ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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“Does it help you get better grades? No.” Students designate Adderall abuse as nationwide issue, often overlook long-term health effects and addiction potential MOLLY NORRIS Daily Staff Reporter
It’s a situation many students have found themselves in: It’s the day before an exam or paper is due, and they haven’t started studying. Many students The Daily interviewed said they can often feel hopeless. At the last minute, when there seems to be no other option, these students illegally find and consume Adderall, a stimulant pill that gives them more, take away the need to eat or sleep, and probably costs around $5. Of the over 1,300 respondents to a survey released by The Michigan Daily, 25 percent said they had used central nervous stimulants such as Adderall to complete schoolwork or to take an exam. However, only 8.95 percent of respondents said they were prescribed Adderall by a physician or psychiatrist. Presumably, the remaining respondents acquired the Adderall by buying it from another student on campus. This was backed by the 37 percent of students who said they were prescribed Adderall and given or sold the
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
drug to another
student. Adderall is an amphetaminederived pill, and when prescribed it can be extremely efficacious for people who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It improves focus and wakefulness, and gives these people the ability to focus on things they wouldn’t be able to focus on otherwise. For some who are prescribed, they can’t go through the day normally without taking Adderall. Engineering junior Ben Reeves has had a prescription since fifth grade, and takes 60 mg of Adderall XR (extended release) every morning. He said it’s hard to remember what things were like when he didn’t take Adderall. From what he can remember, he was extremely lethargic, unmotivated and very hungry. “When I am on it, I can focus better on things. I can keep my attention on certain things that aren’t immediately interesting, like homework or assignments, doing laundry, any sort of adult things,” Reeves said. “This will make me better” As an Engineering student and an computer science student, Reeves said he sees the stress could prompt people without prescriptions to take Adderall, but said he hasn’t met anyone who has done so nor has he ever considered selling his own prescription.
However, other students have very opposite experiences. One LSA senior prescribed Adderall who asked to remain anonymous said people ask to buy his Adderall all the time. “Whenever anybody has an assignment to do, they’ll ask for some,” he said. “It’s literally for anything, all the time.” And when they ask, he sells. He said doesn’t use his full dosage and he needs the money, so though he doesn’t love selling and doesn’t consider himself a “huge Addy dealer,” he’s willing to take money for pills he doesn’t plan on taking anyway. It started in high school, but he said back then he was just giving it out. “In high school, I didn’t really profit from it,” he said. “I wasn’t selling it really, I just had a ton of these pills that everybody was down to take, so I just would give them out because I had a ton extra,” he said. Others agreed the increase in usage started in high school when people were anxious about standardized tests and getting into the college of their choice. One U-M student who said she occasionally took Adderall without being prescribed said that she first started taking it while studying for the ACT. “I really wanted to go here, and I thought ‘this will make me better,’ and I had access to it, so I just took it,” she said. Students who weren’t prescribed Adderall described similar experiences of taking the drug to those who were prescribed: There was a general feeling of heightened focus and productivity, as well as the ability to stay up later than usual. Based on interviews, another common thread among the students who bought or sold Adderall was they didn’t feel what
they were doing was illegal. One student said she felt that comparatively to other prescription drugs such as Xanax or Prozac, taking Adderall non-medically wasn’t as bad. Her reasoning was based on overprescribing. “I never really thought about it as being illegal to be honest because I feel like a lot of people who don’t have ADD are prescribed Adderall and I don’t think it’s like taking a Prozac or something that is so mentally altering,” she said. “I don’t think of it as, ‘Oh, this is like a drug.’ Things like Xanax are very addictive, and I feel like people that are prescribed them usually really need them, so I just feel like antidepressants and stuff like that are a lot more dangerous to use if you don’t actually need them.” Another student who sells Adderall said he agreed and used a similar argument to back up his claim that those who aren’t prescribed Adderall should be able to take it. “I think it’s fine I guess,” he said when asked about people using
24%
students report Adderall usage Adderall non-medically to study. “I don’t know. I mean I’ve used it for that myself, I don’t know that I have any condition that actually warrants a prescription for it, but since doctors overprescribe it so much. My doctor back at home was just like, ‘Hey, do you have trouble focusing?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and he was like, ‘Ok, 20 mg
of Adderall.’ ” Is Adderall really less risky? While overprescription may be an issue, the idea that Adderall is less severe than drugs like Xanax is a misconception. Adderall has been classified a Schedule II drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to the DEA’s website, Schedule II drugs are “drugs with a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence.” Other Schedule II drugs include methamphetamine, cocaine and oxycodone, while drugs such as Xanax are Schedule IV, meaning that they have a low risk for abuse and a low risk for dependence. Students who sold Adderall seemed to recognize that there were health risks associated with taking Adderall non-medically but in general did not seem too concerned with the legal risks. “I don’t feel like I had to be extremely careful about it,” one student said. “I really only sold to people that I knew personally, so I knew that they weren’t going to snitch or whatever. But yeah, it was more casual.” One student said he was more concerned about it in high school, but at the University he never really worries. “I never really worry here,” he said. “I think in high school it sketched me out a little more, because it’s not something I wanted to do in school.” Carol Boyd, the director of the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health in the School of Nursing, was
