Poppin’ Pills while Partying

 

Many prescription medications can interact dangerously with alcohol, leading to increased risk of illness, injury, or death. In the U.S., it is estimated that alcohol-medication interactions may be a factor in 25 percent or more of all emergency room admissions. (Holder, H.D) More than 2,800 prescription drugs are available in the United States, and physicians write 14 billion prescriptions annually(Sands, B.F.) ; this is not including the 2,000 or so miscellaneous over the counter drugs, many of which can be dangerous alone in excess, let alone with alcohol thrown into the mix.
Recent survey research has documented important increases during the 2000s in the misuse and abuse of several prescription drugs(Vicodin, Percocet, Codeine, Dilaudid, Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, Ativan, Adderall, Ritalin, among others), seen heavily on college campuses. According to a Columbia University study, nearly half of full-time college students either binge drink or abuse prescription drugs, many of which are guilty of both. That is three times the rate of the general population. The most common of these drugs abused by both the general public is Adderall, AKA “the study drug”, abused by more than 11 percent of people from ages 12 to 25 in the last year. The Adderall abuse among full-time college students however is more than double the general public, at almost 25 percent.
adderall_ucf_study_drug_college
For generations, College and drinking alcohol have carried a strong correlation. “Binge drinking” as a more technical term for getting very drunk generally at a party has been prevalent on college campuses since our parents and their parents before them were in college, and is no different today. According to a 2009 survey by the National Institutes of Health, and 40 percent of college student drinkers admitted to binge drinking at least once within two weeks of taking the survey. We all know that most of that 40 percent is drinking a lot more than once every two weeks.
a-super-drunk-171
After looking at these percentages, and considering that the people with tendencies to abuse alcohol are most likely going to be the same as those with tendencies to abuse drugs, we can conclude that many of the people abusing alcohol are in fact the same people abusing these prescription drugs. The most dangerous part of this growing dilemma on college campuses is the lack of awareness of the severity of these actions. Just one example of the life threatening effects of mixing Adderall in particular with alcoholic beverages was depicted in the March 2009 issue of The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Researchers depict the story of a young man who found himself in the emergency room with chest pains following a night partying where he took a 30 mg of Adderall combined with whiskey. He was experiencing cardiac arrest, a heart attack. The most concerning part of this is that this college freshman had no personal or family history of cardiac problems whatsoever. The combination of only one pill of Adderall and a night of binge drinking pushed a man with a completely healthy heart to the point of complete heart failure.
passed out with beer
-Holder, H.D. Effects of Alcohol, Alone and in Combination With Medications. Walnut Creek, CA: Prevention Research Center, 1992.
-Sands, B.F.; Knapp, C.M.; & Ciraulo, D.A. Medical consequences of alcohol-drug interactions. Alcohol Health & Research World 17(4):316-320, 1993.

2 thoughts on “Poppin’ Pills while Partying

  1. Madeline Nicole Policastro

    Wow very interesting article. Many students do this on a daily basis not necessarily knowing the horrible side effects that can come from “just a one time thing.” I did an article on students using adderall to lose wait something that can even be just as dangerous as drinking with it. Something as simple as the “study drug” can be be taken advantage of and can be harmful when used wrong.

  2. Michael Thomas

    Very interesting topic because I know personally that this issue affects people like you and me on campus. It makes sense that people who abuse one substance are more than likely to abuse another substance. Some people’s natural tendencies are hard to control. And also mixing drugs and alcohol is very dangerous, most prescription pills warn against it, and its shocking that some people still do it.

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