It’s the familiar demon that haunts all students at one point or another. The feeling when you’re staring at a stack of blank pages, knowing that by tomorrow, every single sheet has to be filled with insightful writing on whatever. Never mind why you put it off, it has to get done. Three a.m. rolls around, and you hit the wall. The late night grind is terribly unforgiving.

A student can fight back with coffee, maybe an energy drink, but all that really does is set the stage for the inevitable crash that occurs regardless if you’ve punched in that last period.

For many students, one way to solve the problem of the all-nighter is drugs. Prescription drugs. They’re actually the most abused drugs in America according to a recent report from the Center for Substance Abuse Research. The report shows that if all the people abusing Ecstacy, LSD and heroin were combined, they still wouldn’t equal the number of Americans who abuse prescription drugs on a regular basis. Particularly on college campuses, drugs like Adderall and Ritalin are being used, out of all things, for studying.

The abuse of “study drugs” is a growing problem for schools nationwide, and Marquette University is no exception.

One student, a senior who wished to remain anonymous, said she could name almost a dozen of her friends who use nonprescription Adderall, including herself.

“I know that my friends take it for studying, because it helps them memorize things,” she said. “It helps you stay awake, it makes you focused, once you start on something you have to finish it. It’s weird.”

The Counseling Center on campus provides support for students who have a legitimate need for these drugs. Unfortunately, “campuses are hotbeds of diversion when it comes to these kinds of medications,” said Jennifer Derenne, consulting psychiatrist at Marquette’s Counseling Center.

The drugs are intended to be used by sufferers of disorders like Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, but the diversion comes when students use these drugs without a medical need, either faking a disorder, or paying close to $5 a pill to those who are prescribed. The market for study drugs fluctuates with the times, with prices increasing around midterms and finals.

“My sister takes the stuff, and I just buy it from her,” the senior student said. “I know if I didn’t have her, I’d still be able to get it.”

Two freshmen living in McCormick Hall confirmed the abundance of sellers on campus.

“There’s a bunch, I mean, I don’t really know all of them, but I know people will buy,” one of the freshmen said.

With how easy it is to get drugs like Adderall on campus, it’s hard to imagine there’s anything wrong with buying or selling the pills under the table. The senior said she never really considered any consequences to using the drug, either from the school or from law enforcement.

“I figure if I ever was to get caught with one or two pills, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal,” she said.

Marquette’s student handbook simply states that students found illegally distributing or in possession of prescription drugs face disciplinary action. But under Wisconsin drug law, the penalties for using or selling study drugs become much more significant. Both Wisconsin state and federal law consider Adderall to be a Schedule II narcotic, which means anyone caught selling or even in possession of the drug could face felony charges.

Another senior who takes Adderall for ADHD said she is often approached by students who want to buy pills from her, even though she said she would never consider selling her prescription.

The drug comes in pills of varying doses, and it works by releasing chemicals in the brain to improve concentration, but like any drug, it can be addictive.

“When you use these drugs over and over again, you’re flooding the neurological pathway, and the pathway adapts and there’s changes,” said John Mantsch, chair of the biomedical sciences department. “You’re going away from recreation use to all of a sudden (the user) needs the drug to feel normal.”

Derenne believes the use of these kinds of drugs comes from unrealistic expectations students set for themselves.

“College students, in particular, put pressure on themselves to be perfect students. But then, to have a social life, be involved in the community and participate in intramural sports, how on earth are you supposed to do all that and still get good grades and sleep?” Derenne asked.

Many students answer that question with study drugs, as indicated in a 2009 survey published in the Journal of Attention Disorders. Out of 390 college students, the survey found that 60 percent knew someone who used prescription stimulants illicitly, and 7.5 percent had actually been using these drugs without a prescription in the previous 30 days.

The primary reason students take Adderall seems to be for concentration, but there are more serious side effects to these drugs, explained Betty Fang, a clinical pharmacist at St. Luke’s Hospital. Cardiac issues, high blood pressure, risk of heart attack and abdominal pain are just some of the symptoms Fang listed.

But despite a growing culture of abuse, there is still a medical purpose for these drugs, and students who suspect they might have a disorder are encouraged to see a counselor.

“It’s an issue on all college campuses … we just need to be really careful. We don’t want to withhold treatment but we also don’t want to run the risk of having prescriptions out there that are not legitimate,” Derenne said.