confused as to why students felt there were low risks when selling Adderall. “Well it’s a felony, so I don’t know why they think that,” Boyd said. “They’re delivering Schedule II drugs, it’s just like delivering heroin or morphine or Oxycodone. It’s exactly the same as somebody who is selling Oxycodone on the street. Exactly.” Boyd, who has been at the University for 31 years, has had a longstanding interest in substance abuse. She picked up that the overprescription issue was probably part of this unwarranted nonchalance in regard to Adderall, which was in line with what the students themselves were saying. “It’s ubiquitous, and physicians prescribe it, and prescriptions have gone up dramatically over the last years, and I believe that just like with oxy, it creates this social narrative that somehow it is safe,” Boyd said. “So in the last 10 years, Adderall use has nearly doubled. The interesting thing to me is that Xanax is a Schedule IV, while Adderall is a Schedule II. But it’s because they think that everybody See ADDERALL, Page 2
Panel addresses institutional response Students LEO strike authorized to faculty and staff sexual misconduct apply for
ADMINISTRATION
ACADEMICS
if no salary increases
Standard Practice Guide review comes after spotlight on misconduct in academia
Time for ‘U’ to meet LEO calls for “substantial” raises runs out in 2 weeks
Wednesday morning, to a crowd of more than 50 faculty and staff members, University of Michigan Chief Diversity Officer Robert Sellers acknowledged there is work to be done in making misconduct reporting more accessible for faculty on campus. Sellers moderated a panel to discuss the University’s institutional response to sexual misconduct. The panel featured five speakers whose positions within the University connect to the resolution process for sexual misconduct reports. The panelists represented the Office of Institutional Equity, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, University Human Resources, LSA and Michigan Medicine. Attendees were comprised mainly of University faculty and staff members involved in organizations from the Michigan Alumnus magazine to the MHealthy Alcohol Management program. Discussion centered specifically around sexual misconduct by faculty and staff members investigated under the policies outlined in the U-M Standard Practice Guide 201.89. A different policy applies to student sexual misconduct. In his opening remarks,
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily Staff Reporters
Members of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization have authorized union leadership to initiate a walkout on April 9 and 10, LEO Ann Arbor co-chair Shelley Manis announced Wednesday in a telephone press conference. Manis said the University of Michigan still has time to meet the union’s demands for increased minimum salaries and annual raises. “Let’s be clear,” Manis said. “This is happening because so far the administration has offered incredibly insulting counters to our imminently fair demands. Our members are highly credentialed and dedicated professionals who contribute substantially to the educational mission of this University and we know the University has resources to ensure that we can make a decent living.” Representing nearly 1,700 non-tenure track faculty members at the University’s three campuses, LEO’s See STRIKE, Page 3
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SHANNON ORS
Daily Staff Reporters
Check out the Daily’s News podcast, The Daily Weekly
Sellers acknowledged while sexual misconduct has been at the forefront of academia in the last decade, recent sexual misconduct from administration at Michigan State University has highlighted the work that still needs to be done. Additionally, in February Mark Hoeltzel — a former University pediatric rheumatology specialist — faced charges for child
pornography and sexual relations with a patient. “We are committed here at the University of Michigan to efforts to work to make sure sexual misconduct and the University’s responses to that as well as each individual’s resources, opportunities and responsibilities are clearly stated and clearly made evident,” Sellers said. The first presentation
featured Michigan Medicine Chief Psychologist Bruno Giordani, who addressed the fears that prevent people from reporting cases of sexual misconduct specifically related to the hierarchical organization within an institution. “There is an unequal power balance that drives academia … between deans, associate See PANEL, Page 3
RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Heinz Werner Professor of Psychology and Linguistics Dr. Susan Gelman speaks at Michigan’s panel on sexual harassment policies and reporting in the Pendleton Room at the Union Wednesday morning.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 101 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
new LSA master’s
Transcultural studies program leads into fields such as anthropology NATASHA PIETRUSCHKA Daily Staff Reporter
This fall, a small group of University of Michigan undergraduate students will be the first cohort of the new Accelerated Master’s Degree Program in Transcultural Studies. The program officially launched this year, largely directed by Prof. David Porter, chair of the English Department. The effort took Porter and a team of dedicated University professors six years to define and refine. The program offers students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to earn an interdisciplinary Master of Arts degree only one year beyond their undergraduate study. Students are required to take two core transcultural studies courses, later selecting elective graduate-level courses in the 11 participating departments. Grounded in areas across the humanities and social sciences, the degree is largely catered to students’ visions. See MASTERS, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7