The student is always on a quest to obtain the Holy Grail of high school and undergrad: a 4.0. There are different ways to approach this quest, good and bad. The way I prefer is hard work. Other people prefer cheating: looking over at the other person’s test, copying answers or taking Adderall. Taking nonprescription Adderall (or any "study drug") is just another form of cheating. Sure, it helps you focus so you can learn more, it puts you ahead. But there are students who have a legitimate need for Adderall. They take it so that they can reach a “normal,” baseline level of focus and achieve their full potential in academics while staying on pace with everybody else. Adderall is prescribed to level the playing field. But now that anyone can get their hands on it if they really want to, things are still uneven.
Most who do take it truly believe that in taking Adderall to help with their grades, they aren’t doing anyone harm. It’s great because you’re not cheating off of anyone; you’re just giving yourself an extra boost. After all, we want people to be the best we can be. I’ve heard some go so far as saying that we should encourage students to take Adderall so that we can produce even better graduates. There are several problems with this way of thinking.
Using Adderall is not a sustainable way to produce the world’s brilliant minds. If we tell students they must take drugs to perform at peak condition and contribute the most to the world, then we are completely undermining the whole idea that working hard will get you your rewards. No, hard work does not always pay off, but it does a lot of the time and it teaches people extremely valuable skills. In promoting the use of "study drugs," we’re also trapping students into thinking that they have a very limited capacity to succeed. This leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy where those encouraged to take Adderall when they don’t actually need it will not be able to perform to the best of their natural abilities without it.
Aside from relying on drugs to succeed, there are other issues with taking Adderall when you don’t need to. It’s completely unfair to those who need it. I’ve heard the argument that life isn’t fair, and yes, life is unfair, but why actively work to make it even less fair? What we should be doing is helping those who have learning disabilities, trouble focusing, or other issues that may distract from their academics. We should not consciously add difficulty to the lives of others, only thinking of our own potential.
Like other forms of cheating, taking "study drugs" cheats you out of the rewards. It undermines the fact that we do need to work hard to learn, long term use could make students doubt their abilities more as well as lead to addiction, and it is ridiculously unfair to the equally brilliant students that do need this medicine.
