Selling ADHD Medication to Your Classmates Could Cost You

College is a time of learning, personal growth and experimentation. Unfortunately for some people, those experiments can end up causing a lot of problems or even putting an end to their college education. Whether you're starting out your first year at Virginia Tech or returning after a restful summer break to continue your college education, you need to remember that actions have consequences that could impact your future.

It can be hard to maintain good grades while working a job, but it can also be difficult to have a social life when you're broke. Some students look for ways other than a part-time job to fund their extracurricular activities. For those who have access to popular stimulant medications, like Adderal, Ritalin, Methylin, Concerta, Metadate, Dexedrine or Focalin, selling those drugs to other students may seem like a great way to make some fast cash. In reality, it's an easy way to derail your education and your future.

Prescription Medications Are Still Potentially Dangerous

You may think that because it got dispensed from a pharmacy, your prescription is safer than street drugs. In a way, that's correct. The medication you receive each month gets created and dispensed in a carefully controlled environment. Steps are taken to ensure accurate dosage and purity. However, that doesn't mean it is safe for you to just hand those drugs over to anyone who asks for them. After all, lots of students think that using these drugs will help them focus, get work done more quickly or even cram for an exam that's coming up.

There's a reason that stimulants of this strength get prescribed by a doctor and dispensed by a pharmacist. The laws controlling these drugs aim to minimize abuse. Any prescribed stimulant could become addictive or even result in an overdose, if the person using them isn't careful and takes too many when trying to study.

Selling Prescribed Drugs Is Illegal in Virginia

Prescription medication, just like banned and illegal substances, are covered under the state's controlled substance act. You could be subject to severe criminal penalties if you get caught selling your ADHD medication to other students. You could even face charges if law enforcement notice you've been hoarding your pills to sell at exam time.

Even if this is your first criminal offense, the potential penalties include jail time and fines of up to half a million dollars. You could face the standard criminal penalties for the Scheduling class of the drug you were selling.

Adderall, for example, is considered a Schedule II substance, meaning you could face felony drug charges. However badly you may want some extra spending cash, selling your prescribed stimulants could end up with you in jail instead of in your final exams. If you're facing distribution charges for prescribed medication, you need to take the potential consequences seriously.