How Safe are Smart Drugs?

Medicines used for attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity have been praised for improving brain performance; but new research on one "smart drug" draws parallels to cocaine.

[Calvin]

Anyone who would regularly take pharmaceuticals that are not medically indicated is foolish. Everything has side effects, even if they cannot readily be ascertained. Sometimes they build up for years and then hit you like a 2x4 across the forehead. To me, "smart" drugs nothing but mental steroids.

[Andrea]

I took something like a smart drug once to keep me up. It was only half a pill and my heart started beating like crazy. I haven't tried it since.

[Patty]

A better question might be; just how smart are those that take these smart drugs that do not have a medical need for them? I have to take a medication to stay awake because of a medical probem. It is not until recently that it has come to my attention that people are calling it a smart drug! It is very difficult for me to function without it, because I am asleep most of the day, or seeing double in an attempt to stay awake! Does it make me any smarter? The only way that I can say that it makes me smarter is with the decision that I make to take it and stay awake! It seems like a foolish choice to take these medication to function for hours on end without the sleep that our bodies normally need!