Prescription Stimulants Are "A Okay": Applying Neutralization Theory to College Students' Nonmedical Prescription Stimulant Use

Objective: National college health data indicate that prescription stimulants are the most widely misused prescription drugs among college students, with 9% admitting to nonmedical use within the past year.(1) Although motivations for the nonmedical use of these drugs have been explored, scant attention has been paid to justifications for nonmedical use. This article fills that gap by expounding upon the justifications students incite to defend their nonmedical use of these drugs. Participants: Seventy-six college students from a large, public northwestern university. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted during the 2010-2011 academic year. Results: Inductive analysis uncovered social learning theories of crime/deviance, more specifically, Sykes and Matza's neutralization theory(2) as helping to inform justifications for nonmedical stimulant use. This theory was modified to better encompass the justifications that students employed. Conclusion: Justifications for use must become a more central part of the conversation surrounding nonmedical stimulant use among the college population.