Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill

[didymus]

New York Times:

Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill

He steered into the high school parking lot, clicked off the ignition and scanned the scraps of his recent weeks. Crinkled chip bags on the dashboard. Soda cups at his feet. And on the passenger seat, a rumpled SAT practice book whose owner had been told since fourth grade he was headed to the Ivy League. Pencils up in 20 minutes. The boy exhaled. Before opening the car door, he recalled recently, he twisted open a capsule of orange powder and arranged it in a neat line on the armrest. He leaned over, closed one nostril and snorted it.
Throughout the parking lot, he said, eight of his friends did the same thing.



The drug was not cocaine or heroin, but Adderall, an amphetamine prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that the boy said he and his friends routinely shared to study late into the night, focus during tests and ultimately get the grades worthy of their prestigious high school in an affluent suburb of New York City. The drug did more than just jolt them awake for the 8 a.m. SAT; it gave them a tunnel focus tailor-made for the marathon of tests long known to make or break college applications.
“Everyone in school either has a prescription or has a friend who does,” the boy said.
At high schools across the United States, pressure over grades and competition for college admissions are encouraging students to abuse prescription stimulants, according to interviews with students, parents and doctors. Pills that have been a staple in some college and graduate school circles are going from rare to routine in many academically competitive high schools, where teenagers say they get them from friends, buy them from student dealers or fake symptoms to their parents and doctors to get prescriptions.



Of the more than 200 students, school officials, parents and others contacted for this article, about 40 agreed to share their experiences. Most students spoke on the condition that they be identified by only a first or middle name, or not at all, out of concern for their college prospects or their school systems’ reputations — and their own.
“It’s throughout all the private schools here,” said DeAnsin Parker, a New York psychologist who treats many adolescents from affluent neighborhoods like the Upper East Side. “It’s not as if there is one school where this is the culture. This is the culture.”



Observed Gary Boggs, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, “We’re seeing it all across the United States.”
The D.E.A. lists prescription stimulants like Adderall and Vyvanse (amphetamines) and Ritalin and Focalin (methylphenidates) as Class 2 controlled substances — the same as cocaine and morphine — because they rank among the most addictive substances that have a medical use. (By comparison, the long-abused anti-anxiety drug Valium is in the lower Class 4.) So they carry high legal risks, too, as few teenagers appreciate that merely giving a friend an Adderall or Vyvanse pill is the same as selling it and can be prosecuted as a felony.

O the irony!
I wonder just what percentage of schoolchildren are on meds? Yet when they try for "better grades thru chemistry" . . .

[TheRealJuliane]

This makes me so sick...



p.s. I would like to read the whole article but you have to register in order to do that.

[cradlecatholic5]

Saddens me.

[lsbar]

I would like to have the link to the full article...is there one? Or a website where I can access it? I agree it is very sad that our students feel they have to use drugs to get the grades that they feel compelled to obtain. There is way too much pressure and stress on getting good grades for our kids.

[TheRealJuliane]

Originally Posted by lsbar

I would like to have the link to the full article...is there one? Or a website where I can access it? I agree it is very sad that our students feel they have to use drugs to get the grades that they feel compelled to obtain. There is way too much pressure and stress on getting good grades for our kids.

This one worked for me just now.

Risky Rise of the Good Grade Pill

[austenbosten]

Originally Posted by didymus

New York Times:


O the irony!
I wonder just what percentage of schoolchildren are on meds? Yet when they try for "better grades thru chemistry" . . .

I'll admit that Adderall gives you the "umph" to focus, study and do well. It's like steroids. I took Adderall and that stuff is just pure cocaine. However like steroids the downsides outweigh and benefits

Truth is I never needed Adderall, I just needed to quit whining and do the work.