MONTREAL (CUP) – Sometimes, just the thought of cracking open your all-too cumbersome textbook to page 174 and reading several more chapters can seem utterly unbearable. With midterms looming on the horizon and grades at stake, many students are turning to the power of prescription pills in order to stay regulated, focused and ahead of the game.

It’s not uncommon for students to become overwhelmed in the academic environment. Once the pressure is on, coping gets harder. As prescription pills become more prominent, some students are questioning if popping a pill is an easy time management fix, and if usage will become more legitimate with time.

“I’m a huge procrastinator,” said “Christina” (not her real name), a second-year arts student at McGill University in Montreal. “I tend to leave big projects until the night before the due date, which means I’m under pressure to do a lot of work in a short time.”

Christina, not unlike other students, has faced unforgiving mountains of homework with limited time. And whether the stress is self-inflicted or not, the work has to get done.

For Christina, as well as many other students, energy drinks are ineffective means of staying focused, as they have the tendency to wear off only after a few hours. In order to cope with her never-ending stream of papers and other important projects, Christina turned to Ritalin and Provigil – two over-the-counter drugs.

Provigil is a drug often given to those who suffer from serious bouts of narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea and shift-work sleep disorder. Ritalin, a drug normally prescribed to those who have a difficult time concentrating or individuals plagued with hyperactivity, helped Christina focus on her studies. As a result, she was able to get more work done.

“[Ritalin] made me super focused so I just steamed ahead with work and did nothing else,” said Christina.

Those who take the same prescription drugs Christina used report a heightened sense of focus that helps render their studying altogether less tedious and enables them to get the job done more efficiently. Though these drugs are not intended for casual use, Christina found her experiences were positive.

“[Provigil] kept me awake much longer than caffeine,” she said.

While the drug’s side-effects are said to include headaches, nausea and stuffy noses, Christina experienced none of these symptoms.

“When you’re in a panic, they seem like a really good solution. Like, hey, pop this pill, and you can stay up all night, no problem.”

While Christina has dabbled in other recreational drugs, like marijuana and alcohol, she says her use of prescription pills was intended only for the benefit of her academic productivity.

Christina isn’t alone in turning to prescription drugs as a way out of tough academic situations. In recent years, the use of pharmaceuticals as self-prescribed study aids is becoming more frequent. In the 2003 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, 2.9 per cent of high school students had access to Ritalin and had used it as a “focus-aid.” By Grade 11, that number increased to five per cent as the students climbed the academic ladder. According to Statistics Canada, the numbers have remained relatively high in boys and somewhat lower in girls.

Similarly, an Atlantic Canada survey by the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2001 figured that out of almost 14,000 randomly selected students, 700 had been taking Ritalin and other drugs, such as Dexedrine and Benzedrine, for non-medical use.

From 1985 to 2002, requests for Ritalin prescriptions alone spiked 600 per cent in Canada. As use among campus students is becoming more widespread, critics are questioning the rampant accessibility of these medications. How do students get a hold of Ritalin when they don’t actually have Attention Deficit Disorder?

According to “Amy,” a second-year McGill student, getting drugs is not difficult. Pills, it seems, are becoming increasingly available to anyone willing to seek them out.

Amy herself has developed an affinity for prescription pills, though she has never used drugs to study. She simply used them for a high. Amy says crushing Ritalin and snorting it increases the effects of the amphetamines it contains.

“I just go to a walk-in clinic, give them a list of symptoms, and they prescribe to me whatever I need,” she said.

Effortless journeys such as these often result in the easy acquisition of sleeping pills, stay-awake pills, or even antidepressants. A simple Google search can conjure up a list of the symptoms needed to sound believable to an on-the-clock doctor — a fact that is beginning to worry professionals.

“You just need to go to different clinics where they don’t have a file on you,” said Amy.

But if that expedition seems time-consuming, students on campuses all across North America have found even less complicated means to access prescription pills. Some re-use and recycle old prescriptions they’ve had for Ritalin or Adderall, another amphetamine meant in the past to treat narcolepsy and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Others need go no further than their own campuses. Pills can be acquired so long as students know where to look – from your friendly small-time dealer (often a fellow student) for about $3 to $5 a pop.

Websites all over the Internet also advertise a cheap, anonymous way of obtaining medication online, in a user-friendly fashion. All that is required is a credit card.

Despite the ease with which pills are available, medical professionals (and the labels on the back of most prescriptions) caution users against the dangers of incorrectly using drugs, using unprescribed drugs, or mixing drugs. Symptoms can range from the warnings on each drug label, to dangerously elevated blood pressure levels, to death — a high price to pay for a study hit.

Yet often studying doesn’t seem as much fun as going out with new friends and drinking, and students can easily find themselves overwhelmed by juggling several priorities at once.

“Angela,” a former McGill student now studying at Concordia University in Montreal, often fell behind in her schoolwork. Once she got involved with a sports team, she found it difficult to balance doing her homework, playing sports and maintaining a healthy social life. She also turned to prescription drugs.

“During the season, I would do sports, see my friends, and usually school would come last,” she said.

After trying Ritalin, Angela was able to sit still and focus on her studies instead of drifting off. Acquiring the drugs was the least of her trials.

“At McGill, my dealer was just walking up and down the hallways of the library, making deals,” she said.

Angela says prescription drug use seems a little more low-key at her new school.

“[At Concordia] I’ve heard a couple of people talk about it on campus, but it’s still a little more quiet.”

She also believed that the ingredients used were different, and says she noticed an immediate difference when taking the pills from her new school.

“I completely noticed it, although it could have been psychosomatic. Psychosomatic symptoms are very real,” she said.

Regardless, Angela was able to do things she thought impossible.

“I could read a 500-page philosophy book in five days’ time. And I could write papers,” she said.

Those students who have turned to pharmaceuticals as an answer or a fix may acknowledge their activities aren’t what many would call safe, but none feel inclined to give them up. The prescription label and industry stamp do a lot to allay fears and for most users, who believe the benefits outweigh the risks.

“If you’re desperate, they’re a pretty good last resort,” said Christina.