It is quite evident that if it were left uncheck then pharmaceutical businesses would charge premiums for these drugs. This would allow for rich people to make themselves and their children (NOT in a genetically way) smarter which would lead to the increasing of the poverty divide.
However there are some benefits to be had socially for people if these ‘smart’ drugs were to be widely available. An increase in general intelligence would probably lead to an increase in the amount of problems worldwide that could be solved. However the distribution of the drugs would have to be widely available if it was the aim to overcome the social gap that would widen between the rich and the poor. More of this will be analysed in my subsidiary point.
I am now going to look at some of the new up and coming drugs and look at each one and there effects.
Hydrogine (chemical name: Dihydroergotoxine mesylate)
This is a drug that has been known about for years. It has often been used to treat dementia however a closer look at it has meant that we have discovered that it has other useful properties. The most obvious one is that it increases blood flow to the and in the brain. This increase in blood flow then leads to an increase in the of the subject as the brain can function at a higher metabolite rate. This increase could be very useful in a number of places for example it would have usage for exam students as it would help them to keep 100% attention on the papers that hey are sitting. The increased blood flow also means that learning is facilitated easier and thus is beneficial to those who need to recall things.
Modafinil (chemical name: 2-benzhydrylsulfinylethanamide)
This drug newly discovered has been put under extensive testing to due its properties when it comes to stimulation of the brain in general. It has been shown to be severely useful in suppressing the effects of sleep deprivation. So far tests that have been done mainly by airlines and military companies who have strict standards on sleeping and often require workers to be active for a long amount of time as possible. Take for instance this study that was done on helicopter pilots. The Psychoph armacology Journal did a study with two groups of helicopter pilots who had been sleep deprived, one set of them had been given modafinil whilst the other set had been given a placebo. When the simulator through them an emergency situation those who had been given the modafinil responded miles better than those who were given the placebo. Modafinil has also been shown to increase concentration and facilitate learning. Finally it also blocks the receptors that depress your brain and tends to make people feel happier. As you can see it is a true smart drug, it is suspected that many people in the USA already take modafinil to get ahead.
This chemical raises a lot of questions, as it is safe when taken in the right amounts. It has already been found on the internet for prices of $200+ due to its obvious cognitive benefits. This proves that if this sort of market were to be left uncontrolled it would be likely to spiral out of control in a way that has occurred with the supplements for sports area.
I felt that these two drugs should get a special mention as they are currently the two most looked at drugs when it comes to looking at the growth of smart drugs. There are many others that are being looked at. Most of these drugs happen to be drugs that are used to help alleviate symptoms of diseases like Alzheimer’s Diseases or Attention Deficient Hyperactive Disorder.
Piracitem
This is a drug that has the ability to increase the cognitive ability of the brain by enhancing the metabolic rate of the brain cells. It does not have any harmful side effects as many tests have been taken with it, and high dosage groups did not appear to have any difference to those who were given a placebo to test instead.
Future Implications
These drugs could have a lot of effects in the future. Should they be made completely legal and available to all, it would mean that it would be the norm for people to be using them for exams and other tests.
However were they to be banned it is likely that they would become yet another type of substance that would be sold illegally as people in this world will often stop at nothing to get their hands on anything that can help them along without much effort.
However the benefit to society could still be great. Take for example what could happen if human beings could live without sleep. That would mean that 1/3 of your whole life would now be accessible… 8 hours a day. You could use this time for anything else.
However as to what the government will do with them nobody can tell until that time comes.
Sources:
Source A: http://nootropics.com/smartdrugs/
Whilst this source came from someone else doing research on the subject much the way that I have been more a of a discuss doing I felt it was well written out with a lot of factual detail given to each substance and the sorts of gains that were available from them. Many of the claims were often backed up with links to other pages. However it is still blindingly obvious that the view was biased towards the drugs rather than against, this is due to the arguments that are put forward for these drugs only being pro. Another problem is that because it is the work of one person it is likely to not be highly checked and the sources may have been hand picked to present his view on the drugs; which is obviously that he feels that they have a place in society, despite all their faults
Source B: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/smartd.html
This source I felt was rather weak in a number of different ways. Firstly it was obviously biased right from the start stating things like how the source tries to say that there has been little research done on it. Another obvious problem with this source is its target audience. The website is obviously targeted at people who are not as scientifically versed in these sorts of issues as I would have liked. Also the fact that it is a government site means that it is often subject to propaganda that suits the governments general agenda. Finally the person who wrote the article did only a Bachelors Degree in biology. Not even medicine so I do not feel that it is a very reputable source.
Source C:
Appears to discussion site than one that is full of facts. The allowance for comments from the others however is useful as it gives insights to other peoples views on the issue. However the site does have a few faults that continue to crop up. The first of which is the lack of quoting of sources, and since it is not a pharmaceutical company itself it cannot be viewed as a completely correct source. It appears to have also taken a relatively neutral side to the issue which is one of the sources good points as supposed to what source B was like when it came to the analysis of these drugs.
Subsidiary issue: The prescription process
The process of obtaining certain prescribe things in the UK has worked quite well, however it still has its own problems. One of the main ones of these is the so called post code lottery that appears to occur when it comes to the giving out of these drugs.
What is the post code lottery you may ask. Well it is viewed as the problem that occurs because some hospitals have more money than others and so are able to afford more expensive drugs than others. This means that if you were needing some sort of medicine that was hard to come by, that depending on the area of the UK in which you lived in you could either have it available or it could also not be available for free, because of the hospitals budget not being able to cover it on top of the rest of the treatments that they offer in the area.
Many people that this post code lottery that is caused by the NHS, to be viewed as unfair as it means that only a certain amount of people have access to the full medication that they require. If this were to be the case with the smart drugs it is likely that only certain amounts of hospitals would have access to them.
The NHS has been suffering deficits in its budget for years. When it was first set up the idea was that it would always break even in terms of overheads, however time and time again this has been proved false. For the last decade the NHS has returned a deficit in its budget for which the tax payers have had to foot the bill. This year there is a predicted deficit of 10 billion pounds. Right now the NHS is currently charging £6.86 in prescription charges but this is likely to go up as the deficit increases.
As you can see with this sort of deficit coming up it is obvious that the NHS will not willing fund any sort of venture into recreational drugs that do not help with some sort of medical condition. Also seeing as the producers of pharmaceutical products will be the ones who will be setting the price for these new trends of super drugs it is likely that the NHS will not be able to afford them at all.
The post code lottery also affects other aspects of the medical service. Firstly it means that certain hospitals have access to more facilities and different special wards that can treat different illnesses in better and more professional ways.
