbook.

It would be unrealistic to demand drug testing of students prior to exams, but you get where I'm going with the comparison. Adderall is a powerful amphetamine that is handed out as if it were prophylactics at Planned Parenthood. Stricter mandates need to be placed upon the distribution of a substance that is a mere "meth" away from a dangerous street drug.

Max Schlusselberg (schlusselber@wisc.edu) is a freshman majoring in journalism.

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Anonymous (December 5, 2006 @ 7:32am):

If you need pills to get good grades, maybe you're not that smart after all. Maybe, like Mark McGuire, you are that good and can't settle for above average.

Look around you: The A students do all the work, the C students get all the credit. See George W. Bush.

Anonymous (December 5, 2006 @ 8:24am):

It's a fair comparison. Like steroids, amphetamines have permanent possitive effects. The knowledge gained while using the drug is not lost. Just as muscle built with steroid use can be maintained without drug use if the athlete is willing to continue his workout, a student can maintain his inteligence by continuing his studies. Like steroids boost an athletes body, amphetamines boost students through their education; however, the drug has an opposite effect on your physcical appearance, since you dont eat and lose weight when consistently using amphetamines.

It's important to note that the use of the "crutch" as you call it, is not limited to universities. When you step into the business world you will find that there are people fighting for your job who are able to work harder than you by using this drug. Some people can handle it. They can use it to their advantage safely and healthily. Welcome to the real world.

Anonymous (December 5, 2006 @ 10:29am):

It is incorrect to compare knowlegde gained though drugs to muscles. Studies have shown that people who learn material under the influence of a drug do not recall that material as well when they come off the drug. This is similar to people being able to recall things with the aid of ques, such as listening to a certain song when they learned the material, then hearing that song again. What this means is those things you learned are not as permanent as, say, the muscles you got on steroids. The bottom line is, it is a drug, and if you need drugs to do your job, then you're in the wrong profession.

Anonymous (December 5, 2006 @ 12:01pm):

Have you been watching baseball at all, 10:29? You didn't happen to notice how thin our sluggers are after the senate hearings? Ok, back under your rock.

Anonymous (December 5, 2006 @ 5:57pm):

Any of the (impoverished) arguments you've given against the use of Adderall as a study aid apply just as readily to caffeine. Indeed, your arguments would seem to apply to proper sleeping and eating habits which give a performance advantage to those who partake in them over those who do not. Of course, your analogy with anabolic steroids was flawed from the outset: professional sports are essentially competitive, allowing coherent talk of "unfair advantages," whereas exams are a measure of an individual's knowledge tested for the sake of an individual's diploma.

The notion of student drug testing is antithetical to any environment which values privacy and individual liberties.

Anonymous (December 5, 2006 @ 6:46pm):

What about student's who eat turd to study? You want to compare that to Sammy Sosa??

Anonymous (December 5, 2006 @ 9:53pm):

"The notion of student drug testing is antithetical to any environment which values privacy and individual liberties."

Why is student drug testing different than testing athletes?