Transfer studies major Jake M. found himself in the same math class for the third time last spring. Numbers never seemed to click for him. The further into the semester he got, the more he struggled.

Despite endless nights of studying, Jake M. earned C after C after C and started to fall behind in class for the third time.

“I was under a lot of pressure and I needed to get a lot done,” Jake M. said.

One day Jake M. figured it out. He took Adderall.

And he’s not the only one. According to the Center on Young Adult Health and Development,
61.8 percent of college students have been offered attention-deficit disorder medication like Adderall, and 31 percent of them took it without a prescription from a doctor.

For Jake M., it worked. He began to outperform others in the class who were previously doing much better than he was. His test results were increasing. So was his attitude toward the class and school.

But that’s not the case for everyone. One AACC student who requested anonymity told a much different story than Jake M.

“Short-term, Adderall was fantastic for me,” the student said. “It wasn’t till the long-run when it started affecting me negatively.”

He added: “I decided to take Adderall because I felt like I needed an extra boost because I began to struggle. The more I took it, my tolerance went up. And then my motivation went down.”

A former AACC student who requested anonymity admitted he has sold ADD medication to college students in the past. “I started to sell my Adderall because I felt like I grew out of my ADHD, and I stopped going to school, so I didn’t feel it useful to me,” he said.
The supplier said he never cared about making a profit by selling Adderall. He said he sells it mostly to friends.

AACC nurse Beth Jacobson said those friends are wasting their money. Adderall, she said, doesn’t work for students who have not been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.

“Students generally take Adderall because they believe it will increase their test scores and help them study harder,” Jacobson said. “Students take Adderall because school can be very competitive in certain programs.”

Taking it without a prescription is illegal, AACC police officer Donald Medtart said. He said police will confiscate Adderall from students who are caught bringing it to campus. Plus, it’s also possible they can be arrested on the spot.

Medtart said he has not found any students taking Adderall or Vyvanse, another ADD drug, without a prescription, and he has not heard of anyone distributing it around campus.
Third-year student Kyle S. said he doesn’t worry about getting caught with Adderall that was not prescribed for him. He admitted, “I would take Adderall from my family, which made it simple to get for me.”

The student added: “Adderall helps me study and keeps me focused. I continued to take Adderall because I saw an increase in my test scores.”

Third-year student Luc V. also said he doesn’t worry about the consequences. “I would get it from a friend because he no longer took his prescription,” Luc V. said. “I saw an increase in my focus and it was like I could follow what the teacher was saying without confusion.”

Eventually, Jake M. stopped taking Adderall.
“I stopped taking Adderall after I passed my test,” he said.