FOR VARIOUS REASONS, STUDENTS ARE ABUSING DRUGS USED TO TREAT HYPERACTIVITY
DISORDERS

For years drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall have been helping kids 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
hyperalert 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." Such a practice only
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, think 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 '60s, amphetamine use became almost mythic. Caffeine pills such
as No-Doz and Vivarin are still common. And authorities say they began
noticing rising Ritalin misuse in the mid- to late 1990s in high school 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 for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. "But in
the mid-'90s, 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 studying 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.

Just last month, for example, a Leawood doctor and his wife were indicted
by a federal grand jury for allegedly conspiring to distribute more than 5
pounds of amphetamines -- Adderall among them.

A recent report by U.S. Department of Justice, "National Drug Threat
Assessment 2003," says the availability of diverted pharmaceutical
stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin is "increasing in most areas of the
country."

The drugs are more available because there's more of them. In 1991, about
2,000 Ritalin prescriptions a year were written nationwide. By last year,
according to IMS Health, which tracks pharmaceutical trends, more than 19
million were dispensed for all ADD and ADHD drugs.

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

As at many universities, health officials at the University of Kansas,
Kansas State University and the University of Missouri acknowledge abuse
and misuse of ADHD drugs among their students.

Both students and school officials agree that it would be incorrect to
paint the illicit use of Adderall or Ritalin as some kind of campus
epidemic or scourge.

Even Feussner of the DEA acknowledges that few if any occasional or casual
users are becoming hooked.

"They are serious drugs," she said, "but the evidence is not there to say
that they (users) have a serious drug abuse problem with these particular
drugs."

Although there is cause for concern.

"I have a friend who takes it all the time," said one KU student of
Adderall. "It's gotten to the point where she can't study without it."

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