Pens, Paper & Prescription Meds

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I have the attention span of a five year old on pixie sticks.

It’s why I take Adderall.

For those of you who don’t know, Adderall is speed. A prescription amphetamine that in one version or another is the stuff Alex P. Keaton took to cram all night for his big exam that he wound up sleeping through.

Okay, maybe you missed that episode of Family Ties. But in any event, on the mornings that I want to be awake, I take 5 milligrams. The recommended dosage is 60 milligrams. But for me, five is the perfect amount. It keeps me focused, organized, and on point. Anything more and I’m a junkie on a treadmill.

The only reason I mention it is because August is back to school month. And over the next couple of weeks, parents are going to load up on school supplies for their kids.

Pens, paper, and prescription meds. Because there are over 4 million kids in this country that have been diagnosed with A.D.D.

And the problem is that Adderall, Ritalin, and other drugs like it aren’t like taking an antibiotic. Just because a doctor prescribed 60 milligrams doesn’t mean that you should take the full dosage. But kids just do what their parents tell them to do. And parents just do what their doctors tell them to do.

So next thing you know you have a gang of little eight year olds running around the playground with the prescription equivalent of an eight ball of coke in their system, and that is a problem.