Expert: John L - 2/27/2009

Question
Yesterday, my son was eliminated from consideration for Army Reserves because he truthfully answered a question related to taking Ritalin/Adderall when he was in middle school and sporadically through jr. high.  At the time, quite a few years ago, as parents we had him try it as a tool to help him focus.  He noticed no difference and neither did we.  Life progressed, he graduated from High School, has completed 2 1/2 years of college, holds a job but can't be in the army reserves.  I feel like he's paying a price for what we had him do.  He's highly intelligent, brilliant actually, scored high on his test, passed the physical but answered truthfully.  His recruiter said he shot himself in the foot by answering truthfully.  So...the military would prefer lack of truthfulness and integrity since surely they know they have recruits who have taken ritalin.  This seems to be an incredibly discriminatory practice for a medical prescription from years ago.

Answer
He usually would not be not allowed only for the past use of ritalin and aderrall.  If he has been off for sometime and and has documents to that fact, he can usually get in with a waiver.

Yes, if he would have withheld it, there would be no issue.  The military is not up to par with advances in medicine and the over medication of our youth.  The rules are years behind reality.  Only recently did they allow those with LASIK surgery to join.

If he shows documents that he has been off medication for several years and suffers no issues today, he may be ok to join,  but he may of said other things that made him unqualified, like he still has trouble focusing or something.