Getting high for higher grades

Amanda Shendruk
The Fulcrum- U of Ottawa
Ottawa (cup) – It’s second semester, first year university, Monday morning and Jade Jordan* is dragging herself out of bed and preparing for another long, difficult day of studying.
Then she does a line of speed.
“Coming to university was like, ‘Holy shit, how am I going to pass? How am I going to concentrate? How am I going to do this?’”
So Jordan, who dropped out of the University of Ottawa at the beginning of her third year, turned to drugs. Like a large, but silent, fraction of students, she started using them to help her do well in school.
American surveys are finding an increasing number of students are turning to cognitive-enhancing drugs – such as Ritalin, Modafinil, Adderall and even speed – to improve their academic performance. These substances are often referred to as “smart drugs.”
Some popular smart drugs, like coffee, are easily available, while others, like the ADHD drug Ritalin, are available only through prescriptions. One survey, con- ducted in 2008, indicated that on some campuses as many as one in four students use these kinds of drugs for non-medical purposes.
Jordan arrived at University of Ottawa fresh from being an honour roll student in a secondary school of only 200 people.
“When I came to university and I wasn’t getting those As that I was in high school, I was frustrated be- cause I was like, ‘Man, my parents sent me here. They trusted me,’” she said. “So I just panicked and gave into anything that would help me be successful again.”
Jordan first bought Ritalin from another student in her residence, but said it had no effect on her. She had friends who used both Ritalin and Adderall to study, compose papers and write exams, but for Jordan speed worked best.
“First semester I didn’t do any of the speed or any of that and I did really [poorly],” explained Jordan. Her marks increased in second semester, which she attributed to the drug use.
Speed made her active, but she could focus.
“So I would do lines, and the way that it makes you feel is almost like caffeine. I could concentrate better. I could read my books. I could stay awake.”

Little is known about how drugs like Ritalin, Adderall and Modafinal – originally designed to treat serious ailments – affect the human brain, and experts have mixed views on whether these cognitive- enhancement drugs actually work.
Mike Gorgal*, a second-year history student at the University of Ottawa, acquires Ritalin from a friend whose father is a doctor. He began taking the drug during a particularly stressful time this semester. He said the Ritalin helps him focus on his work for hours, but he has tried to not become dependent on the drug.
“I make it a point not to do it very often, because I don’t want to rely on it too much and I’d only take it if I procrastinate something way too long,” he explained.
He has never tried any other cognitive-enhancing substances, other than coffee, but said Ritalin puts him in a “trance” in which he can focus on anything – even the subjects that bore him the most.
“I have the ability to focus on my own; it’s just when it comes down to the grind … and I need to get the work done … I take the Ritalin to help me focus and to help me just do what I’m supposed to do.”
It’s becoming increasingly clear that under the pressure of university, to do well, to succeed and to maintain scholarships, students are turning toward both legal and illegal substances. What isn’t clear is whether or not their actions are considered ethical.
Some see the use of these drugs as cheating, because not every student has access to them. Others say their use is no different than coffee.
Stanford University’s Henry Greely and his colleagues, in a 2008 article published in the journal Nature, argues that taking Ritalin or other cognitive-enhancing drugs is not significantly different than eating well, taking advantage of a tutor or getting sleep before an exam.
“Drugs may seem distinctive among enhancements in that they bring about their effects by altering brain function, but in reality so does any intervention that enhances cognition,” stated the article. “Recent research has identified beneficial neural changes engendered by exercise, nutrition and sleep, as well as instruction and reading. In short, cognitive-enhancing drugs seem morally equivalent to other, more familiar, enhancements.”
Brittanie Walker Reid was a community adviser for two years at the University of Ottawa, as well as a residence co-ordinator for another two. During her time working in the residences, she saw a number of students turn to cognitive enhancers as a way to deal with stress. She met with students who would drink litres of coffee during the day, then take sleeping pills to get a good night’s rest. The cycle would be repeated for days.
“It’s sort of accepted as normalized behaviour,” she said. “It’s not really questioned. It’s how we see that students should be competitive in school.”
Reid pointed out that too often students who turn to smart drugs are seen as a problem, and not the victim of a more significant issue of academic expectations within society.
“I think the danger specifically of talking about whether taking these performance-enhancing drugs is good or bad, and placing a value judgment on that, is a risk of denying a huge complexity of the problem and individualizing the problem,” she explained.
For students like Jordan, more action on behalf of the university might have made a world of difference.
“If I would have been stopped or informed about anything in order to cope with stress and shit like that, then I would have,” said Jordan. “But the people that came to me first were the people on the street.”