ATTENTION-DEFICIT DRUGS WIDELY ABUSED

She had no idea that she had a popular party drug on
hand.

To her, the vial of prescription pills she'd once been given to treat
attention deficit disorder were just leftovers, until a friend from
New York called to ask if she'd mail out a few - just for fun.

The woman, a 29-year-old San Diego resident, didn't do it. But she and
her friends were intrigued.

"We said, 'We should just try it. It could be fun,' " says the woman
who, on the condition that she not be named, told how they partied on
the drug once this summer and again in September.

In this case, the stimulant of choice was Adderall, an amphetamine.
Others use methylphenidate, another attention-deficit drug more widely
known by one of its brand names: Ritalin.

Whatever the type, authorities are concerned about ADD drug
abuse.

Some unprescribed users are adults. But experts say many are young
people - a good number of them grade-schoolers, who get the drugs from
peers being treated for ADD.

"They've got pretty easy access to it," says Steve Walton, a detective
with the Calgary Police Service in Canada and author of the book,
"First Response Guide to Street Drugs."

Users often crush the pills and snort them to get a cocaine-like
rush.

Walton says he's also found youths who frequent the rave dance-party
scene "stacking" the drug Ecstasy with Ritalin to try to prolong their
high.

Reports of ADD stimulant abuse continue to surface in this country,
too. They include the case of two rural teens arrested in January for
stealing $9,700 worth of drugs, including Ritalin and amphetamines,
from a pharmacy in tiny Lacon, Ill.

In March, 11 sixth-graders in Scituate, R.I., were suspended for
buying and selling prescription drugs, including Adderall and
Concerta, a newer form of methylphenidate.

Surveys of young people - from Massachusetts to the Midwest - also
have documented the trend.

One of them, published in this month's Psychology in the Schools
journal, focussed on 651 students, ages 11 to 18, from Wisconsin and
Minnesota.

Researchers found that more than a third of students who took
attention-deficit medication said they'd been asked to sell or trade
their drugs. And more than half of students who weren't prescribed the
medication said they knew students who gave away or sold their medication.

"I've been trying to tell anyone who will listen," says William
Frankenberger, study co-author and a psychology professor at the
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. "People don't realize what these
drugs are - and that the similarities between them and cocaine are
much greater than the differences."

Officials at the federal Drug Enforcement Administration say abuse of
prescription stimulants became more common in the past five years, as
production of Ritalin increased and other drugs were introduced into
the marketplace.

But some, including doctors, wonder if new "time-release" versions of
the drugs are slowing the abuse.

They include Concerta, taken just once a day - so an ADD child doesn't
have to bring the drugs to school.

A national survey released in September by the General Accounting
Office found that only 8 percent of principals said stimulant drugs
were abused or stolen in their schools in the 2000-2001 school year.
Most of those said they knew of only one incident.

But Terrance Woodworth, deputy director of the DEA's diversion control
office, isn't convinced that abuse is down.

In fact, he thinks the age range is expanding - even as makers of some
of the drugs, including Ritalin, have launched their own education
campaigns to try to curb misuse.

"The kids who were abusing in junior high and high school are now in
college," Woodworth says.

That has caused some colleges, including the University of Wisconsin,
to tighten prescription-writing procedures for such drugs as Ritalin,
which some students call "Vitamin R" and use to help them pull
all-nighters.

Although alcohol abuse remains a much worse and visible problem,
students on the Madison campus can get only one prescription per month
- - and only enough pills for that month, says Dr. Eric Heiligenstein,
clinical director of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin Health
Services.

At Harvard, Wilens advises his patients, especially students, to "keep
their medications locked away in clandestine places so that strays
don't steal it from them."

He says those on the medication aren't usually the abusers. In fact, a
study he presented last month at the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry conference found that those who were treated
with prescription stimulants were half as likely to abuse alcohol or
drugs.

For her part, the 29-year-old from San Diego says she has no plans to
party with Adderall again.

"I just try to remember how I felt after," she says, recounting that a
feeling of "utmost clarity" turned to insomnia and left her "crashed
out and overdone" the following day.

Then in the next breath, she admits she's kept 20 of the
pills.

"I don't know why," she says. "Maybe for a special occasion."