That’s how the Christian Science Monitor describes Adderall, which increasingly being taken by college and high school students as a study aid.

I tried Adderall a couple of weeks ago to see what it might do for my productivity. The stuff’s amazing. I took one pill in the morning on two occasions, and could read and write for hours on end without ever really looking up from my books or computer. I’d put it a couple of notches of potency above Provigil.

It too has a mild appetite suppressant effect. Also, I was able to get to sleep when I wanted, though I woke up very early the next morning. Wears off in about 24 hours.

The only side effects I’ve read about are similar those associated with any mild stimulant. So I’m not really sure what all of the fuss is about, other than the usual alarmism and hysteria generated any time “kids” and “drugs” are used in the same sentence. You’d think, as better satirists than I have pointed out, that kids seeking out ways to study harder would be looked at as a generally positive thing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 7th, 2004 at 9:11 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.