A new
report by the Washington Post suggests that many students in American colleges are using smart drugs such as
Provigil to boost their grades:
There are lots of the first-generation drugs around. Total sales
have increased by more than 300 percent in only four years, topping
$3.6 billion last year, according to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical
information company. They include Adderall, which was originally aimed
at people with attention-deficit disorder, and Provigil, which was
aimed at narcoleptics, who fall asleep uncontrollably. In the healthy,
this class of drugs variously aids concentration, alertness, focus,
short-term memory and wakefulness -- useful qualities in students
working on complex term papers and pulling all-nighters before exams.
Adderall sales are up 3,135.6 percent over the same period. Provigil is
up 359.7 percent.
In May, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America
issued its annual attitude-tracking study on drug use. It is a survey
of more than 7,300 seventh- through 12th-graders, designed to be
representative of the larger U.S. population and with an accuracy of
plus or minus 1.5 percent, according to Thomas A. Hedrick Jr., a
founding director of the organization. It reported that among kids of
middle school and high school age, 2.25 million are using stimulants
such as Ritalin without a prescription.
That's about one in 10 of
the 22 million students in those grades, as calculated by the U.S.
Department of Education. Half the time, the study reported, the
students were using these drugs not so much to get high as "to help me
with my problems" or "to help me with specific tasks." That motivation
was growing rapidly, Hedrick says.
The report notes that several companies are working on next-generation smart drugs, ostensibly with the goal of helping people with diseases such as Alzheimer's, but with off-label uses no doubt also in mind.
With all these college-age kids gaining experience and comfort using such drugs for enhancement, it's highly unlikely that they'll stop once they're out of college. Rather, I think think that it's far more likely they'll continue enhancing their performance as additional means become available.