Adderall and Vyvanse are the two most well-known types of drugs that are generally prescribed to children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. However, in the past decade, these drugs have been increasingly abused by students in order to help them study late into the night and stay focused during exams. A prescription from a doctor is not only required to obtain these drugs, but is necessary. Adderall and Vyvanse are highly addictive and a student should not be taking the medication unless he or she has a prescription.
While most effects of the drugs seem harmless, there is always inevitably a bad side. Large amounts of the people taking these medications do not have prescriptions from their doctors and obtain the pills illegally. When a student takes these drugs without knowing what a fitting dosage is, he is at-risk of overdosing and abusing.
Abuse of these prescription pills has slowly infiltrated high schools, and the more students look to work harder and perform better in school, the more popular these drugs become throughout the student body.
Often called “study drugs,” Vyvanse and Adderall are stimulants notorious for creating a rush of ecstasy, increasing the ability to focus, curbing anxiety and even causing weight loss. As a result, these drugs are no longer confined to students who have prescriptions, but are being sold to students without prescriptions and taken recreationally.
ADHD medications are best when prescribed because students who just take the drugs without knowing the correct dosage, which the doctor would have prescribed them, are in danger of taking too much, which causes countless bad health effects.
Adderall and Vyvanse are made up of stimulant amphetamine salts, which are infamous for being addictive. As a result, the tolerance and addiction rate of these study drugs are very high. People who were prescribed the drugs have been prescribed with low dosages in order to make sure they do not overdose. However, people who acquire the drugs from their friends do not know their limitations and are much more prone to accidentally overdose, causing serious withdrawal symptoms such as fatigue, hallucinations, paranoia, depression and more.
Students who abuse these study drugs are looking at the short-term goal of boosting their grades in school at the expense of the long term consequences. Students abuse these drugs, most times unknowingly putting their lives in peril, not to get a rush or to take a breather from everything around them, but in attempt to lighten their workloads and make school less stressful.
The rising number of children and teens being diagnosed with ADHD is no secret. However, as the number of people with ADHD increases, so does the number of people who are being prescribed medications like Adderall and Vyvanse, thereby causing these drugs to become circulated even more widely around schools and students.
The consumption of these drugs is not bad in itself as long as they are prescribed by a doctor. However, once students who have no need for these drugs take them, everything goes downhill, especially since these students are taking the drugs simply in hope of excelling in school.
Students caught with these illegally obtained drugs on school campus and at school functions are charged with a felony and there is a mandatory expulsion from school.
