I have been on drugs since fifth grade. Not the kind of drugs you’re thinking, but prescription pills that are handed out like candy. Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.) when I was 10, I have been on some form of medication since.

The medicines have varied from Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall, and Straterra. Ritalin made me slip into a depression and they had to get me off that immediately. Straterra didn’t work at all; if anything, it made me more impulsive. Adderall has always worked, but it makes me have no appetite, and when I do eat it makes me feel sick. I have to choose between eating or feeling sick and doing worse in school. I’ve also experienced other side effects of Adderall such as chest pains.

I’ve had chest pains for about the past two years and it has really started to concern me. Whenever it happens I hit myself in the chest a couple of times and get in a new position. One day I read a news article about some kids in Canada who had died randomly from taking the drug, which I had been on for about three years. That’s when I decided to see a doctor. My doctor gave me an E.K.G. and lucky for me everything turned out fine. However, the experience made me reconsider the medicine I was taking and learn more about what I was taking every morning.

The FDA gave Shire Pharmaceuticals the go ahead for Adderall on November 8, 2002. Adderall is used by over 700,000 Americans and is one of the most well known drugs for people with A.D.H.D. Shire Pharmaceuticals sold $759 million worth of Adderall XR (time release) in the United States and around $10 million in Canada.

Health Canada, the Canadian drug regulatory agency, suspended sales of Adderall in Canada on February 9, 2005. Adderall is a time-released amphetamine used to treat patients with A.D.H.D. The Canadian suspension was based on reports in the United States of sudden deaths in adolescent patients of the drug. Health Canada indicated that black, cautionary labels would be put on the drug’s containers warning users of potential dangerous side effects. Nevertheless, Canada felt that the label changes would not change the intake of the drug enough to lower the percentage of deaths.

What will America do about this problem? So far we have just started to put the “black labels” on Adderall bottles. I haven’t seen a black label on my bottle yet.