Adderall, Modafinil, Ritalin each of these names are extremely familiar in our modern society. These names have come to be classified under one category of medicine, cognitive enhancers, or better known as smart drugs. At first, smart drugs were used by people with mental disorders such as narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea, ADHD, as well serval others. These drugs are being abused by people without disorders to get a boost of focus or energy to complete papers, study, finish homework last minute, and complete late night projects at work. The drugs have been known to be highly addictive, contain short term effects such as serotonin syndrome, and the long-term effects are unknown to the doctors and the users. The use of smart drugs is effecting a multitude of environments negatively and changing them at alarming rates. Users are causing a domino effect by introducing non-users to the drug, therefore creating unfair playing fields within academics and the work environment.

The name “smart drug” is a misleading label for most cognitive enhancers. Drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin don’t make you smarter in any way, in contrast they only boost your focus and energy for a limited time. They don’t improve a person’s memory or cognitive development over time or with multiple doses. For example, Adderall is a popular used drug by many within the smart drug user’s community. Most users know that the drug is originally meant for people with ADHD or narcolepsy and that its main purpose is to boost a person’s focus. “Taking Adderall may help increase the ability to focus, pay attention and control behavior” (Elaine J. Hom). The drugs being labeled as a drug that makes you smarter is improper and inaccurate. Smart drugs have limited benefits and the side effects vary from person to person. Researchers have also begun to question the true effects of most smart drugs because of the placebo effect caused by current users.

 Within the recent rise of smart drugs there is one drug that has been labeled a true smart drug. This drug is called modafinil and once again its original purpose was to treat people with narcolepsy, but it has since been frequently used by normal functioning people because of its effects on cognitive development and enhancement. The article Narcolepsy medication modafinil is world's first safe 'smart drug' states that “Modafinil is the world’s first safe “smart drug”, researchers at Harvard and Oxford universities have said, after performing a comprehensive review of the drug” (Helen Thomson). This drug is one of the most recent drugs to come onto the market today. It not only boosts your focus but according to the research conducted by oxford and Harvard, “Modafinil made no difference to working memory, or flexibility of thought, but did improve decision-making and planning” (Dr. Anna-Katharine Brem). The various tests that were conducted with this drug have yielded the same results and the drug is still being evaluated by many researchers. The reason for the drugs popularity with researchers is because many of the long-term side effects are unknown to doctors and to people that take the drug. Researchers are also curious to see if the drug causes the same cognitive effects on healthy people like it does for the mentally ill people.

One of the more diverse and well known sides of cognitive enhancers are the nootropics. Nootropics are the safer and natural way of gaining cognitive enhancement while promoting brain growth and maintaining brain health. Nootropics are opposites to smart drugs and that is clearly defined seeing as a, “nootropic should not be psychoactive or mood-altering and should not make you feel wired, sedated, or high” (Corneliu Giurgea). Most nootropics are meant to be taken every day and they all have separate benefits for brain maintenance. Nootropics aren’t meant to give you a boost of focus for a limited time, alternatively they maintain and promote your brains functionality over time. Unlike smart drugs most nootropics have proven side effects along with concrete benefits in most individuals.

The popularity of cognitive enhancers is undoubtedly growing within the academic environment. This is clearly seen in normal school settings where students take smart drugs to catch up on work, to stand out from others, and to take on heavier class loads. Smart drugs have gotten so popular that they have been sought after by high school students. The article “Illegal ‘Smart Drugs’ Bought Online by Teenagers Before Exams Could Have Catastrophic Effects” talks about a 17-year-old boy that has been taking modafinil for about a year and it provides insight on his experiences with the drug. At first the boy took about 100 mg of the drug daily but he seems to get a little out of hand when he triples the dose for exams, “Around half-term, I stepped it up to 150mg to 200mg a day and in the last two or three weeks up to the exams I took 200mg to 300mg a day” (Steve Boggan). He also did all of this without parental consent. Per www.drugs.com the average dose of modafinil is 200 mg. That dose is only given to patients that have the disorder narcolepsy or sleep apnea. The website also contains warnings of taking the drug to much, as well as other effects that might occur after taking the drug.

A recent survey conducted by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital shows that only one percent of parents know that their children take smart drugs for academic reasons. The survey also evaluates high school students such as sophomores and seniors. They found that ten percent of sophomores take drugs for school and about twelve percent of seniors also do the same. In almost all cases the parents do not know that their child is self medicating just to get an edge on school. This is scary to most parents who only want the best for their children while also keeping them safe. In most cases parents, would not approve of this behavior on the simple fact that the doctors don’t know the long-term effects of the drugs their children are taking. In addition to that their child is taking part in possible illegal trading of the drugs whether that be buying it online illegally or receiving the drug from a friend or unknown vender. These drugs could possibly include other stimulants that can detriment the mind in the short or long term.

In most cases these high school students that seek to excel in an academic environment graduate and move on to college. Unfortunately, they don’t drop their self-medication of smart drugs. Possibly the largest contributor to smart drugs becoming popular is the effect it has on multiple college environments. If anyone were to describe college in one word they would say hard. Without a doubt college, can be hard to anyone who is not disciplined enough to put in the work nor are they ready to embrace the heavy workloads it comes with. One of the biggest reasons to use smart drugs is the heavy workloads placed on students. Along with the high expectations students must reach with every assignment, this can be extremely stressful on an individual. With that, everyone handles the stress in a different way such as going out with friends, binge watching Netflix, or something as simple as sleeping. Handling stress in any of these ways is fine but it gets out of hand when it affects your study schedule.

