Coffee. Red Bull. Caffeine pills. Cigarettes. For many years, these items have been choice arsenal for students who need to pull all-nighters.
But in recent years, there’s been a new addition to the list: ‘smart drugs’.
The most popular of these is Ritalin, a brain-stimulating drug which is usually prescribed to sufferers of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD).
It allows non-sufferers to remain awake and alert for hours. Little wonder, then, that it’s becoming the pill of choice for students who want to study longer and concentrate harder.
Sarah – not her real name – is an American postgraduate student at the University of Sheffield who has used Ritalin in the past.
She confided that she first learnt about the drug from the unofficial online forum of the school she went to in the US.
“People tossed around jokes and funny comments until a girl said that anyone interested in buying should contact her through an email address she was going to keep for a week,” Sarah recalled.
After the first few transactions, she and the student dealer became friends. Sarah later found out that the girl went to a doctor and claimed that she had ADHD to get a prescription for Ritalin.
Self-administration of a drug such as Ritalin is potentially dangerous.
As a spokesperson for the University of Sheffield’s Health Service says: “under specialist supervision, Ritalin can be prescribed for those diagnosed with ADHD.
“Patients who take the drug require careful monitoring of heart rate and blood pressure. The dose is carefully adjusted and may differ from one individual to another.
“Ritalin is obviously a prescription-only medication and not for self administration.”
But according to Sarah: “It’s really easy to fake ADHD. My friend told her shrink that she was watching TV and listening to her mum talk at the same time and couldn’t remember a word her mum said or anything about the show afterwards.”
No tests were conducted, and by the end of the appointment, the girl left clutching a signed prescription.
The procedure is so straight-forward that apparently some students don’t bother going through a dealer anymore. Why is it so easy? Sarah shrugged. “Well, the US is pill happy”.
The ‘smart pill’ habit may have started in America but soon it reached UK shores, years before Sarah left the country.
An article from The Independent, dating as far back as 2003, documented the beginnings of the craze in British campuses.
However, many universities still don’t do drug tests for Ritalin or clearly stipulate the disciplinary actions they will take against students who are caught using it.
When asked to comment on recent newspaper claims that nationwide, students would be tested for drugs before exams, a spokesperson for the University of Sheffield’s Student Services, said “there are currently no plans to introduce random drugs testing.
Taking prescription drugs would not constitute a disciplinary offence under university regulations.”
The consequences of possession without prescription have not been articulated by university-issued student handbooks, although media reports have commented on the growing phenomenon.
“If not prescribed, Ritalin is a class B drug in the UK, meaning possession can lead to a five-year prison sentence and dealing could put you behind bars for 14 years,” the BBC helpfully notes in an online article.
Is it worth the trouble? Sarah thinks so. “The effects of coffee and Red Bull wear out in a few hours.
“When I took Ritalin, I would be awake non-stop for three full days and had a lot of energy. I was very focused and had complete control over my motor movements.”
When asked, Sarah said that she was aware of the side effects of the drug, but she didn’t sound entirely certain.
“That would have to be damage to the heart or a heart attack, long-term, right?”
According to the University Health Service, side effects can include heart rhythm disturbance, blood pressure changes, mood change and nervous tics.
Stimulants may precipitate anxiety symptoms including panic, particularly in those with a history of coexisting anxiety.
The NHS also lists headaches and stomach aches as other side effects. Some medical studies even reveal effects that range from blurred vision to brain aneurysms.
The loss of appetite leading to a drop in weight is another side effect.
Sarah confirmed this: “I knew girls who intentionally took Ritalin because they wanted to be thin.
“Eating disorders were huge at my university back home and so I guess it’s not surprising that popping Ritalin soon followed.”
Sarah told me that she took Ritalin for a completely different reason. She excelled in school and wanted to keep it that way.
Studies in the US indeed show that it is high-flying Ivy League students under immense pressure, not slackers, who are more likely to rely on Ritalin to get them through coursework and revision.
Some students condemn Ritalin abuse as cheating, comparing it to the controversial use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes.
Sarah disagreed: “All it does is to keep you stay focused. Besides, some great academics and authors have used drugs.
“Hunter S Thompson was on mescaline when he wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
She added: “If someone were to discover the cure for a major illness, like cancer, while on Ritalin, would it diminish that person’s contribution to humanity?”
Sarah’s use of Ritalin was sporadic and she says that she will definitely not continue taking it after graduation. But Ritalin is a drug, and drug abuse all too often leads to addiction.
Critics worry that students who depended on it to get them through all-nighters for exams may fall into using it again.
The only difference would be that they would have jobs and be pulling all-nighters for project deadlines, not university work.
Sarah claims that she hasn’t swallowed a single pill since she started her postgraduate degree at the University of Sheffield last September.
But when I spoke to her, she half-joked, “Do you know if I can get Ritalin from anyone on campus?”
With Ritalin abuse becoming a growing problem in British universities, the answer would have to be a yes.