Hi Guys! I have been taking Adderall for about a year and a half right now and so far it has done wonders. Currently, I am 17 and I will be 18 in May of 2008. When I turn 18 this will no longer be an issue, but what are the legal rights of parents when it comes to the possession and distribution of Adderall to their child? My mother has always been paranoid of my sister and I becoming addicted to some sort of substance due to a family history of addictions. Consequently, she has hidden the bottle from me and only gives me my pills when she deems it necessary. Honestly, I am fine with this, but there will be times when I come home from school and I need to take my afternoon dose (but she is at work) and she forgot to leave an extra pill. I am not abusing it, nor do I take dosages higher than what I am prescribed, but she insists on hiding the pills from me. Homework is becoming extremely hard to do at these times without my Adderall but this could be easily avoided if only she let me have access to my pills. Anyways, I live in PA, but I was wondering if there are any state or federal laws that say whether or not a parent is allowed to have possession of a child's medication or prevent a child access to his/her medication? Thanks for taking the time to read this and any help is appreciated!

P.S. Sorry if this was the wrong forum to post this thread in, please move if necessary.

Could you at least convince her to give you your medication for the full day in the morning? Or enough for a couple days at a time, like in a medication organizer box or something?

It's just ridiculous and (IMO) bad parenting to restrict your child's access to the medication they need at the proper times! This would be inappropriate for any other condition and the fact that it's a controlled substance does not excuse not allowing you to have enough for a full day since she isn't always able to give you a pill at the proper time. It is absurd to cause your child's schoolwork to suffer because you're paranoid and refuse to trust them.

She could easily put it in an organizer (1day, 3days, a week, whatever) for you and check it at night to be sure you only took the prescribed amount.

Also, there ought to be something that can be done since she is making it impossible for you to follow your doctor's orders and take your meds as prescribed. If anything she's hoarding a controlled substance that is not hers, since you're not always able to take your full dose. Very irresponsible, IMO, and possibly illegal, depending on what is done with the excess.

I don't know about the technicalities but it's pretty darn screwed up if you ask me.

Have you shared your concerns with your mother?

Rat her out to the doctor, then maybe you can get an XR dose earlier in the day at school and you won't even have to worry about her. Then once you turn eighteen she will have no right to deprive you of your meds and if she tries to take them from you then you can threaten to call the police on her, if it comes down to it.

Another thing is, can you find the hiding spot? If you can just steal them, they are yours, not hers.

I can also add that parents have had their kids taken away from them for refusing to give them medicine.

Personally, I'd rat her out to the doc too. (If you've already tried talking to her and she still refuses to consider a compromise.) Maybe the doc could at least talk to her and explain the importance of you taking you medication properly. I'm also certain your doc would not prescribe you Adderall in the first place if he didn't think you were capable of using it responsibly.

Thank you for your responses meriellyn and mspen. I have tried speaking with her about it and one of her other concerns is that due to its misuse, I may be confronted by one of my peers asking for some of my pills. Frankly, I was apalled at this. For her to think that I am that dumb to distribute a Class II controlled substance and also, why would I sacrifice a few days worth of my Adderall so that somebody else could go do who-knows-what with it. My doctor has also expressed these concerns with my mother, yet due to her paranoia, she still persists. For this reason, I feel as though I must cite some sort of legislation that will inform her of what she is doing may be illegal. But at the same time, it may be legal. The prescription was written out to me, it is a controlled substance intended to be in the possession of the prescribed user. So, you must understand my reasoning behind this. So far, Google has turned nothing but I will continue searching. Once again, thank you very much!

If she were withholding medication it could be a form of child abuse/neglect. It seems to me that she's not withholding them from you, but does sometimes forget to leave enough (due to work schedule). Until you are 18 (or emancipated) all medical decisions belong to your parents.

I can understand her concern too. There's alot of abuse of prescription medications in teens because they seem to think it's "safer" to abuse a "legal" drug then an illegal one (pot, meth, etc.), and with a history of abuse in the family it can make a parent wary. It may also be that since you are getting older she's starting to feel that "empty nest" approaching. Alot of parents (myself included at times) have a hard time realizing that their kids are growing up and becoming more mature.

Point out your concerns to her, and cite her examples of your personal responsibility. Shoot for a compromise. Instead of demanding all your pills, suggest that you have two to three days worth so that way if abuse were to happen it's more contained, and you can begin to develop a history of being responsible with your medication. Stay calm and reasonable. If you get angry and yell it's only going to confirm for her that you're not mature enough to handle this.

That's just ridiculous. Heck, if you only need your meds in the morning and afternoon, there's no reason the pill case would even have to leave the house so you could have access to your meds but your peers wouldn't have access to them and you wouldn't have them on you if they did ask. And of course she could take a peek at the case whenever and see if anything was missing before it should be.

I poked around briefly but wasn't able to find any specific laws pertaining to this exactly. I hope you're able to find what you're looking for. Maybe your doc might be able to point you in the right direction? Or even your pharmacist.
Otherwise it sounds like you're either gonna hafta reason with her (obviously not working) or do the best you can until you're 18. Terribly unfortunate.

Have you talked to your doc about maybe taking XR in the morning so you could have coverage a bit longer? You could still boost with an IR in the afternoon if need be. Might be worth a shot anyway.

Good luck!

Can she leave the dose home for you?

My mom wanted to do that but I convinced her not to. They're holding on to that last bit of control before you're a free man IMO.

However, I really doubt it would be ruled as child abuse to forget to leave you adderall. You said it's accidental when she forgets to leave it first of all, and unless it's in cases of basic living neglet accidents aren't ruled as child abuse. I've looked it up and they won't get in trouble for accidentally breaking your arm or running over your leg unless they intended to hurt you somehow by doing it. *shrug*
And you need it to do schoolwork, but you don't need it to live. A missed dose of adderall shouldn't cause detrimental side-effects (depression etc.) unless you're addicted, right? And besides that, her expressed concern that you'd abuse it would surely be ruled valid if you took her to court or something like that. You're a minor.
Plus a parent could say they don't want their kid on ADHD stimulants at all, even after diagnoses. I've read about that happening. Kids get diagnosed by a psychologist but parents opt for continuing to struggle so they don't mess with the brain chemistry. I'm sure the doctor didn't force these meds on you, eh? There are some instances where a child needs to take certain drugs to live and CPS will get on the case if they're not taking them. In AD/HD, the kid (especially a 16-year-old) will always have a say in weather or not they take them. Your mom wouldn't be able to force you to take them and she could be taken for court if she physically made you. She's actually letting you choose to take them... I think. I'm not a legal expert, but I'll try to look it up and see if I find anything. That's how it is in my state though so says my mom.

Very annoying I know. I'm doing some googling and some people are saying forcing or is abuse only if the drugs are not needed to stay healthy. Actually someone just asked a question about forcing adderall on yahoo! answers yesterday. I'm not an expert and neither or these people, but I'd say that dissallowing a child to take drugs that he doesn't need to stay physically healthy is not abuse. They're no expert either probably. Still just what I gather.

I think I'm raining on the thread with that long opposing post.

EDIT: About not letting you take them to school, that's good because you aren't allowed to take medicine to school. If you get caught by the school you'll likely find yourself in hot water even though they're prescribed. What she can do is give them to the nurse's office and have you go down there every day to take your dose. Have you considered that instead?