Ritalin Abuse on Campus

Ritalin Abuse on Campus

Throughout most of her childhood, Jessica Miele* was viewed by her family and peers as a strange girl. Her hyperactivity, trouble in school, and drive for music left her parents confused with what to do with him after several frustrating years. At age 14, Miele was sent from her home in New York to Vermont Academy, a boarding school in the mountains. It was there that she found his gifted ability to exprses herself creativley through art and music, and formed close friendships with her roommates. It was also in Vermont where she found the “study” drug, Ritalin.

Miele, and her roommates quickly got into the habit of “bumping” or snorting Ritalin to get a quicker buzz. Some students used it to help assist them in studying in order to not be easily distracted. For others, it was used alongside a couple of beers.

About one year after Miele found Ritalin, she was diagnosed with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder or more commonly known as ADHD, and her doctor, without knowing of the ongoing abuse quickly prescribed her the drug she had already been well acquainted with for the past 12 months.

Quickly, Miele became the main distributor of the popular drug throughout her high school campus.

Often, she would call her mother at home in New York for more of her prescribed medication. Suspicions at home soon caught up with the 16-year-old however and Miele began to be administered the drug through the school’s nurse, limiting her access to the drug and curtailing Miele’s distribution although the demand on campus was still high.

Ritalin, produced by the pharmaceutical company Novartis, is the brand name for methylphenidate, a central nervous system stimulant that activates the neurotransmitter do...

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...ld it be prescribed at all crosses the minds of many psychologists and doctors alike, due to the medicine being so controversial and the long-term effects not known.

Also, Ritalin is not a cure for the disease ADHD, and alternative methods to treating the illness is becoming more of a likelihood. Children and adults with ADHD often benefit greater from counselor or behavior therapy versus the drugs prescribed.

Now that the abuse trends at colleges across the countries are beginning to be recognized, the stopping of the manufacturing of the drug is in question. Generation Y college students across the country have begun a new epidemic to help them control their challenging work, at what seems to be a few dollars a pill. However, with research inconclusive to the real long-term effects, the question remains what will come of this generation in years to follow.