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Imagine if there really was a pill that would make you better at math. Would you take it? Or a pill that would make you better able to argue with your boss. Would you swallow that one? Modafinil, a narcolepsy drug, may hold the answer to making you smarter. According to a government think-tank, Foresight, within 20 years these are exactly the decisions you are going to have to make... To order cheap Modafinil online click here , because drugs which will enhance our cognitive abilities - aka "smart" drugs - are coming. What's more, we seem to be living in a world that wants them. "A quick look down the drinks aisle of a supermarket shows how embedded in our culture and expectations [stimulants] have become," reads the Drugs Futures 2025 report, which Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser, presented to Downing Street. "In a world that is increasingly non-stop and competitive, the individual's use of such substances may move from the fringe to the norm, with cognition enhancers used as coffee is today." So what are these drugs which - we hope - are going to turn us into Einsteins? They call them nootropics, from the Greek word noos for mind, and tropein for towards. They aren't new. Since the Qin dynasty the Chinese have used ginko biloba and ginseng to hone their minds - though some say it doesn't work. Amphetamines, first made by a German chemist in 1887, were handed out in over-the-counter inhalers to Allied and German troops in the Second World War to keep them alert. These had terrible side-effects such as jitteriness, poor concentration and paranoia. And now, some people have begun using prescription drugs, designed to treat other conditions, simply to try and improve their minds. One such drug is Ritalin, licensed to treat children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The drug works by stimulating the neurotransmitters in the brain, helping the patient focus their attention, rather than being attracted - and thus distracted - by everything. Testimony from people who do not have ADHD and who have tried Ritalin supports the claim it sharpens mental prowess and increases working memory. In a study done in America last year, it found that 20 per cent of healthy American college students were using Ritalin before their exams, and high-flying businessmen were using it to help them perform in the boardroom. Such medication even inspired a storyline in the Channel 4 television drama Desperate Housewives, when an exhausted Lynette Scavo downed her sons' ADHD drugs simply to cope with juggling the demands of being a high-performing executive's wife and a mother of four young children. Another prescription drug which is being used for an unintended purpose is Modafinil, a stimulant which is licensed to treat the sleep disorder narcolepsy. In healthy people, it enables them to stay awake for up to 36 hours without any apparent negative side-effects. Decisions made under its influence also tend to be less rash, though they take longer. It's been used by the US military to keep soldiers awake and improve their memory and judgment. In flight simulation trials, it was found to boost the performance of sleep-deprived pilots. How does Modafinil work? Well, that's just the thing that might bother some people: no-one really knows. There are theories as to which chemicals in the brain it is suppressing, and which it is stimulating, but the brain is still too much of an uncharted landscape to know precisely what is going on. And because scientists can't be sure of the active mechanism, they can't be sure of the long-term dangers or its addictive potential, although it is thought people are unlikely to become addicted because it doesn't cause any euphoric or pleasurable effects, as most recreational drugs do. Buy cheap Modafinil online. But do we need these drugs simply to enhance performance rather than cure ailments? Aren't we clever enough? "Some of us are, and some of us aren't," says Professor David Nutt from the University of Bristol, one of the three lead scientists who worked on the Foresight report. "The obvious immediate target is people whose cognitive functions are deteriorating with age and illness, or those with genetic conditions like Down's Syndrome." The report also suggested that long-term alcohol and drug abusers could benefit from this kind of innovation. If addiction is an illness to which some people are genetically disposed, cognitive enhancers such as these might be able to target the impairments in the brain that cause addictive behaviours, and perhaps stop them. Buy cheap Modafinil online. But should otherwise healthy people really have access to it? This opens the floodgates to an enormous ethical debate. Some people are better athletes than others and so, to keep the playing-field level, we ban the use of performance- enhancing drugs in sport. Should we do the same for mind-boosting drugs? If these mind pills weren't available on the NHS, but only for the pockets of the rich, wouldn't the rich get smarter and the poor fall even further behind? Perhaps you could argue that the reason we ban drugs in sport is because we want to see how people perform on an even field - but that's not what life is like. The fundamental philosophy of a capitalist system is that we are constantly competing with one another in a free market. But even before the ethical debate gets fired up, there is still serious scientific legwork to be done. Nutt believes one potential downside of these drugs is that they may increase one aspect of our cognitive functions at the expense of another. Buy cheap Modafinil online. So they might make us able to make decisions fas-ter, but they would be more rash decisions, he suggests. Or they might push you into a stereotyped form of responding, so you act as you did previously, without being able to adapt to different kinds of situations. And many would say, following Charles Darwin, that adaptability is the key to our survival. Those unable to adapt will perish. So is this a Pandora's box we shouldn't be opening? Would it be right to pursue the development of smart drugs and tolerate their widespread use by healthy people who have no ailments, but who are chasing the dream of being smarter, sharper, gaining an edge over the guy at the next desk? "Well, how could we stop it?" says Nutt. "One issue that came up clearly is how the internet gives the whole world access to anything they want. So if people in China invent drugs to improve memory, it's very easy for people in any country to get hold of it. "We are already seeing significant internet sales in Modafinil and Ritalin. We cannot ban these drugs; what we need to decide now is whether we should have research into how useful they really are. "We know students have been using them to stay awake longer, but we don't know whether any of the students who take them actually perform better in their exams." At Glasgow University this week the second-year medical students are studying for their toughest exam. Michael Callaghan, 27, admits his drug of choice is caffeine. "I've tried ginseng and gingko biloba, but it doesn't work. I use caffeine. If the evidence was there that smart drugs worked and that it was safe and legal, I'd try it. But I wouldn't try Ritalin personally." Laura Oswald, 20, is just as wary. "We don't know how these drugs work. It's not right. If people have passed before without it, why should they take it? The end of the day you have to learn the stuff. And what happens when you come off it?" Her friend, Paula Falconer, 23, is also cautious. "I don't think it is morally wrong, but I don't see how it does any good. I think research money should be spent on keeping people alive rather than trying to fiddle with nature. It's just pharmaceutical companies trying to make more money." For Judith McCluskey, 21, a third-year psychology student, the secret to success is simple: "I know that if I have to get down to study, I just do it. The rest of that stuff's just all in your head." To order cheap Modafinil online click here *** |
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