By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Published: 7:01AM BST 01 Oct 2009
The use of drugs such as modafinil and Ritalin is no worse than sending
children to a private tutor, said Vince Cakic, from the department of
psychology at
The comments are made in an
article in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Some academics have claimed that smart drugs, or
“nootropics”, which are often widely available over the internet, should be
banned over long-term safety fears.
Mr Cakic said universities in the
future may attempt to impose random urine tests to root out drug cheats.
But he insisted that doping had
already failed to properly clean up sport and insisted a more liberal approach
needed to be adopted in academia.
“Prohibiting nootropics would not even the playing field,
because there never was an even playing field to begin with,” he said. “To be
sure, nootropics would probably make an already uneven playing field more
unfair, and one that is likely only to favour the wealthy who can afford to
purchase them.
“Not only do the rich get richer, but in the future it
seems that they might also get smarter. However, using unequal distribution to
justify the prohibition of nootropics is akin to prohibiting private tuition,
which also increases academic performance while exacerbating educational
inequalities between social classes.”
He added: “If socioeconomic
inequalities in education are readily tolerated by society, then it would be
hypocritical to apply this criterion selectively to nootropics and not to other
performance enhancing strategies.”
Stimulants are increasingly used
by students in an attempt to improve their exam results.
Many of the drugs can be bought
over the internet, allowing students to exploit them for their apparent ability
to boost concentration.
But they can cause significant
side effects.
Potential side effects of Ritalin
include mood swings, increased heart rate, headaches, dizziness and insomnia.
Patients can also become hooked
on the effects of smart drugs and find it difficult to wean themselves
off them.
Earlier this year scientists at