Clay Buchholz

Boston Red Sox's Clay Buchholz said he's been taking prescribed medicine for his ADD since 2011 (AP photo).

(Pat Sullivan)

Obtaining medical approval to be exempt from Major League Baseball’s ban on Adderall is not easy, Boston Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz told MassLive.com last weekend after Chris Davis was suspended for 25 games after a positive amphetamine test.

Buchholz, who said he’s been taking the drug for his attention deficit disorder since 2011, did more than just complain about his lack of focus to a friendly doctor with a prescription pad. Before getting approved for use, Buchholz (and his family) underwent a thorough investigation at the hands of MLB.

“This is year four for me,” he said. “As far as focus, it wasn’t, ‘Oh I don’t think I can pitch without this stuff.’

"For me, growing up, my mom and dad knew that I had ADD or ADHD and where I’m from in a small town (in Nederland, Texas), my mom and dad were against giving me medicine to make me function, so I never did it.

“But with all the background checks (MLB) does before anyone is prescribed any medication like that, they called my mom and called my dad and my sister, family members, asked them different questions without them knowing they were talking to anybody else. And that’s how they thin out the crowd that wants to do it for performance-enhancing reasons from the guys who really need it.”

Before Buchholz arrived in the big leagues in 2007, the use of Adderall or other energy/focus boosters was prevalent.

“Greenies and everything,” he said. “There are guys still playing today (that remember when) it was normal … So baseball did what they did (banning amphetamines in 2006) to try to make a right out of what everybody was calling wrong.

“For me, if I don’t take my medicine, my mind wanders and that’s the last place you want to be, out on the mound, if you’re not focused on what you need to do and how you need to do it. I think that it’s key for me. I don’t think in that aspect it’s a performance-enhancing supplement.”

Criticism rained down in buckets on Davis late last week after it was learned he was suspended. In a statement, he apologized for taking Adderall without MLB's consent.

As Buchholz eluded to, Adderall can be a performance-enhancing drug if used without necessity.

But for those who need the drug every day for a prescribed reason, Adderall is generally accepted by the players (and has been used by about 10 percent of them, according to MLB’s annual drug reports).

One in 10 major leaguers being allowed to use a drug that has the nickname "speed" could raise an eyebrow, especially when it's estimated that just five percent of the general adult population has attention deficit disorder.

But it may be unfair to compare the medical care and necessities for professional athletes to those in the general population.

"The fact is, when you have a population, you can't take numbers that are male, female, rich, poor, black, white and apply them to a population that is extremely wealthy, very young and all male, and say 'Gee that's a good comparison,'" said baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, Rob Manfred, in a 2010 article published in the New York Daily News.

The criticism on Davis has been accompanied by his elastic fluctuation in performance. He hit two home runs in 2011, 33 homers in 2012, 53 homers in 2013 and had smacked 26 home runs this year before he was suspended. While his average has dropped from .286 last year to .196 in 2014, Davis will likely be asked if his Adderall use was related to his down season. He claimed to have been approved by MLB for Adderall use in the past but multiple outlets have reported the exemption was at least a few years ago.

It wasn’t as easy as getting a doctor’s note.

MLB is taking Adderall use seriously to ensure only those who need it are privy to its benefits.

“It’s something a lot of guys use for the simple fact that this game is a thinking man’s game and you have to be on your toes, know what’s going on at all times,” Buchholz said. “If there’s something in your mind that doesn’t allow you to do that on an every-day basis, then that’s the sort of help you need to get to think straight instead of having your mind thinking about this pitch, and then, ‘Oh, I hear this guy screaming at me I can’t focus.’

“And that’s where I was at.”