CMU's apathetic epidemic:
Students illegally use Adderall for academic, recreational purposes
In a recent survey conducted of 100 CMU students, 33 percent of students said they have used Adderall at least once during their time at the university. Only 10 percent of students reported that they are actually prescribed to take the drug – meaning two-thirds of students who said they’ve taken Adderall have used it unprescribed.
Written by Melissa Frick, Olivia Kotowski and Quinn Kirby
It’s a situation Kelsi Churchill has been in many times throughout her college career.
She’s got three exams this week, classwork is piling up and she just finished working a long shift at her part-time job at a local restaurant. Before heading to the library to pull an all-nighter, she does what many students do to get their work done: She pops an Adderall.
“It’s the only way I’ll stay focused,” the Walloon Lake junior said.
Adderall, a cognitive-enhancing amphetamine, is commonly prescribed to treat symptoms of attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But in the past decade, the drug has been used unprescribed by high school and college students who are willing to pay black market prices to use the “study drug.”
Central Michigan University is no stranger to this trend.
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Central Michigan University,
2019
So what is it about the drug that makes students so willing to take it without a doctor’s recommendation? According to Churchill, Adderall gives users an unparalleled feeling of achievement and success.
“You know that feeling when you’ve done all your homework and all your laundry and cleaned your room – that really accomplished feeling? Adderall gives you that,” she said. “It gives you that a lot easier and you’re more confident and positive. It just changes your mood and makes you really focused. It also dampers your emotions kind of so you want to get stuff done.”
Churchill, who is studying communications disorders and Spanish at CMU, considers herself to be a good student. But with a rigorous course schedule, along with work and extracurricular activities, she said she wouldn’t be able to be as focused without using Adderall.
She said that most students buy the drug illegally from students who are prescribed to use it. She usually will buy her Adderall from friends. The price depends on who you buy it from -- while most of her friends sell Adderall for $4-5 per pill, others will sell for around $6-7.
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According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average cost for a 30-day 5mg, 10mg, 20mg or 30mg supply of Adderall (note: not Adderall XR) without a prescription is $113. Adding up the averages of price per milligram of each prescription to find an overall average price equals 44 cents per milligram of Adderall for a 30-day supply if it is purchased legally. On the black market in Michigan, however, data from StreetRx.com, a website that posts the latest street prices for illicit and prescription drugs, shows the average cost per milligram is only 48 cents; a four cent increase.
Photo by Melissa Frick
Walloon Lake junior Kelsi Churchill studies in the Bovee University Center at Central Michigan University on Nov. 6. Churchill said she uses Adderall unprescribed to keep up with schoolwork.
Adderall is a schedule II narcotic, which means the drug is controlled but has a legitimate medical purpose. Lt. Cameron Wassman of CMU Police Department said penalties can range depending on how much is found in someone’s possession.
“I mean if you’ve got, for example, 1,000 grams in your possession, which is a whole lot of pills, you could be looking at a lifetime felony,” he said. “All the way down to something less than 50 grams, which is a small amount, you’d still be looking at what could be a 20-year felony. Obviously, do people get that kind of a sentence? Not necessarily. But that’s what we’re looking at.”
The most common scenario when CMU police find Adderall in someone’s possession illegally is through traffic stops, Wassman said. For example, on Oct. 21, police found a bag of unprescribed Adderall in a woman’s car.
The 21-year-old woman was pulled over by CMU PD for having a headlight out when she was driving on West Campus Drive and Preston Street. During the traffic stop, officers observed that the woman appeared to be under the influence of drugs. Police found 1.2 ounces of marijuana and a bag with 10 small white pills in the vehicle, which the woman told police was Adderall. The woman was arrested and taken to Isabella County Jail.
While many students are turning to prescription stimulants illegally, it is important to note there are students who are screened and prescribed Adderall through a medical professional.
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CMU senior Emma Nowaczyk, of Macomb, was prescribed Adderall during her senior year of high school to treat symptoms of ADHD. Without this medication, she said, her hectic college schedule in pursuit of a sociology degree would not have been possible.
The origin of the study drug
As early as 1936, doctors recognized that amphetamines were proven to heighten concentration and calm the effects of hyperactivity. In the 1950s, amphetamine-based drugs became more popular among mothers. Referred to as “Mother’s Little Helper,” the drugs were used for weight-loss or simply to become “happier housewives.”
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But it wasn’t until the 1990s that amphetamine – specifically, Adderall – became commonly used, as doctors began prescribing the drug to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit disorder. The use of Adderall quintupled between 1995 and 2008, according to the Drug Rehabs Organization. The National Center for Health Research said about 2.5 million Americans are prescribed prescription stimulants, such as Adderall or Ritalin, to treat ADHD today.
Because of its ability to enhance cognition of its users, the drug became exponentially popular in the academic world.
CMU School of Health Sciences faculty Mark Minelli is an expert in substance abuse and said the stimulant has become one of the top ten drugs used on college campuses.
“Historically, caffeine, Ritalin and Adderall have been used to enhance academic performance,” Minelli said.”[They make people] more focused and organized - potentially.”
Created by a combination of amphetamine salts, users often viewed the drug as harmless, especially thanks to widespread marketing and heavy prescriptions. As prescriptions of the drug surged, so did recreational use. More and more high school and college students began using the drug in highly competitive academic environments.
Churchill attested that within her own extra-curricular groups at CMU, Adderall is used commonly and nonchalantly.
“People don’t think twice about taking it,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll think about it and be like, this is an illegal drug basically. But people don’t realize what it actually is because it’s just so common.”
By 2015, research showed that working professionals also had begun to turn to Adderall to keep up with daily tasks and responsibilities. Drug Rehabs Organization reported that many working adults would fake the symptoms and effects of ADHD in order for doctors to write prescriptions for Adderall.
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Nowacyzk is one of the approximately six million people in the United States diagnosed with ADHD. Traditionally, the condition is diagnosed during childhood or adolescence, as found in Nowacyzk's case.
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Although there are six million people living with ADHD who were diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, only 62 percent were prescribed ADHD medication, according to a 2016 study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A harmless drug?
If it seems as though the effects of Adderall are too overwhelmingly good to be true, it’s because they are. Adderall increases the activity of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. Dopamine, considered “the happy chemical,” is a naturally occurring neurological chemical.
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Although many users perceive Adderall to be a harmless drug, it can have dangerous – and sometimes deadly – effects.
Forty percent of students misuse prescription stimulants for academic and social purposes, according to an academic article published in the US National Library of Medicine, titled “Neurocognitive, Autonomic, and Mood Effects of Adderall: A Pilot Study of Healthy College Students.”
Repeated use may desensitize the user to the drug’s chemical effects, making the user crave Adderall at a higher dose. This may lead to the development of stimulant use disorder, classified by the DSM-5, a manual for assessment and diagnosis of mental disorders, as “the continued use of amphetamine-type substances, cocaine, or other stimulants leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, from mild to severe."
This, in turn, increases the likelihood the individual using the drug will overdose, although overdose may happen at any time.
Minelli said stimulant use disorder and addiction come in two different but simultaneous forms: physical and psychological.
“The mental part is the hardest to beat,” Minelli said. “You can’t just start back at square one with addiction.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there are three ways a person can misuse a stimulant: By taking an unprescribed dosage of a prescription, taking medicine not prescribed to the person using it, or taking the drug to get high.
The CDC reported over 10,000 stimulant-related deaths in 2017, up by 37 percent from 2016.
According to the American Drug Addiction Centers, symptoms of Adderall overdose include rapid breathing, uncontrollable shaking, rapid heart rate, upset stomach, seizures and loss of consciousness.
In the case an individual witnesses or experiences an Adderall overdose, Minelli advised calling 911 and requesting medical assistance. Minelli also emphasized the importance of up-front transparency and honesty when speaking to medics to improve efficiency of treatment.
“If I was having a medical emergency, I’d want them to know what I was taking” he said. “Otherwise, by the time they figure it out, it might be too late.”
Video by Olivia Kotowski, header art by Quinn Kirby.