Toward the end of high school and the beginning of college, many students begin to feel more pressure to perform well academically. The competition to succeed can escalate, and your child may react to these pressures by using “study drugs.”
These drugs supposedly enhance academic performance, but all they really do is allow your child to study for a longer period of time. They don’t improve cognitive ability, but they often lead to an addiction. If your child is caught with them, he or she could face criminal charges for possession, but other dangers of using study drugs could put your child’s life in jeopardy.
Adverse health effects
Study drugs can lead to a myriad of negative health effects, some of which could prove serious or even fatal:
- Increased heart rate
- Increased blood sugar
- Increased blood pressure
- Faster breathing
- Restlessness
- Paranoia
- Muscle weakness and pain
- Tremors
- Mood changes
- Psychosis
- Anxiety
- Heart problems
- Fatigue
- Depression
- Suppressed appetite
- Unintentional weight loss
- Trouble sleeping
- Seizures
- Coma
Many of the above could lead to lifelong complications or even death. Another concern is the addiction factor. Study drugs have a tendency to lead to addiction, which will definitely affect your child’s life in a negative manner. It could take away the dreams your child had for his or her future as the addiction takes over.
Legal troubles may not be far behind
Taking someone else’s prescription medication is dangerous enough, but being in possession of it could also lead to an arrest. Before your child even has a chance to start his or her life, he or she could end up with a drug conviction. This could seriously limit his or her prospects for the future. It may not seem as if possessing a drug prescribed by a doctor would be a serious offense, but due to the addictive nature of many study drugs, the federal government puts them high up on the list of controlled substances.
If your child is facing charges for possessing a study drug, it may be possible to protect his or her future. It doesn’t make sense to incarcerate a young person addicted to drugs. Instead, it would make more sense to get him or her the help needed in order to get the future back on track. With the help of an experienced and compassionate criminal defense attorney, that may be one of the legal options available to achieve the best possible outcome to the situation.
