The Arizona Police Officer Standards and Training Board (POST) is charged with the responsibility of establishing rules and regulations concerning, among other things, the minimum qualifications for police officers. Those rules include setting policy on hiring applicants for police departments. As a general rule, the policy disqualifies a person from attending a police academy as a recruit if they illegally used any narcotic or dangerous drug (other than marijuana) within the previous seven years. The policy has recently been changed, as the Board announced that the rules will be relaxed, under certain conditions, if the drug in question is Adderall or similar drugs containing amphetamine.
The starting point with illegal drug use is that, according to POST, it shows a “willingness or propensity” to engage in illegal acts. Presumably, that is a characteristic we don’t want in our police recruits. So there are a number of rules disqualifying those who used illegal drugs for seven years prior to becoming a police recruit. The theory behind the Board policies in this area is that while “experimentation” with illegal drugs is not a disqualifying factor, “recreational” use is not acceptable. So if you used narcotics or dangerous drugs experimentally, then seven years later it won’t be a bar to attendance at a police academy. In the case of marijuana, it’s a three-year waiting period.
When it comes to Adderall, the Board takes a somewhat different tack. The policy statement begins by describing the accepted medical uses of Adderall – treatment of ADHD and narcolepsy. The Board acknowledges that amphetamine (an ingredient in Adderall) is a Schedule II drug under federal law, and a dangerous drug under Arizona law. It goes on to state that Adderall is used illegally in different ways: (a) as a performance-enhancing drug in athletics, (b) as an aphrodisiac, and (c) as a euphoriant. The latter two are described as “recreational,” while the use in athletics is not.
Finally, the policy statement says that drugs containing amphetamine (Adderall and others) are also used as a ‘cognitive enhancer.” As such, the policy statement goes on, it is “not uncommon” for students to use the drugs to help study for exams, which is neither recreational nor experimental use, but merely an aid to academic performance. This purpose, the Board concludes, is “benevolent.” The end result is a new policy stating that if you used Adderall or a similar drug to aid your academic performance, it will not be a disqualifying factor for attendance at a police academy, provided that you don’t have a pattern of prescription drug abuse.
We’re not sure if we can logically support the distinctions made by the Board, but the new policy ultimately is a recognition of reality. In that regard, recent studies indicate that a significant percentage of college students (31%) say they used Adderall without a prescription, and about three-quarters of those students use the drug to help them academically. In fact, the only drugs with higher use rates among college students are alcohol and marijuana.
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