PRESCRIPTION DRUGS LATEST ABUSE PROBLEM ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

Students Say They Take Ritalin, Percodan And Xanax To Help Them
Concentrate Or Stay Awake.

HARTFORD, Conn. --Unlike the typical array of drugs available to
college students looking to get high, the only thing illegal about
those that killed Josh Doroff, a Trinity College senior, last week was
that Doroff got them without a prescription.

The lethal combination he took -- a cocktail of Xanax, Valium,
butalbital and sleeping pills, among other drugs -- may have been
extreme, but the abuse of prescription drugs is an increasingly common
form of drug abuse for college and high-school students across the
country, according to drug experts around the country and dozens of
college students interviewed at eight universities in the Northeast
this week.

Whether it is stimulants like Ritalin, Aderol and Dexedrine;
painkillers like Percocet, Percodan and Vicodin; migraine pills like
butalbital; nerve relaxants like Xanax and Valium; or even powerful
anti-psychotic agents like Thorazine, the nation's growing list of
prescribed drugs is finding its way out of medicine cabinets and onto
college campuses at a rate that is troubling to many doctors and
epidemiologists.

Most college students, of course, do not take prescription drugs
illegally. But nearly all students interviewed said illicit
prescription drugs were available on campus. Students said they, or
people they know, typically took them to better concentrate on
homework or exams, to stay awake during long nights of drinking or, by
mixing them with other drugs, to find a yet-undiscovered high.

Seen As An 'urge'

"Even if it feels bad, it's just that it's something that feels
different," said Peter LaBier, an art major at Vassar College in
Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "There's just this urge with kids my age to derange
your senses."

One preliminary study last year on the illicit use of Ritalin,
conducted by psychiatrists at the University of Wisconsin, found that
a fifth of college students interviewed had taken the drug at least
once, and that many had tried any number of other prescription drugs
like Dexedrine, a stimulant.

"We had reports of students walking about the library asking, 'Does
anybody have any Dexedrine I can borrow tonight?'" said Dr. Eric
Heiligenstein, the psychiatrist who led the study.

Where students in previous eras relied on over-the-counter stimulants
like Vivarin, No-Doz or plain old coffee, more of today's students
favor spending as little as $2 to swallow, snort or inject
prescription drugs to study, stay awake or just feel good.

"A lot of people take Ritalin to study," said a female student at
Vassar who, like many students interviewed for this article, refused
to give her name. "It makes you feel smart. And I think good thoughts
when I use it."

Something New To Try

Mike Ferraro, a senior English major at Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, N.J., said he knew many students who got prescription drugs
illegally. "Once you get bored with drug X," he said, "you can try
something new."

The increase in the illicit use of Ritalin and Aderol, experts
believe, corresponds to the huge increase in recent years in the
amounts of these drugs prescribed by doctors to treat attention
deficit and hyperactivity disorders.

"Certainly for Ritalin and Aderol, just the sheer availability of
these drugs makes them a temptation," said Dr. Tom Clark, an
epidemiologist at Health and Addictions Research Inc., a nonprofit
organization in Boston. Among young people, he said, "there seems to
be more indiscriminate pill popping."

Evidence of the increase in illegal use of Ritalin among students,
though still mostly anecdotal, parallels a more than eightfold
increase in the amount of methylphenidate, the drug's active
ingredient, manufactured between 1990 and this year, according to data
from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Oxycodon, the active
agent in Percocet and its cousin, Percodan, two painkillers popular
among students, is 10 times as plentiful as in 1990, DEA data shows.

Thorazine Abused

Though Ritalin was the most popular prescription drug on Vassar's
campus, LaBier, 19, said he had heard of students taking potent drugs
like Thorazine, a powerful anti-psychotic that doctors say makes most
people feel terrible.

At New York University, Ritalin and Aderol are as common as marijuana,
some students said. "Ritalin makes repetitive, boring tasks like
cleaning your room seem fun," said Josh Koenig, a 20-year-old drama
major. "I equate it in my mind with a really strong cup of coffee."

Several students interviewed attributed the abundance of Ritalin on
their campuses to its overprescription by doctors to treat students,
many of whom have taken the drug since childhood.

Some Experts Not Surprised

To epidemiologists who study drug trends in children and young adults,
the prescription-drug boom among college students, while alarming, is
not surprising.

Americans, after all, have never been as medicated as they are today.
"Over 65 and you're averaging about three prescription medications,"
said James Rothenberger, an instructor at the University of
Minnesota's School of Public of Health. "Once you hit 75, you're up to
four or five."

Clark, the epidemiologist in Boston, said the pharmaceutical buildup
may have sparked a "supply-side" problem at college campuses.

"They are so accepted," he said, "that they might be spilling over
into the idea that we can chemically alter our bodies on a whim."