Taking study drugs appears to be common among Texas Tech students, showed an online poll conducted by The Hub@TTU last week.
The poll, based on a convenience sample that allowed respondents to choose multiple answers, found 62 percent of the responses claimed illegal use of prescription study drugs—with Vyvanse and Adderall nearly tying for the lead.
The 186 responses indicating illegal usage were more than twice the number of responses from users of legally prescribed study drugs. Only 46 responses indicated never using them.
A U.S. Department of Justice survey shows an estimated 36 million U.S. residents aged 12 or older have abused prescription drugs at least once.
The Hub@TTU poll received 302 responses. Some respondents gave more than one response if they had used different drugs.
George Comiskey, a licensed chemical dependency counselor who teaches in Tech’s Department of Community, Family and Addiction Sciences, said the survey results did not surprise him. But he does not think students are necessarily abusing the drugs.
“If you’re taking something your body doesn’t need, and it is creating a problem in your life, that’s abuse,” Comiskey said.
He said only a small percentage of the students who have used study drugs will end up abusing them.
Ronda Williams, a junior communications major from Mansfield, Texas, admits having abused Vyvanse in the past.
Williams advises other students not to use it. She was prescribed the drug in high school after a friend gave her Adderall when she was having a bad day.
“She said, ‘Take this and you’ll feel better, it’s Adderall, and it should make you do better on your school work,'” Williams said.
She liked the way it made her feel, but she said it was not as effective once she started college.
“When I wake up in the morning and if I don’t take it, I’m very, very sleepy,” Williams said. “I don’t feel good, my body’s hot and cold, hot and cold, I’m like having withdrawals from it.”
She got her prescription bumped up to 50 milligrams.
“One thing led to another; I started taking them twice a day,” Williams said. “Like two 50 milligrams a day because halfway in the day I’d start feeling exhausted.”
Williams started feeling addicted to the pills and bought them illegally when she ran out.
“You text everyone you know in your phone that has it, that’s prescribed, and you will pay whatever price you can to get it,” she said.
A first-year student, Rick*, said he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, commonly known as ADHD, when he was in fourth grade. He was prescribed Concerta and switched prescriptions throughout school because he was unhappy with the side effects.
“I don’t like the side effects of any kind of drug,” Rick said. “You know, the not eating, anti-social. [That’s] at least me, because I actually have ADHD.”
He said now he takes his prescription only when he has much studying to do and sells the leftover pills to other students. Each day, at least one person wants to buy pills from him, he said.
“Whenever I had a 70 milligram [Vyvanse] prescription, I’d sell it normally three for $20,” Rick said. “People didn’t do the math exactly; that’s like $7 a pop.”
Photo by Maddy McCarty.
He said his health insurance covers most of the cost of Vyvanse, so he profits greatly.
Selling prescription drugs, like Vyvanse, carries greater consequences—including a prison sentence—than illegally possessing them.
Hailey Nelson, a senior marketing major from Farmers Branch, Texas, remembers struggling with ADD and ADHD since she was in the third grade. When she was distracted from her work by a classmate’s shoelace hitting a chair, she knew something was wrong.
“I got so flustered and frustrated because I couldn’t comprehend the numbers and math is the easiest thing for me,” Nelson said.
She started visiting a doctor in Dallas who administered a series of tests and had her teachers keep reports of her classroom behavior.
“I was on Concerta for a really long time,” Nelson said. “I upped my dose probably four times from sixth grade until sophomore year of college.”
She would build a tolerance towards the drug, she said, which required her to increase her doses. Although she has dealt with some negative side effects, she feels like the medicine has had a positive effect on her life.
“When I’m not on my medicine, the tiniest thing will tick me off if I’m trying to study and I’m really worried about it,” Nelson said.
After starting to feel a depression from Concerta and other medical side effects, she now takes Adderall. She said she may stop taking them after graduation because working does not require the same type of focus as school.
Bryan Warhurst, a sophomore kinesiology major from San Antonio, was prescribed Adderall after graduating from high school. He said it was easy to get a prescription because attention deficit disorders run in his family.
“In high school I just never paid attention, I just got by,” Warhurst said. “But now I can’t just get by. I had to step it up and it definitely helps.”
He said he has a daily prescription, but only takes Adderall as he needs it for school, studying and sometimes work because he dislikes the side effects.
“My doctor tells me to take it every day, but I don’t want to because I know it’s bad for me,” Warhurst said. “It sucks sometimes after you take it a lot.”
Although he does not prefer to take it daily, he said his learning experience has been altered significantly by the drug and he even feels smarter.
“In my first year of college, I think I learned more than in my four years of high school,” Warhurst said.
Photo by Maddy McCarty.
After the interview, two friends of Warhurst asked to buy Adderall from him.
Alan* is a transfer student who has purchased Vyvanse from friends.
“The first thing I ever took was Vyvanse, and as soon as I took it, I loved it,” Alan said. “People talk about the anti-social effects of it, but I feel like it was the opposite.”
Comiskey said it is common for drugs to have different effects on people who do not suffer from any attention disorder.
“Someone with true ADHD or ADD, when they take a caffeine product or a stimulant—which is what Adderall and Vyvanse are—it has the reverse effect than it has on somebody who doesn’t have it,” he said. “They hyper down.”
Using study drugs to focus has only short-term benefits, Comiskey said.
“They use these drugs to try to help them be successful in a way that really isn’t a life skill,” Comiskey said.
Alan said he usually takes the pills because it makes studying easier for him.
“If I take Vyvanse, I can study for seven or eight hours and enjoy my time,” he said. “If I study normally, it’ll be for two or three hours, and it’ll be a pain.”
Alan has not experienced any negative effects besides the appetite and sleep loss, he said.
“I’ve never noticed anything negative with my health, and I’ve never been in a situation where I took it and was out of control and got in trouble because of it,” Alan said. “I don’t feel like that will ever happen.”
The counselor said depending on a drug to study can lead to addiction, and the habits formed in college are likely to carry over after graduation.
“Once we put it in our body, our body says, ‘Oh, so this is how I work with this chemical, but I need this chemical to work this way,’ ” Comiskey said. “Our bodies adjust.”
Williams said this has happened to her and wishes it would not have been so easy for her to get a prescription.
“The doctor immediately writes me a script. I didn’t even get tested for it,” she said.
She said she has gotten two of her friends prescribed by telling them what to say to the doctor.
Comiskey agreed that someone can easily make an argument to a doctor to get prescribed the medicine because the pharmaceutical industry is so well-represented in our culture.
“It’s a little scary in the pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare profession, how they work together,” he said. “It’s really established a situation where they become the pushers of pills.”
[Editor’s note: *Names have been changed to protect sources.]
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