Why Banning Smart Drugs for College Students Is Impossible, Evil

Source: reason.com --- Tuesday, November 03, 2015
Should college students be allowed to take Adderall and Modafinil to improve their academic performance, or should universities treat these so-called “smart drugs” the same way Major League Baseball treats steroids? I attended a debate on the subject at George Washington University last night, and came away convinced that banning smart drugs is not only impractical—it’s profoundly evil. The debate was hosted by Intelligence Squared ; Nicole Vincent and Eric Racine argued against the use of smart drugs, Dr. Anjan Chatterjee and Nita Farahany argued for them. The moderator polled the audience before the debate: more people opposed smart drugs than supported them, though quite a few people were undecided. This meant that I was in the minority—I believed (albeit weakly) that smart drugs ought to be permitted on sheer practicality grounds. Prohibition almost always drives illicit substances underground, making consumption more dangerous but no less prevalent. While I was indifferent on the question of whether the use of smart drugs is moral, I presumed banning them would be unwise (not to mention unlibertarian). But the case for legal smart drugs is much stronger. As Farahany—a Duke University professor and director of Duke Science and Society—put it, the opportunity to improve one’s cognitive functioning is “inherently valuable”: What if taking a smart drug gives us the capacity to study harder, longer, and better such that we cure c ...

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