It’s pretty evident that Adderall and other prescription ADD and ADHD medications are everywhere on college campuses. Whether you’re getting it via script from your health center, the frat guy who thinks he’s a dealer, or your best friend, these drugs are abused all over the country. When I was younger there were only a handful of kids my age that had a prescription for Adderall or Ritalin, and now it seems every other person I know has it. Adderall is commonly referred to as “legal speed” because it’s an amphetamine, and without a prescription and correct dosage it can be really dangerous. I see kids in the library popping pills alongside energy drinks and wonder how their hearts don’t explode. I have a serious caffeine addiction, but at least coffee has its health benefits and you don’t need a prescription for it.

If you have a prescription, great. If you don’t, stop annoying your friends with prescriptions because if you really needed it then you would have your own. While it can make you sit down and knock out that ten-page paper or cram for an exam, try these alternatives first… Read More »

“Come on– all the cool kids are doing it.” You probably thought you escaped peer pressure when you got your high school diploma and left all the “Queen Bees” at school behind to hold on to their prom queen crowns for eternity while you moved on to bigger and better things in college.

Sure, college isn’t a catty popularity contest like high school can be, but that doesn’t meant that peer pressure doesn’t exist. In fact, in college, there are thousands of kids on campus who are looking for an opportunity to twist your arm. It can be hard not to say “yes” to a party on a Tuesday night (when you’ve got a midterm at 8 a.m. the next day), or to something “experimental” that you’ll look back on and shudder with disdain in the years to come.

If you don’t think peer pressure exists in college, I have one word for you: RUSH. There are collegiates out there who would sell their souls to join a sorority or a fraternity, and they are willing to do some crazy shizz to get through rush. Get into the Greek scene, and you’ve automatically got a clique of a few dozen new friends. That’s reason enough for some students to go a week without changing their clothes or serve lemonade in a giant purple elephant costume (that is, if Will Ferrell’s running the frat). “Hazing” is now illegal at universities across the country, but that doesn’t mean that the peer pressure of rush week isn’t still in full effect. Some say it’s a college coming-of-age ritual. Hey, to each their own, but still: a rose is a rose is a rose. Read More »

(Last week one of our writers opened up about her personal use of Adderall. We have since received tons of feedback regarding Adderall and the many ways it is used. Here is another coed’s story…)

Sunday night at 3 a.m. again. The lines on the page have long since run together. I have written the same sentence three times. My roommate is blaring the television set that is constantly tuned to E!. I have seen all of the True Hollywood stories. Twice.

“Bailey*, can I have an Adderall?”

“Sure. You know where to find them.”

I rummaged around in the clutter of her desk drawer, and my fingertips having connected with the plastic of a prescription bottle, I tipped a tiny capsule into my palm.

Ah, yes, here was my chemical savior. Focus city, here I come.

This amphetamine derivative was going to help me get through my stack of reading and get that assignment down on paper.

I lay back down on my bed and set my alarm for 4 a.m. With Adderall in my system I would be able to get back up in just an hour and get back to work. And I did. Read More »

In fifth grade, I vowed to say No to Drugs. More correctly, I was forced to vow to say “No”, or I would not be allowed to walk the stage at fifth grade graduation (which would have been social suicide, of course). So, I did, and my little fifth grade self truly believed that I would never take a shot of tequila, smoke a joint and I was absolutely never going to eat fungus that grows on cow sh!@#t. Ever.

Let’s just say, without giving too much away, that my fifth grade self would probably be a little disappointed in my 21-year old self. Woops!

However, up until this point, whatever drugs I did choose to poison and/or pleasure my body with (depending on how you look at the situation), I always thought I had full control of when/where/how they were getting in my system.

I was wrong.

An Associated Press investigation that spanned a five-month period found that 24 major metropolitan areas have drugs in their drinking water. Yes, the stuff that everyone claims is safe to drink and/or at least okay to use to wash our hands and rinse our mouths with after brushing. Well, it’s also teeming with a large range of prescribed and over-the-counter drugs – from sex hormones in San Fran to over 56 different types of pharmaceuticals and their byproducts in Philly.

Disgusted yet? It gets worse. Read More »

In light of the recent tragic death of Heath Ledger and the controversy surrounding it, not to mention other celebrities’ drug habits being thrust into the media spotlight, prescription pills are a hot topic right now.

While reading up on all the latest news, I stumbled across a statistic that I found shocking. According to the Los Angeles Times, accidental poisoning deaths, 95% of which are overdoses, rose sharply from 12,186 in 1999 to 20,950 in 2004. Prescription drugs, which are often casually prescribed and easy to get online, are behind the alarming rise, reports newser.com.

Here’s the kicker:

Overdoses of prescription drugs now kill more people than overdoses of heroin and cocaine combined!

I find that surprising. It seems that people are just now catching onto the hazards of prescription pills and popping one too many, not to mention how they mix with other pills and drugs.

I hope that in the future these scary stats will cause people to be more careful with their habits.