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Psychopharm Going 'Mainstream' In Schools?
PizzaFace writes "Back in the day, college was a place where a lot of kids tried recreational drugs. Now the world's more competitive, psychopharmaceuticals are better targeted, and millions of students are routinely using drugs to work better and longer. Stimulants developed for attention deficit and narcolepsy are giving mentally healthy students an edge like athletes get from steroids or human growth hormone. These psychotropics seem fairly safe, but should they be banned in the interest of fairness, perhaps with enforcement by urine tests before exams? Or do we tell our kids that, if they want to compete in this brave new world, they better find some Adderall and jack their brains up like their classmates'." If college students are doing it, how many programmers are? What say you?
The problem with the "Just Say NO" campaign is that it doesn't take into account addiction. Addicts aren't able to "just say no"; they need treatment. The "Just Say NO" campaign only existed as an excuse to decrease the amount of government spending on mental health. On that it worked, but at the price of increased drug use across the country (which explains the early 90s crack epidemic).