STUDENTS TURN DRUGS FOR ADHD INTO PARTY FARE

For years drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall have been helping youngsters
with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder stay focused.

But now, school and law enforcement authorities say, more and more kids
without ADHD are using the brain-stimulating pills just to get high. Or,
because the drugs are related to amphetamines, to keep their brains
hyper-alert for long bouts of studying.

Middle school. High school. College.

Adderall, said one University of Kansas student, "is really popular around
finals time." Like other students interviewed, she did not want her name
used.

"Everyone was talking about it and asking if anyone had any leftovers."

With school out, the drug is still in demand.

"Some people," said another KU student, "also use it to stay up while
they're drinking themselves into a stupor, so they can drink and feel the
effects of being drunk without feeling tired." The practice increases the
chance of deadly alcohol poisoning.

Diagnosed with ADHD as a child, the student said he typically gives friends
his extra pills only for studying or taking tests.

In kids with ADHD, of course, the pills work well. The stimulating drugs
give a boost to under-stimulated parts of the brain, calming hyperactive
kids and allowing them to concentrate. For many, the drugs have turned
troubled lives around.

In people without the disorder, however, the pills just supply an
energy-boosting rush.

Because as ADHD kids age, they often don't need the drugs as often, many
sell their pills to classmates for $5 to $15 each, depending on the dose,
law enforcement officials say.

Some groups, such as Parents Against Ritalin, believe extra pills are
available because the whole class of ADD and ADHD drugs are overprescribed.

Certainly, the use of stimulants by college students to study is hardly new.
In the 1960s, amphetamine use became almost mythic. Caffeine pills such as
No-Doz and Vivarin are still common.

Authorities say they began noticing rising Ritalin misuse in the mid- to
late-1990s in high schools and middle schools.

"If you asked us about this 10 years ago, we would have said it just doesn't
happen," said Gretchen Feussner, a pharmacologist in the drug and chemical
evaluations section of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

"But in the mid-1990s, we started getting a lot of reports from our field
offices about kids giving, trading, selling, getting caught with crushed
tablets at school, distributing on the bus. And these were high school
kids."

Friends and others -- accustomed to seeing the FDA-approved medications
doled out by school nurses -- come to view the pills as commonplace and as
an easily accessible buzz that they perceive to be less harmful than highs
achieved with more illicit drugs.

"It actually is really incredible how easy it is to get," said one
20-year-old student at the University of Arkansas.

It is difficult to gauge exactly how common the misuse of ADHD drugs may be
in or out of school. According to Feussner of the DEA, "there aren't any
good stats out there."

But Feussner said the illegal market in ADHD drugs is active and growing.

The drugs are more available because there are more of them. Last year,
according to IMS Health, which tracks pharmaceutical trends, more than 19
million prescriptions were filled for ADD an ADHD drugs.

Despite some occasional ill-effects -- nervousness, anxiety, stomachaches,
extreme weariness after the drugs wear off -- students consider the risks
worth it.

[Sidebar]

WARNING SIGNS

People who take stimulants may show these symptoms:

* Hyper-alertness

* Talkativeness

* Increased blood pressure

* Increased heart rate

* Loss of appetite

* Wakefulness

* Loss of weight

* Mood elevation

* Irritability

* Hyperactivity