

How should we deal with cognitive-enhancing drugs? - frankus
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2009/marapr/farm/news/greely.html

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jamesbritt
"But I do think one can distinguish between the two in a number of different
ways, the most important being that there’s the potential for real personal
and social benefits from cognitive enhancement that is much, much weaker in
terms of sports enhancement."

Sure, but if the UPS worker can lift and move far more weigh over time, if the
construction worker can work longer hours and lift heavier items, isn't that a
gain for the world?

If the average physical laborer can be more effective, doesn't that boost
productivity?

I can imagine this leading to a "reality is for people who can't handle drugs"
dystopia, but sports-related drugs could also show real personal and social
benefits.

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radu_floricica
Yes! The main reason why sane people want legal cognitive-enhancing drugs is
_more_ regulation, not less. I want to be sure that whatever I take is as safe
as aspirin, in what conditions, what dosages and for what length of time. And
current regulations don't say any of this.

Oh well. I fully expect both this and the other kind of cognitive enhancing to
be available in Japan way before the rest of the world. One more reason to
move there.

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ensignavenger
And you think that if the government slaps a label on something that the
information is correct?

Part of the reason why products aren't always labeled with safety information
is because we don't know. Even with the drugs that are heavily regulated by
the FDA we often discover things about them long after they have been labeled
and consumed by thousands.

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radu_floricica
That's a generic argument not to do anything, ever.

The discussion is (as stated in the article) about weather a drug is safe for
non-medical use. That is, for various degrees of "safe". Safe means one thing
when given to severe cases of cancer patients, and a completely different
thing when sold to children over the counter (like vitamins for example). The
problem is, there is a general bias against computing the last kind of "safe".

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vinutheraj
Waiting for the day when someone will be banned from an examination after drug
testing :)

I am surprised that the issue hasn't been widely commented on here !

I for one, am ok with using these drugs, at the end of the day it just depends
on how much one person is driven to do a thing. IF someone wants to score an A
so bad that he needs to take a drug, then so be it.

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tokenadult
This was an exceptionally thoughtful discussion of the regulatory trade-offs
involved in acknowledging drugs as enhancements to normal cognitive
functioning in healthy people.

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rjurney
By consuming them?

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jballanc
We already do. Forget the synthetic pharmaceuticals, nothing is quite so
effective as a cigarette, a strong cup of coffee, or a chocolate bar. You have
to wonder why it is that most (if not all) ancient civilizations had some sort
of drug tradition, whether it was smoking opium or eating mushrooms. If being
straight-laced was such a good idea, how come the straight-laced societies
didn't overrun all those drug-addled societies?

...of course, that's not to say modern medicine isn't useful. It's the reason
that we know coffee + chocolate == good, cigarettes == bad. Still, there's
something to be learned from history...

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mgcross
I've seen a lot of cognitive enhancement articles lately that only focus on
CNS stimulants and similar drugs like modafinl. I'd love to see more coverage
of non-stim nootropics like alcar, racetams, sulbutiamine, deprenyl, etc. I
like the dopaminergic stims too, but I don't feel like they are a good long
term or healthy solution to cognitive supplementation.

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asciilifeform
<http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/Opinion88.html>

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jrp
"Fast Times at Fairmont High" is an entertaining short read about this issue.

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ilaksh
When is Adderall going OTC?

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berntb
First, no jokes about banning coffee, please! Studies have shown it to be good
for general health (diabetes prevention, etc, etc) in addition to its mental
influences.

I would love to try e.g. Ritalin, but couldn't handle breaking (non-traffic)
laws.

Also, I can't even handle computer games and never install them. If Ritalin
worked for me and I could sit and hack code/read manuals with higher
efficiency, I'd never stop using it, whatever the side effects. ("Just this
project; I also just want to learn X,Y,Z...")

I assume other people here would get the same effect.

~~~
ensignavenger
There may be studies showing positive benefits to coffee, but there are also
studies showing negative side effects. I'll stick with my chocolate bar, thank
you :)

