Members of the Dartmouth community may remember a classic episode of 'Saved by the Bell' when Jessie Spano, straight-A student and model feminist, falls victim to the evils of speed.
Overwhelmed with work, the demands of being in a popular singing group with her friends and the allure of admission to Stanford, Jessie needs to take caffeine pills to keep her abreast of her studies and her future music career.
While not every Dartmouth student can be as glamorous as Jessie, most students at Dartmouth have very demanding academic and extracurricular schedules. Few Dartmouth students spend their four years here without having to spend at least a few late nights cramming, and even fewer get a full eight hours of sleep every night.
What then is the answer for the over-worked, over-partied and under-slept students? Most students turn to caffeine in the form of coffee, soda and Red Bull to stay up to finish their work.
However, when midterms, finals, and papers rear their ugly heads, an increasing number of students at colleges across the country are choosing a more expensive and more effective measures to stay awake and alert.
While College health statistics place the use of illegally obtained study stimulants at a very low level, nearly all Dartmouth undergraduate students interviewed by The Dartmouth had either experimented with illegal prescription study aids, or had friends who regularly used them. These study aids range from over-the-counter caffeine pills and stimulants to illegally-used prescription drugs like Dexedrine, Ritalin and Adderall.
Such amphetamines give users an increased alertness, increased concentration, efficiency and mood lifts. For students who need to finish up a paper or study for a test, this could be the perfect solution.
The downfalls, however, include a reduced appetite, increased heart rate, paranoia, difficulty sleeping and hallucinations, which are primarily caused by lack of sleep. Prescription drugs are harder to come by and more expensive than caffeinated drinks, but they do have benefits that caffeine pills and coffee lack.
One junior who uses Dexedrine to study and to stay awake in class said "[Study drugs] are more effective than caffeine and they make you a lot less jittery."
Some students use more creative measures to stay up. One member of the '05 class swears by combining sinus medicine and Excedrin to stay up late studying for a test or finishing a paper.
Others rely on simpler techniques. One junior described not drinking caffeine on a regular basis so that it affected him more when he needed it. Another values sleep more than finishing her work and jokingly said that she used Nyquil in those situations.
Because study drugs do more than just keep students awake, some students use amphetamines to feel more confident in class or when talking to a professor after class or during office hours.
To effectively use Ritalin or Dexedrine to stay awake while studying, however, students must also take the pill while taking the test. Otherwise the knowledge accumulated during the drug-induced studying will not be retained.
The price premium and fear of the effects are factors among many Dartmouth students who choose not to use prescription drugs. "The drugs are really expensive and your body gets accustomed to them, so you need to take higher and higher dosages to get the same effect," an anonymous member of the '05 class told The Dartmouth.
A junior questioned by The Dartmouth said that she did not use study drugs but had friends who did. She said that she thought that they would probably allow her to focus more on her work and help her get more work done, but she was worried about the effects that the drugs would have on her body.
Some students who came from high-pressure high school academic situations said that they began their habit in high school. One junior told The Dartmouth she had used caffeine pills heavily during her senior year of high school. She used the pills to stay up to study for AP Biology tests.
"It was just hard because I kind of got into a routine," she said. "Every night before a test, I'd take my pills and stay up till like 5 a.m., and then feel jittery the next day."
When she came to Dartmouth she stopped taking caffeine pills and now relies on coffee to stay awake to study.
Overdose by students who take amphetamines illegally are very rare, but cardiac arrest can occur when amphetamines are mixed with other stimulants like cocaine and caffeine. People who go through withdrawal often become more irritable and overreact to minor problems. This can be remedied by eating.