Your Thoughts on Drug Abuse in Academia?

Question by farful: Your thoughts on drug abuse in academia?
There were many articles posted a week ago about the poll Nature conducted on scientists. The poll showed that many scientists use drugs (mainly methylphenidate and modafinil)to enhance their ability to concentrate. Here is one such article:
http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20080409/poll-scientists-use-brain-boosting-drugs

Even the prolific mathematician, Paul Erdos, took copious amounts of amphetamines, and said that the world lost a lot of good math the one month he went without it (due to a bet with a friend). I often wonder how much more productive he would have been had he been using amphetamines before the age of 60.
http://amphetamines.com/paul-erdos.html

These are all adults of course who use these drugs, and understand both the benefits and consequences of using them. More concentration from scientists generally result in the betterment of society, and it’s not like the world of sports where you compete against each other (hence why drug abused is banned for sports).
You could probably also draw comparisons between these the use of these drugs and caffeine as well.

Also, I would like some insightful thoughts as opposed to “Drugs are bad!” from straight edges or “Drugs are good!” from hippies.

Best answer:

Answer by eri
If you consider caffeine a drug, 99.9% of scientists are on drugs. But I haven’t personally met any scientists using harder drugs (although, come to think of it, it would explain one guy I know ….). Anyway, here’s a blog article on why scientists SHOULD use drugs. http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2008/04/why_scientists_should_do_drugs.php Interesting stuff.

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