Academics Laud Drug Use

Campus Report ^ | December 15, 2008 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

Academics Laud Drug Use

by: Bethany Stotts, December 15, 2008

Six academics and Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of Nature Magazine, recently argued that society should move “towards the responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy,” particularly drugs typically used in the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

“In this article, we propose actions that will help society accept the benefits of enhancement, given appropriate research and evolved regulation,” write the authors, who hail from prestigious universities such as

• Stanford Law School,
• Harvard Medical School,
• the University of Cambridge,
• the University of Manchester,
• the University of California at Santa Barbara, and
• the University of Pennsylvania.

They argue that “Today, on university campuses around the world, students are striking deals to buy and sell prescription drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin—not to get high, but to get higher grades, to provide an edge over their fellow students or to increase in some measurable way their capacity for learning.”

Adderall, an amphetamine, and Ritalin are drugs whose psychological effects have been compared to cocaine. According to the 2000 Congressional testimony by Terrance Woodworth, then- Deputy Director of the Office of Diversion Control (ODC) at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), “Extensive scientific literature over 30 years of research unequivocally indicates that both methylphenidate [Ritalin] and amphetamine have high abuse liabilities” and “they will substitute for each other and for cocaine in a number of paradigms in both animal and human subjects.”

In addition, he states, “In clinical studies, they produce behavioral psychological, subjective, and reinforcing effects similar to cocaine.”

Adderall and Ritalin are classified by the DEA as producing “possible” physical dependency and pose a “high” risk for psychological dependency; they may also produce a “tolerance” effect.....

[Reagan Man]

Humans have been using drugs to get high *** error *** to give them an edge over others since the earliest of times. Before they grew up, many folks have experimented with both illegal and legal drugs. Leftist academia have never opposed drug use in any form. With liberals making it a lifelong experiment.

So what else is new?

[vpintheak]

These people are truly insane. Holy crap!

[domenad]

I laud drug use for them as well. Maybe they would say something interesting while smashed.

[Oldpuppymax]

People are already engaging in drug use. How do you think Hussein got elected?

[darth]

Using amphetamines to get better grades is UNWISE. However, there are a number of safe “smart pills” available. See Dr. Ward Deans’s book, “Mind Food and Smart Pills”. Hydergine, for example, has been shown in large double-blind studies to raise measured IQ over a period of months to years. However, hydergine has a side effect; it makes lab rats outlive the control group by 16%.