The Culture of the Use of Adderall at Union College

The specific objectives of this ethnography are to: 1) truly understand the culture of Union College’s use of Adderall; 2) examine the different factors that contribute to the use of stimulant prescriptions; 3) analyze the public discourse of the drug; 4) note side effects and emotional impact use of the stimulant has on students; 5) find how the drug is distributed throughout campus through interviews. These objectives are met through and by critical analysis of the published literature on the use of Adderall on college campuses, the abuses and side effects of Adderall, and the culture of the use in its entirety: assessing age, gender, race, and motives. This ethnography specifically looks at a small liberal arts college in the northeast, which allows a deeper analysis for this recently new phenomenon, yet should not be applied to every college campus, although the circumstances may be similar.