With finals and papers looming, it seems like the right time to make the decision, will you or wonâÄôt you allow chemicals to alter your brainâÄôs make-up so that you can do better on a paper or final.
Research on Adderall quickly reveals it is considered a highly addictive medication. Typically itâÄôs prescribed for attention deficit hyperactive disorder.
For those who donâÄôt have ADHD, Adderall acts as a stimulant. Although stimulants increase attentiveness, they also increase heart rates, sometimes at a rate too high to be safe. Other side effects of Adderall abuse include the development of sleeping and eating disorders, dry mouth, mood swings and higher blood pressure. These are effects that students who misuse Adderall probably donâÄôt consider.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2009 found that full-time college students between the ages of 18 and 22 are twice as likely as non-full-time college students to have used Adderall nonmedically in the past year.
With this grade-boosting pill becoming an issue, universities should reevaluate their cheating policies and include Adderall in the definition of cheating.
Adderall makes it possible to significantly increase the amount of time spent studying as well as the attentiveness to the material, which results in a dishonest grade.
Students should not use Adderall to succeed since it alters chemicals in the brain. ItâÄôs better to earn a grade honestly than take a drug to do well in college.
I hope North Carolina State University will at least consider addressing Adderall use in the Student Code of Conduct.
Using mind-altering substances is not something that shows we are an institution of higher learning, as the administrators like to remind us that we are.

This column was originally published by the Technician at North Carolina State University.