Spring Break
Adderall: the steroids of intellect
Colin MeGill
Issue date: 5/9/04 Section: Commentary
So there's this drug adderall, right? Oh man, some of my friends do it and let me tell you: that stuff works. I don't mean improves concentration like ginseng 'improves concentration.' I mean it takes one's head and slams it against one's desk until half a semester's work lies in a neat pile completed.
Afterward all that is left are the side effects of, well, who cares.
Adderall is a drug that helps you concentrate; it's like speed. Well, it is speed, but you know, it's... well it works, so who cares what else it does. Anyway, I was horrified to find that one in eight elementary age children (or about six million children) are on this or a similar drug to treat Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder: clearly, this is not enough.
This is not one of those unfair advantages in life, like being the baseball coach's son. These drugs are academic steroids: the players all get better instead of just participating more. Thus, it raises the bar.
As society has raised the threshold in professional sports, so it will make other sectors more competitive. If only an eighth of students take mentally enhancing drugs, this is fundamentally unfair. Drugs should be available to all students who want to improve performance.
If we as a society are going to create a public education system that deals in oppressive, fact driven memorization, how can we conceivably expect students to pay attention for hours on end in early stages of childhood? Obviously, the answer is to put them all on socially corrective drugs. The world has changed and biology simply needs to accelerate (excuse the pun) to catch up.
All satire aside, consider the next quote from pediatrics.about.com:
"Adderall is approved for use in children over age three years. It is generally started at a dose of 2.5 mg in children under age five and gradually increased as necessary."
The phrase "and gradually increased as necessary" should ring alarm bells. Once a child achieves tolerance for the dose of drug (the dose is no longer felt or effective) it is increased. Individuals that have been on corrective stimulants for a number of years have to rotate their drugs to avoid becoming completely tolerant. We have no idea the long-term effects of these drugs, effects on bodies that have borne them over lifetimes since they are a recent invention. This in itself is reason enough not to subject 12.5 percent of our children to physical and psychological dependency.
Afterward all that is left are the side effects of, well, who cares.
Adderall is a drug that helps you concentrate; it's like speed. Well, it is speed, but you know, it's... well it works, so who cares what else it does. Anyway, I was horrified to find that one in eight elementary age children (or about six million children) are on this or a similar drug to treat Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder: clearly, this is not enough.
This is not one of those unfair advantages in life, like being the baseball coach's son. These drugs are academic steroids: the players all get better instead of just participating more. Thus, it raises the bar.
As society has raised the threshold in professional sports, so it will make other sectors more competitive. If only an eighth of students take mentally enhancing drugs, this is fundamentally unfair. Drugs should be available to all students who want to improve performance.
If we as a society are going to create a public education system that deals in oppressive, fact driven memorization, how can we conceivably expect students to pay attention for hours on end in early stages of childhood? Obviously, the answer is to put them all on socially corrective drugs. The world has changed and biology simply needs to accelerate (excuse the pun) to catch up.
All satire aside, consider the next quote from pediatrics.about.com:
"Adderall is approved for use in children over age three years. It is generally started at a dose of 2.5 mg in children under age five and gradually increased as necessary."
The phrase "and gradually increased as necessary" should ring alarm bells. Once a child achieves tolerance for the dose of drug (the dose is no longer felt or effective) it is increased. Individuals that have been on corrective stimulants for a number of years have to rotate their drugs to avoid becoming completely tolerant. We have no idea the long-term effects of these drugs, effects on bodies that have borne them over lifetimes since they are a recent invention. This in itself is reason enough not to subject 12.5 percent of our children to physical and psychological dependency.