When I was in high school, everyone was popping their collar.
But once you get to university, everyone's popping PILLS!
Kids these days, can you believe it?
Hey everyone, Laci Green here for DNews.
True facts: it wasn't until AFTER I graduated college that I realized like 90% of my friends
had been using study drugs on the DL while we were in school.
Okay, maybe 90% is an exaggeration, but it was a lot of people!
People I trusted!
People I studied with!
I felt...so naive....
Researchers put the actual number of students who use study drugs nationwide at about 30%,
around 1 in 3.
By study drugs I mean Ritalin, Adderall, Vyvanse -- all stimulants that are approved medically
to treat ADHD.
Adderall is by far the most abused.
Scientists actually tracked "adderall" mentions on Twitter last year -- and there were over
200,000 tweets which peaked during exam periods.
Unsurprisingly, many of them referenced studying.
'Cuz I meannn...people don't take adderall to party on the weekends.
They're dubbed "study drugs" because people take them to do better in school.
Students in fiercely competitive environments feel like they need a cutting edge to help
them make it to the top.
It's no shocker that the highest concentration of tweets about Adderall overlapped with regions
that host some of the nation's toughest schools.
The drugs improve memory and concentration -- so well that some people can easily study
10 hours straight while they're on it.
It can also cause a euphoric feeling of confidence, thanks to the flood of dopamine.
Adderall is classified as an amphetamine, Schedule II in the US.
Like all drugs that stimulate the brain's reward centers, Adderall is HIGHLY addictive.
This is where it takes a dark turn, I think.
Students take it, looking for a little boost, and then they take it again, and again, and
it's a little too easy to get to that place where you rely on it to do well.
Using it a lot skews perspective -- it makes it feel like you can never be as productive
without it, and quitting abruptly can cause depression.
A number of the tweets tracked in the twitter study mentioned disturbed sleep, nervousness,
appetite changes, and irritability.
Still, a study in 2008 at the University of Kentucky found that 81% of college students
believe that taking study drugs without a prescription "isn't dangerous at all".
Aside from these risks, I have another point of contention: taking study drugs is cheating.
When 1 in 3 students are on drugs that give them superhuman study powers, it puts good
students (who AREN'T on performance enhancers) lower on the curve than they would be otherwise.
It's like competing against athletes on steroids, except there's very little chance of those
students getting caught, and nobody's testing for it.
Soooo....that's cool.
I do have another video with scientifically backed tips to help you ace your finals this
season--check it out if you're interested.
And I'd like to know: what do YOU think should be done, if anything, about widespread Adderall
abuse in schools?
Let me know down below and I'll catch you next time with more DNews!