To drug or not to drug

This is an interesting article about performance-enhancing drugs. Not performance as in running round the track, but playing the piano, learning languages, being more creative. I think this is going to a major social issue over the next 25 years that may gradually change society’s whole attitude to drugs, including those taken for, ahem, recreational purposes.

In some ways this is nothing new. There have always been performance enhancing drugs, from the coffee that kept you awake as you studied for finals to the few swift glasses of wine you chuck down to loosen up and release the brilliant and witty you living just below the surface. (Of course sometimes the brilliant and witty you doesn’t quite go to plan, but that’s another story.)

To be honest, widespread use of performance enhancing drugs wouldn’t bother me one little bit. I’ve always found Western society’s attitude to drugs completely absurd. After all, as the article says:

"All things being equal, which would you prefer—a neurosurgeon with normal tremor or one whose hands are made steadier with beta-blockers?"

Cheers!