Despite their illegality and adverse health effects, the use of study drugs is not unethical, according to several students who defended taking medication to improve their academic results.

First-year law student Tom Schultz examines the addictive culture of getting ahead in law school.

Cornell Diaries returns! Follow a week in the life of an Adderall-dealing student struggling to use her prescriptions and pot to pay her loans.

I take the pills after dinner, a vitamin supplement for learning, if you will. If it was a long day, I might ordinarily have three or four hours of caffeine-fueled productivity left. The adderall will double that, at least.

I take two pills: a short and a long. The names are self-explanatory. If I’m going to make it to the moon tonight, the short is the rocket booster to get me off the launch pad. The long is the thruster system keeping me on track, and returning me eventually to Earth. Everyone knows that the hardest part of studying is getting off the ground. Once you’re in orbit, you can stay awhile.

It’s the “other” kind of partying that happens at Cornell.

4 a.m., finals week and Club Uris is buzzing with energy. Some students are sipping caffeinated cocktails while others are chugging shots of Red Bull. A sleep-deprived student here or there is completely blacked out. And, like any party, a handful of people are popping pills.

Running on Addy: Though there is research showing that students overestimate the use of "study drugs" on campus, Adderall is known as the "Ivy crack."