When writing about ADHD medication diversion, it is important to educate students and their parents about the legal and administrative consequences that could lead to prosecution and/or expulsion. What many don't realize however, is there is another consequence to diversion that is not as readily apparent but damaging to the ADHD Community and undermine the medical nature of the disorder.

The biggest obstacles that face those of us who are diagnosed with ADHD are social stigmas that unfortunately still persist. When students divert their stimulant medication, they unwittingly perpetuate these stigmas and make it much more difficult for other students and for the disability community as a whole.

For years we have been faced with a public that either doesn't understand or refuses to believe that ADHD is real and that stimulant medication is both necessary and very effective in managing its symptoms. For many, the notion of giving something that is a "controlled substance" to children is a bad or dangerous thing. Even though these medications are prescribed and taken under the supervision of a doctor, many fear that children are somehow being drugged or given something to intoxicate them. This is not only incorrect, but unfair to students and adults with ADHD who need to improve their focus and manage their ADHD symptoms.

When students share their medication with others who have not been diagnosed with ADHD, or take their medication recreationally and not according to the prescription and supervision of a qualified doctor, they perpetuate the myth that ADHD medication somehow does get students high and/or has an intoxicating effect. This completely undermines the message that the ADHD community has been trying to educate the public about. Additionally, when students share their medication with someone who has not been diagnosed with ADHD, as a study aid, it also fuels the myth that there is no necessity to take medication even for those with a prescription because it is only a performance enhancement for those who are too lazy or unintelligent to work on their own. By extension, this actually undermines the diagnosis itself and the fact that ADHD is a neuro-biological disorder.

The message here to students with ADHD is that they must be careful about safeguarding their medication and not sharing it, not only because of the trouble they could get into legally or administratively. They have to think of the medication as a way of trying to level the playing field and give them the opportunity to focus in ways that their brain is not wired to. But that opportunity comes with a responsibility and an understanding that their actions could undermine the small amount of credibility that the ADHD community has fought so hard and so long for. Use your medication wisely and according to the instructions of your prescribing doctor.