Why the revolutionary brain booster smart drugs should not be allowed in Nigeria -By Nwosu Chidiebele

If you are lucky to have schooled or schooling in the UK or the United States, there is evidence you have heard or used the brain booster smart drugs. These are smart drugs that boost mental performance, cognitive reasoning and focus. One example of this drug is Adderall. Another example is Accelleral. Modafinil is another. One thing has been known about drugs is people take it to get high but now, they take them to get higher grades in school. Now, don’t you think the use of this drug should be banned as a cheat?

Let’s pain the typical scenario in our Universities. Imagine a few months until the final exams, and there is a whiff of panic in the air. ‘’Everybody is feeling it’’. Feeling what? You might ask. ‘’Of course the pressure’’. There is just so much pressure. ‘’About what? Your exams or what to do next?

Some of this smart drug can stimulate the central nervous system and prevent excessive sleepiness during daytime hours’’. A lot of students are on it and some have taken it on at least a couple of times. It’s not that it makes you more intelligent or brilliant rather it helps you work. With it, you can study for a longer period. You don’t get distracted at all. You will be so happy to go to the library and don’t even want to stop for lunch. And you study till 8 p.m and you are still eager to continue for another hour.

To be honest, isn’t it cheating? Just like doping is prohibited in cycling. Is it not an unfair advantage? Is it not an upsurge on a level playing field? And when you ask their opinion, they will retort ‘’Here, everyone is using it. However, one has to be careful because it gives one this amazing concentration. You will have to drive focus by making sure you are actually in front of your books. If you are not careful, you can spend five hours in your room rearranging your software boxes.

Anyway, student life has changed. But not so much change from what it was like a generation ago. It’s just a mild change. Now, students are more conscious of CVs and jobs than before. They are more career conscious than they were five and ten years ago. I think they are more conscious of getting value out of their degree because there is more competition.

Now think about this scenario. Think about it for a moment and in this situation, you are offered a small white pill with a promise of enhanced productivity, greater focus, more time in the library and finally, the potential of a better degree. Well, it is easier to see the attraction. A student who used it describes his experience by stating that it makes him feel weird. He remembers sitting in an examination hall and thinking, ‘This is awful,’ Oh my God, I feel I am going to faint, but at the same time, I was remembering stuff. I could remember whole paragraphs, word for word. It was amazing’’. He concluded. It boosts your memory.

People are buying these drugs online at a click of a button. Everyone brain chemistry is not the same. Everyone will react differently on taking these drugs and there is no medical check as well. We are witnessing the rise and the development of this drug as a study aid to gain a competitive edge. Its use is rising especially in cities of Lagos and Abuja. Students call it to study aid but will it not be fair to refer it as also as cheat aid.

Another dimension is that over time it’s using might be viewed as normal just as cosmetic surgery has been. Intuition says the use of drugs is not the cause of this sense of competition but a phenomenon of it. It will be viewed as a normal practice and might be aided by culture. This is actually what can give me pause. It’s this relentless pursuit of higher productivity and materialism that seems to be the root of this. We all have a role to play to reduce or eliminate this instinctive impulse.

Visit www.dobusinessresearch.com for more articles. Nwosu is a business manager and CEO, Cpraxis Integrated Services.