The Collegian

Issue date: 2/26/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Charles Grimmet Senior Hanna Stone runs at least three miles every morning, even in freezing weather.

To listen to its users talk, you might think that Adderall was a magical pill that would give you endless drive and perfect grades.

"When I take Adderall before class, I get twice the amount of notes, because I can focus on the teacher and not on the surroundings," junior Alison Rentschler said.

But it's not magic. Adderall, like other amphetamines such as Ritalin, Strattera and Concerta, is a prescription drug for people with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Rentschler said that she has a behavioral problem when not taking the medicine.

"People can tell. My mind is hyperactivity. It's constantly revving," she said. "But on Adderall, you're funneling that hyperactivity into good!"

Rentschler said she didn't have the medication when she came to Hillsdale, and her grades were terrible her freshman year, so now she has a prescription: 40 milligrams a day.

"My dosage is very high, but I've never been tested for ADD, they just went through a list of questions," she said. "My grades have gone up tremendously."

Even if you don't have ADD, the effects sound good. So good, in fact, that plenty of Hillsdale students who don't have ADD, or prescriptions, take the drug.

One Hillsdale junior, who asked to remain anonymous for legal reasons, said that he buys Adderall pills from a few of his prescribed friends once or twice a month for $4 a pill.

He pops the pill before studying for a big test or writing a big paper, he said. He doesn't believe he's ADD, he just values the drug as a study tool.

"I'll take it, sit down and be so focused on my studying that when I get up it'll be five hours later and I'll be done. I sometimes wonder how I did it," he said.

Although it's illegal to take another person's prescription, he doesn't see anything wrong with it.

"It's just like eating a good breakfast before a test, you do what works," he said. "It's not a dangerous drug."

Since ADD is a tough treatment to nail down, people with prescriptions find selling the drug easy, and on college campuses, find many willing buyers. According to a national survey conducted by the University of Connecticut last year, one in four college students has taken another person's Adderall prescription.

Even Rentschler admitted that she doesn't always take the full prescribed dosage.

"Adderall is a street drug now," Rentschler said. "It's not a prescription you have to take regularly, so if you don't take it every day, no one will probably know."

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