Vox Pop: Smart drugs

The term “smart drugs” refers to the misuse of prescription drugs to increase focus, competitiveness and endurance, with the intention of improving your studying habits.

A survey conducted by the River Online in 2015 found that Kingston students were the exception to this trend, with just over three per cent of students admitting to “having used performance-enhancing drugs to aid their studies”.

However, there has not been any indications pointing to a future decline in the number of consumers of smart drugs at UK universities. According to a survey by the Metro, people using substances for ‘pharmacological cognitive enhancement’ jumped from 5% to 23% in the UK alone between 2015 and 2017.

In a time where smart drugs are becoming increasingly popular across the nation, what does the people of Kingston think?

Are smart drugs just a harmless way to enhance your performance or should they be considered a form of cheating? Here are the people of Kingston's opinions on the ethics of smart drugs: