If you feel campus is an unlikely place to be descended on by tweakers, think again.
These college drug fiends are a different breed, wearing the latest fashions and avoiding the "open sores on the face" look. They often go unnoticed, as they managed to avoid my attention until just last week, when one of them broke rank and revealed themselves to me.
As I waited for class to start last week, a fiend in desperate need of tobacco accosted me. He was, by his own admission, "extremely cracked out on Adderall." He was twitching and fidgeting, he placed the wrong end of the cigarette I gave him in his mouth before correcting himself, and I could have done a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle of the Sistine chapel in the time it took this poor bastard to strike his lighter.
I headed up to class, and he followed, bombarding me with nervous questions about my level of preparedness for the test we were about to take. I told him I had gone to the study group that was held a half hour beforehand, and wasn't really worried. Shocked at my passive attitude, he informed me that he had been up studying for an excess of six hours in a fit of prescription drug-induced mental stimulation. He studied at least ten times more than I, yet the side effects of the drugs he used to accomplish this left him a nervous, scratching, ticking, wide-eyed wreck. If you're not in any condition to light a cigarette, you're not in any condition to take a test, regardless of what you have been doing for the last ten hours.
Traded for $2-5 a pill, study drugs are the subjects of widespread abuse by college students in search of mother's little helper — something to get them through the day, the exam, or the breakup. What many of these students do not realize is that the drugs that they are popping at a tremendous rate are essentially Meth's retarded kid brother.
Adderall, the most popular of these drugs, is generically referred to as amphetamine-dextroamphetamine. It is a central nervous system stimulant, like speed or cocaine. It is intended for use by those diagnosed with ADHD or narcolepsy. (ADD, by the way, is something drug companies made up to take your money. You don't have a disease, you just need more exercise and less TV.)
For people who do not suffer from either of these ailments, the drugs' effects read almost exactly like those of meth. The listed side effects of Adderall include muscle twitches, rapid breathing, confusion, hallucinations, panic, aggressiveness, fever and flu symptoms, diarrhea, vomiting, and uneven heartbeats.
All this for a bit of focus or energy doesn't seem like a fair trade. Overdoses can be fatal, but the guy you're buying it from will almost certainly not inform you of this. He won't even know the correct dosage. He will simply give you five pills for fifteen bucks and buy himself some tacos and beer. It's a prescription, yes, but Adderall is unsafe and unnecessary. You don't have to tweak to study, you don't have to beg me for smokes to calm yourself down, and you shouldn't believe that ANYTHING other than your own mind will get you through college. Studying is not fun, and drugs should be. Don't mix the two.
Joey Dougherty is in tatters! Hit him up at: joseph.dougherty@asu.edu.
