He also faces expulsion from the school. The theft cleaned out the Ritalin supply at William Tennent High School just three days before semester exams were to begin. While the exact amount of abuse nationwide remains unknown, the DEA said that about 3 percent of high school seniors reported using Ritalin without a doctor's prescription in 1999, up from 1 percent in 1994. A 1996 survey found that between 30 and 50 percent of adolescents in drug treatment reported using methylphenidate. James Manlandro, the medical director of Seabrook House, a drug rehab center in South Jersey, estimated that a third of his adolescent clients have abused Ritalin.
Many young people are very sophisticated in their drug use.
If you have a hangover, you take Ritalin and it clears the cobwebs. Scientists and patient-advocacy groups insist that the medicine is not dangerous when used under a doctor's supervision. They worry that reports of abuse might dissuade parents from putting their children on a medication that has been approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration. Our basic approach is work closely with a physician. You have to take it precisely the way it is prescribed.