2:39:21 Well, let me wrap it up then with a fine piece of pharmaceutical advertising. How's that? How's that sound? All right, then we're good. Because of course, you know, we have been talking quite a bit about the brazen nature of pushing Adderall and Ritalin and other groovy little things onto our children. So NBC had this big report and it was all about Adderall. And they highlighted this one kid who went to Columbia. Well, actually, here's the setup and I'll take you through. This is basically kind of like one of those narratives that you did with Japan. Listen to what they tell you and what the payoff is of this report. Welcome to Rock Center. And we begin tonight with a story of interest to families all across this country, because right now in dorm
2:40:11 bedrooms and bedrooms all across this country. There are students going about their work under the influence of prescription medications like Adderall and Ritalin with the goal of doing better in school. Now these drugs make a big difference for those with attention deficit disorders, but then there are the others who choose to take them illegally hoping for sharper focus and better grades. Tonight, Kate Snow starts us off by introducing us to a young man who thought he'd discovered a medicinal shortcut to success. Okay, so now, right now we're already set up to think, hey, that sounds kind of interesting. A shortcut to success, okay.
2:40:54 It was exam time at one of the nation's most prestigious schools, Columbia University in New York. And the pressure was on. 20-page papers, all kinds of revisions, presentations, six classes. There's a lot of stuff that needs to get done. Stéphane Perez was powering through the usual way. Two, three days I'm up, straight. No sleep. All the way through the night? Yeah. And how are you doing that? Adderall. Adderall. Adderall. It's a drug we've all heard about, widely prescribed for attention deficit disorders. But this isn't a story about ADHD. It's a story of an ambitious student and many, many more who have misused Adderall to get an edge. DeAnson Parker is a New York neuropsychologist. She says Stefan is like a lot of ambitious kids in high school and college,
2:41:45 who misuse attention deficit medications like Adderall to perform better academically. There is a basic belief in the value that getting ahead beats everything and you can do anything to get ahead, it's okay. So it's not perceived as cheating, although I would argue it is. Okay, so now what is the information that they're giving us right now? Yeah, I actually saw this too. The information is use Adderall, you get better grades. Okay. But just don't get caught selling it. Right, well, do you have to blow like the whole thing or should I take it in sequence? Because the most important part is next, which is how do you get a hold of it? Only for the test.
2:42:28 Why kids think this is a big deal? I mean, this is a controlled substance because You're doing very well when you're taking it most of the time. I've never heard anyone say I took Adderall and did terrible on my exam I never heard anyone say I took Adderall I did poorly on the exam. It's like an academic steroid. Oh Yeah, I was just thinking that it's like taking steroids in sports Barry Bonds in the library Absolutely Barry Bonds in the library and before a lot of memes there was good Stefan says he wanted ready access to his own supply. So that's my friend. How'd you get that prescription? It's a oh go to you know psychological health services wait on campus on Columbia's campus. He said, you know tell him that you're having you know trouble and
2:43:17 studying, focusing, they'll ask you a couple questions, and you'll get a prescription like that. They give it out like it's candy. All it took, he says, was a meeting with a psychologist at Student Health Services in this building who asked him to fill out a simple questionnaire. On campus. He also met with a psychiatrist. He says it was just 10 minutes. The doctor asked him if he'd ever taken Adderall. I thought, is this a trick question? I said, you know what, yeah. A friend gave me one of his pills from his prescription. I took it. and it made me very productive. I really liked how it helped me. Perfect! This is, I think, the right prescription for you. Hold on, he didn't say, well, you really shouldn't have taken someone else's prescription. That's really not medically advisable. Right.
2:44:01 He walked out, prescription in hand. Because he was over 18, no one notified his parents. We asked Columbia for an interview. The university declined to comment on this case, but in a statement said, its student health service uses a detailed clinical protocol for evaluation of ADHD and related conditions. and takes a holistic approach toward treatment for ADHD, including short-term counseling. Okay, so here's what we're learning in this report is if you want it, all you have to do is go to the doctor on campus and say,
2:44:40 You know, I've tried it once and it really worked for me and they'll give it to you. So you go through this whole report and the thing is 10 or 15 minutes. And of course you expect as any normal human being and a parent, you expect the end will be, well, you know, it's addictive. It's like cocaine. Um, you know, you, you can get strung out on this stuff. It's hard crashing. And some of that is peppered throughout the report, but really the end result is that this guy, he got so good that he was now selling some of his Adderall for $30 a pill. And the payoff, the big thing about the report is
2:45:22 Adderall is great, you'll do fantastic on it, you can get it right from the doctor on campus, but don't you DARE sell that illegally without going through US, SLAVE! It was an explosive bang. Which was followed by this red battering ram that knocked my door down. No, I just cracked it knocked it open. It was like whoa It was an early morning raid Stefan was caught up in a drug bust the NYPD's Operation Ivy League a five-month undercover investigation Stefan was charged with selling Adderall He was shocked to find himself locked up with four other Columbia students who were arrested for dealing drugs like ecstasy, marijuana and cocaine. This is a true ring of drug dealers and pushers completely legal telling you we've got the goods, the goods are great, you can use them, you're going to be fantastic, you'll get ahead, we'll make it affordable, easy and don't you dare
2:46:24 Don't you dare step on our turf and try to sell that yourself. Well, this story is somewhat bogative from the perspective that if you're a student at Columbia and you just waltz in and get a prescription from the psychiatric services so easily, why wouldn't all the students do that instead of buying any from him at three times the cost? What do you think the commercial is about? The commercial is exactly that. They want more people to do that. That's what I'm saying. That's why the whole thing is so... I actually saw this and I wasn't going to clip it because I just thought it was a little over the top bull crap. And yeah, I'm not going to argue any of the points. I just didn't think, you know, it was a big shock to anybody that this sort of bull crap goes on. No, no. I think it's shocking that no one, I guess what it was to me, John, is that this is your news. Your news is selling drugs to your kids.