Joey:
I have family members on the stuff, and I agree it's an important and useful treatment for ADHD. I think it's overprescribed (disclaimer: I'm not a medical person, so my opinion is no more valid than any yahoo's'), but that's a conversation for another day.
But hellomello may have a valid point (badly stated, but it may have some validity). About a year or so back, I came across some articles that claimed that there's a lot of misuse of these two drugs on college campuses (particularly in law school). Supposedly, students take these at exam times to help them focus (both in studying and on the exams).
So, I started informally polling my students (at the coffee shop next to my office) from time to time. They almost always say that they know of multiple cases of students without any diagnosed medical conditions who take Adderall or Ritalin during exam time to give them an edge. In fact, anyone with pills on hand at can make some coin during these times - there's a pretty good black market for the stuff.
I was astounded at the extent of the usage. Of course, it was in no way a scientific study - only an informal poll. So, they could have overreported, told me what I wnated to hear, made s**t up, etc...). But it was pretty consistent over about a dozen students I polled.
