The need to succeed in school and get into a good college could be pushing some high school students in the Philadelphia region, and around the country, to use stimulants normally intended for kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A New York Times expose focuses on the alleged use of Adderall by Lower Merion High School students as they tried to gain an edge for tests like the SAT.
According to The New York Times article, “Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill:”
“They’re the A students, sometimes the B students, who are trying to get good grades,” said one senior at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, a Philadelphia suburb, who said he makes hundreds of dollars a week selling prescription drugs, usually priced at $5 to $20 per pill, to classmates as young as freshmen. “They’re the quote-unquote good kids, basically.”
Kids were getting the drugs possibly by faking ADHD or by buying them from other kids that didn’t use all their prescriptions.
During an interview in March, the dealer at Lower Merion High reached into his pocket and pulled out the container for his daily stash of the prescription stimulants Concerta and Focalin: a hollowed-out bullet. Unlike his other products -- marijuana and heroin, which come from higher-level dealers -- his amphetamines came from a more trusted, and trusting, source, he said.
“I lie to my psychiatrist -- I expressed feelings I didn’t really have, knowing the consequences of it,” he said, standing in a park a few miles from the high school. “I tell the doctor, ‘I find myself very distracted, and I feel this really deep pain inside, like I’m anxious all the time,’ or something like that.”
He coughed out a chuckle and added proudly, “Generally, if you keep playing the angsty-teen role, you’ll get something good.”
Abuse of stimulants like Adderall is nothing new as college students have opted for "Vitamin A" during finals time for years. The NYTimes article raises awareness that the problem exists in younger students as well. A student in Connecticut who has used his friend's ADHD drugs calls it "academic steroids."
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Lower Merion School District spokesman Doug Young told The NYTimes that the district was covering stimulant abuse during 10th-grade health classes and that pressure for high marks played a big role in the abuse.
“Straight A’s and high SAT scores look great on paper, but they aren’t reflective measures of a student’s health and well-being,” Young told The Times. “We need to better understand the pressures and temptations, and ultimately we need to embrace new definitions of student success. For many families and communities, that’s simply not happening.”
Young tells NBC10 that while this article could be a "serious wake-up" for outsiders and parents that the problems of drug use in school is something the district has been fighting for some time and that the involvement of parents is key in curbing drug abuse.
A letter to parents from Superintendent Dr. Christopher McGinley posted to the Lower Merion School District site Tuesday goes at length to explain the challenges of what they call "study drugs." The letter asks parents to read The Times article and gives ideas on how to combat abuse.
The letter wraps with an e-mail address (healthservices@lmsd.org) confidential phone number (610-645-1829) where parents can get support to help their children or ideas or give ideas on what more can be done.
