Adderall Abuse at Chico State
The ethics behind the newly popular study drug
What is Adderall?
Adderall is a prescription psychostimulant used to treat disorders such as ADD, ADHD, narcolepsy, and others. Use of the drug causes increased focus and concentration.
Why do students use Adderall if they don't have a prescription?
Because Adderall causes an increase in concentration, many students turn to the drug when they need to stay focused while doing homework, writing papers, studying for finals, etc. Many students hail Adderall as the factor that helped them pull out good grades. With such high demand for the drug, the minority of students that actually need the drug and have a prescription for it are often willing to sell the pills. At Chico State, the sale and use of Adderall for the purpose of studying has become all too common.
Isn't this... wrong?
Yes, that's the thing- it is not okay for students to use a drug, illegally at that, to help them get their work done. Think of steroids. It is clearly unfair for competitive athletes to use a drug to give them an advantage over their competition, and the same principle applies to students, who, by the nature of being college students are competitors. Adderall does not make you smarter, it essentially just does your work for you. It is the easy way out of doing your assignments.
What should be done?
The administration at Chico State needs to speak to its student body and remind them that use of this drug as a study aid is a very serious violation of academic honesty. The university should set in place punishments for those caught using the drug in such a way, but should not be threatening when doing so. A "war" on Adderall should not be the game plan. Instead, the university should set out to educate the students on the issue and show them the gravity of the infraction.