Editorial: Illegal use of ADHD medication as study aid unfair

In just about a week, Pitt students will begin to consume every drink, snack and chemical that… In just about a week, Pitt students will begin to consume every drink, snack and chemical that promises to improve their final exam performances. And if coffee and Red Bull prove insufficient, many will resort to drastic, often illegal alternatives: Adderall and Ritalin.

It’s no secret that non-ADHD students use ADHD medications either to attain a buzz during parties or to improve their focus while studying. The practice has become so pervasive that Duke University, apparently dissatisfied with the existing laws, recently proclaimed it a form of academic dishonesty. Other schools have enacted similar policies.

Unfortunately, policing the illegal consumption of these drugs, according to a recent Washington Post article, is next to impossible — Adderall and Ritalin produce few visible symptoms and rarely send users to the hospital. Thus, deeming their abuse a code-of-conduct violation will probably do little to dissuade potential drug-takers.

That hasn’t, however, kept many people from encouraging students to spurn ADHD medications on ethical grounds. Freshmen are told during some orientation sessions that using Adderall or Ritalin without a prescription amounts to cheating. Duke’s student newspaper even likened the practice to using steroids as a sports player.

We agree. The steroid analogy is hardly perfect — for one thing, steroids necessitate regular, prolonged use to achieve the desired results, whereas Adderall’s effects are instantaneous — but we do think the drugs engender a similarly unfair dynamic.

Although ADHD medications are in some ways akin to caffeine — both stimulate academic performance — they nonetheless exclusively benefit those willing to break the law. If a student fares exceptionally well on a curved exam because he took Adderall during the previous night’s study session, the entire class suffers. And even if there isn’t a curve, a professor can still be led to believe students understood the material better than they did.

Of course, Adderall and Ritalin aren’t magic; excelling on a test requires intelligence and a talent for close reading — neither of which a chemical can impart. And the drugs have been known to inspire different reactions in different people — while they can boost studying habits, they can also fixate attention elsewhere.

Nonetheless, we maintain that ADHD medications bestow a significant and unfair advantage on non-prescribed users. Proclaiming the abuse of these medications a code-of-conduct violation is silly — it’s already illegal, and should thus already be against a school’s code of conduct. But proclaiming it an ethical breach is justifiable.