"The Adderall Shortage Turns Four, and It Was Never About Overprescribing"

Four years into the ADHD stimulant shortage, the empty shelves are a supply shock, not too many prescriptions.

A March 2026 JAMA Health Forum analysis from Yale ties the shortage to a steep drop in raw amphetamine imports and simultaneous manufacturer pullbacks in late 2022. The DEA's quotas were not the binding cause: makers sold only about 70 percent of what they were already allowed to produce.

• Back-to-school fills jump about 33 percent for kids 6 to 17.
• A DEA quota increase in October 2025 helped, but permission is not production, and it does nothing for a missing ingredient.
• Independents sometimes have stock chains do not, because chains cap Schedule II inventory and wholesalers now watch stimulant orders.

The answer is not to prescribe less.