This is when smart drugs begin to affect a college students’ life. Not every student results to these drugs but most students know that it is an option for a temporary fix because of procrastination. When a student is threatened by a last-minute assignment, that’s when they are most vulnerable to using smart drugs. In most cases, they are given the drug by a friend, roommate, or classmate. Although not all students result to taking the drugs the number is slowly rising as more students are introduced to the smart drugs. Within the academic environment, standards for students can be raised even higher because the students are taking drugs to handle heavy workloads lastminute. In contrast if the standards aren’t raised and drug use grows, the normal hardworking student beings to receive mediocre grades compared to the cognitive enhanced student who uses modafinil to enhance their critical thinking to receive the better grades.

A published journal written by Schemer M compares the use of smart drugs in academics to the use of physical enhancements in sports. Throughout his journal, he rationalizes how using the drugs is inherently cheating because it gives an unfair advantage to students that constantly use the drug to get ahead. Just like taking any physical enhancements for sports is highly frowned upon and violates rules places by the sports associations. When you compare the sports environment to the academic one they have some key differences that are somewhat over looked. There are rules against the use of physical enhancement as well as consequences for using such drugs for a sport. In the academic environment, there are no rules against using the drugs nor are there consequences. Schools do not drug test their students so there is no way to punish them for using the drugs. Schools do attempt to prevent using drugs by offering various programs and online classes, but those can be easily ignored and over looked when a student is trying to catch up to others or overcome them. Cheating is not accepted within school systems and that is a fact weather that be by using the internet on exams, asking fellow students for answers, and even taking smart drugs to get extreme focus for the exam. Unfortunately, the academic system does not test whether a student is enhanced or not. There are simply no systems in place for the situation, so in turn the students take advantage of the system and enhance themselves to gain positive academic results.

One of the equally large environments that smart drugs have effected is the work force. Most people that have jobs know that they are extremely stressful at times because of all the deadlines and responsibilities. With that, the work force comes with many benefits for dedicated and hardworking employees. In many jobs an employee is left to carry out their daily assigned responsibility and in many cases employees are meant to focus and meet deadlines. This can be hard for some people because of environmental distraction, work ethic, or attention span. With the threat of being fired or moved to a worse position always present, employees try their best to obtain a better situation for themselves. The normal working class adult is over 18 and therefore they can make their own decisions. The workforce environment is nearly the same as the college one but without the competition of academic standing as well as the constant evaluation of what you are learning.

In many situations workers, have been known to take smart drugs to get a boost of energy to complete a late-night project that is coming toward its dead line. With their boss breathing down their neck employees contemplate using the drugs to meet the set quota and be in good standing with their boss. One area of the work force that is concerning is the medical field. A recent poll taken by Imperial College London and University of Cambridge says that, “surgeons given so called ‘smart drugs’ perform better, safer operations” (NewsCore). The article continues to explain how the drug modafinil is helping sleep deprived surgeons perform better and longer on patients. Using the drugs in this way can be beneficial, but previous research from Harvard and Oxford showed that the drugs don’t have the same effect on every individual that uses them. The doctors can gain focus, energy, and better decision making from the drugs, but like every energy boosting substance once the effects are gone people crash harder and longer. There is also a large chance that individuals become addicted to the drugs. Therefore, dependency and tolerance can grow over time.

Though doctors don’t know all the long-term effects of the smart drugs, they are starting to take them in other countries. Other countries are having a similar outbreak in their societal environments. College students take the drugs daily as well as a large number of their work force population. The debate about smart drugs being ok to use is a reoccurring debate all over the world. It has captured the attention of the media, professors, and university leaders. Some of the more recent debates about smart drugs have been ending at about a 50/50 vote. Evidence from those debates has shown that a decent amount of the audience chooses neutral because they believe that the smart drugs do not have a large impact on their life. That can be said until the drug beings to change their society and what standards are in place is around them.

During a debate video about the use of cognitive enhancers the for the use of smart drugs side made claims about letting college students be empowered and that the students should have the right to reach their highest potential. “first colleges should empower students to make their own choices about on how they change their brains and second the gradual improvement of our brains is a social good we should peruse in society. “(Nita Farahany). She continues to speak for about six minutes before the opposing side states their claims. Throughout the debate, she explains how society can benefit from using smart drugs and how we are all adults that should be allowed to make our own decisions. This would be a fine claim if every person was on the same maturity level and we all had discipline with a good sense of responsibility. Sadly, we are all unique and that is where possible addiction and abuse take place with the use of smart drugs. In agreeance with society benefiting, there are still many unknown long term effect with the drugs. Society and the individual might benefit now, but in the long-term there are possibilities that the metal state of people can possibly suffer sooner rather than later. People can potentially receive detrimental effects that they would have never received if they had not taken the drugs in their youth. After all the human brain, does not stop developing until the age of 25. Add some drugs that force chemicals into overdrive repeatedly and that can cause many problems for a person in the long run.

Cognitive enhancers should only be used to treat patients and not abused by young or mature adults. These drugs can potentially help society is many ways but everyone that decides to take them should beware that there are potential long-term risks. Young adults should be the most cautious when taking these drugs because they can affect development of the brain for the future. Buying these drugs can be illegal and anyone who chooses to make that decision should be prepared to accept the consequences. Although environments are changing society has not decided to use certain smart drugs openly or not. The use of smart drugs will change how many environments operate and it can help people now or hurt them later. “If there was a drug that made you smarter, helped you learn, and made you more focused, would you take it?” (Nicole Vincent).
