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38 Student Law. 17 (2009-2010)
Mental Doping: The Untold Story of Modern Law School Exams

handle is hein.journals/studlyr38 and id is 235 raw text is: M ENTAL DOPING THE UNTOLD STORY OF modem law school exams BY ANN R FENTON AND JOHN M. WUNDERLICH Depressives have Prozac, worrywarts have Valium, gym rats have steroids, and overachievers have AdderaU. --Joshua Foer, The Adderall Me, SLATE (May 10, 2005) aking prescription drugs designed to enhance con- centration during a law school exam, although LJ not illegal, raises troubling questions about ethics and fairness. The law student equivalent of Olym- pian doping, performance-enhancing drugs like Adderall give some students a chemical advantage by granting them superior concentration abilities-a definite plus in the race-to-the-finish- line clacking of laptop keyboards. This is not a debate over the existence of mental illness. Adderall is used le- gitimately by many law students, but its illegitimate use, or abuse, may be in opposition to the foundational prin- ciples of fairness and justice. Perhaps not all Adderall users are playing by the rules. F~raming the pr' b~e In recent years Adderall prescriptions have become de rigueur for children and young adults with Attention Defi- cit Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly referred to as ADHD. As it turns out, the reason the drug helps ADHD pa- tients is the same reason it works for so-called healthy people-Adderall interacts with the brain to increase executive functions, such as ability to focus, memory, and response con- trol. There is no question that law stu- dents who obtain Adderall without a prescription are engaged in a per se ethics violation; buying drugs on the black market is illegal and therefore unethical per Model Rule of Profes- sional Responsibility 8.4(b). But what about the users who do have legal pre- scriptions from their doctors? Is there a point at which legal use become unethical in the context of law school exams? The problem is framed here as one of abuse, focusing on the sub- jective intent (mens rea, if you will) of the drug taker; law students who game the system to get legally- yet ethically questionable-Adderall prescriptions. These Adderall abusers take the drug with the knowledge that it is not needed to simply level the playing field, but with the intent to gain an advantage through cognitive enhancement. Defining the drug-what is Ad- derail? Adderall (ADDERALL XR®, or extended release, currently man- ufactured by Shire Pharmaceuticals) is an amphetanine. More specifically, Shire describes it as a combination of neutral sulfate salts of dextroam- phetamine and amphetamine, with the dextro isomer of amphetamine saccharate and d,l-amphetamine as- partate monohydrate. Technically, mixed amphetamine salts. The up- shot is that, for every pill you take (pills come in dosages ranging from 5 to 30 mgs), over half of the dose is straight-up amphetamine. In fact, according to Shire, the new and im- proved extended release formula- and the only brand-name offering on the market-is chemically designed to give a double-pulsed delivery of amphetamines, which prolongs the re- lease of amphetamine.., compared to American Bar Association I www.abanet.org/lsd January 2010 1 STUDENT LAWYER 1 17

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