Nootropics: smart drugs

Actually, this is sadly correct. Drugs being sold on the counter are the ones that work and give desirable effects, as what they are designed to be. But that doesn't necessarily means any drugs which work will be on the counter forever. That's what FDA is for; to test the margin of safety of drugs to make sure drugs out there are capable of dealing with health problems while still be safe to use.

More and more drugs are produced nowadays. The aim of these is to produce more potent drugs with wider margin of safety. Of course these drugs are tested first on experiment objects. If too many severe side effects are observed, the drug may cease to be developed.

Then, after the drugs approved enter the market, continuous observation is still conducted, mainly on observing what adverse effects may come out---especially the ones unobserved in laboratorium or severe ones. This is the main base for drug distribution in society by FDA; they can ban drugs already circulating if they produce too many or too serious adverse effects. Or they can make a useful drug with lots of side effect to be acquired only under prescription. But once again, there are certain degree of safety margin, and just because a drug has several side effects does not equal its halt in the market.

Thus, the role of doctors to decide what drugs should be prescribed to the patient is important. So is reading the labels of drugs before using it.

Now regarding this drug problem. Drugs, judged from their side effect and indication, are separated into several classes (I forgot, unfortunately). These classifications are useful for controlling the distribution of several drugs considered potential to be abused. However, all kind of drugs can be abused, including the usual (almost) harmless medicine such as aspirin or paracetamol.

So what is the definition of drug abuse? Drug abuse is when someone uses any drug for a long time without indication for using it.. So, if a student uses a stimulant once in a while (for example, studying before a test) with an appropriate indication (or because they really need it badly), it is not illegal. But if s/he use it regularly without the indication, then it's drug abuse.

But once again, the law doesn't control every drug usage, so abuse of any medicine beside the prohibited ones are kind of obscure.

Jam it back in, in the dark.