Cognitive Enhancing Drugs

Cognitive or brain boosting drugs are being common sight on college campuses, often students will take Ritalin (methylphenidate) to improve their study skills and keep tasks on focus.  It is not uncommon for students with ADHD to sell Ritalin to other students for a hefty amount of money, racking in the dough and helping their fellow peers get better grades.  Many are arguing, simply ‘Why Not?’ when it comes to taking cognitive enhancing drugs, if they have minimal side effects and boost our power in the brain than there aren’t many arguments against it.  A study estimated that nearly 7% of all college students, and 20% of all scientists have used Ritalin or Adderall to improve their mental performance.

Amphetamine-related stimulant drugs — including methylphenidate (Ritalin), amphetamine (Adderall, Dexedrine), & methamphetamine (Desoxyn) — are commonly prescribed for children from as young as age 3.  These Amphetamine-related stimulant drugs are closely associated to the street drug named Meth, which is a Meth-amphetamine, a type of amphetamine.  We have all heard of the problems of the over prescription of Adderall and Ritalin to kids throughout the years, and it seems to just be getting worse.  Kids as young as three are being prescribed this medicine, when in reality the parents should just stop feeding them sugar.

Personally I have used Adderall as a study boost before, yet I regret this action.  It was finals week and I was incredibly stressed, I had procrastinated my studying and really need to buckle down.  I bought a couple pills of Adderal from a kid down the hall for a measly $5 dollars, I took one at around 2PM and proceeded to study for the rest of the die.  However I could not get to sleep that night, only getting a few hours of shut eye I defiantly regret the decision.  In hindsight I most likely will not be taking these cognitive enhancing drugs again, they have undocumented adverse side effects and are just plain cheating.

Many argue that these are only the first wave of cognitive enhancing drugs, that if we did some studies on why and when people use these drugs we would be able to engineer them to the next level.  Already scientists have developed a drug that boosts memory as well as allows for a couple sleepless days without feeling tired at all.  This is defiantly not a natural way to live, someone needs to stop this wave of cheating.

Athletes are prosecuted for their use in steroids, why not academic users the same for their use in cognitive enhancing drugs.  Well technically it is illegal to take a non-prescribed medicine, but the use of these drugs is so widespread there isn’t really much crackdown.  And how would they do it anyways?  There is not trace in your system that I know of and the side effects aren’t watermelon size muscles.

The widespread use of these cognitive enhancing drugs in college campuses is a growing trend that will likely never stop, if scientists continue to introduce brain boosting pills than students and professors will continue to take them to help with their mental performance.