Prescription stimulants easy to find on campus.

• Position: Drug Abuse

Seven out of 10 college students say it is somewhat or very easy to obtain controlled stimulants without a prescription, according to a survey conducted on eight U.S. campuses--six public and two private in five states. About 18% of undergraduates report misusing prescription stimulants such as Adderall, the 2015 College Prescription Drug Study found. Some 83% receive them from friends and most say they use the drug to help them study and improve their grades.

While stimulant use is most common, students also are misusing a variety of other prescription medications, the survey maintains. "Overall, one in four undergraduates reported that they used prescription pain medications, sedatives, or stimulants for nonmedical reasons in their lifetimes," says study author Anne McDaniel, associate director of research and data management at Ohio State University's Center for the Study of Student Life, Columbus.

After stimulants, prescription pain medications are the most misused, with 10% of undergraduates admitting use. About one-third of students say it is easy or very easy to obtain them. About nine percent of undergrads take sedatives, with 44% indicating they are easy or very easy to find on campus.

The impetus for students to misuse prescription drugs has changed over the years, indicates Kenneth Hale, clinical professor of pharmacy and associate director of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery. "At one time, college students most commonly misused drugs to get high, but today students also use medications to self-medicate, to manage their lives. They are using drugs to control pain, to go to sleep, to relieve anxiety, and to study."

For instance, 55% of students who misuse pain medications say they do It to relieve pain, while 46% seek to get high. More than half who misuse sedatives say their aim is to get to sleep, while 85% who misuse stimulants want to improve grades or studying.

Another concern about the misuse of prescription drugs is the danger of it leading to the use of illicit "street" drugs. This particularly is true because of the recent nation wide crackdown on the misuse of prescription medications. The survey found that slightly more than half of undergraduates who misuse prescription...