1406 Competing Against Drugs

For a while now, there has been a growing discrepancy between the SAT scores of students who get prep classes and normal students, so-much-so that high scores are more an indication of wealth than of intelligence. It’s allowed because it cannot be prevented, but it makes standardized testing almost useless to rank a mixed cohort of people. Things got worse since the introduction of concentration & stamina-inducing drugs, like Ritalin & Adderall, even cocaine. and now actual intelligence-enhancing psychoactives such as mushrooms. For example, working women have routinely begun to use microdosing of psilocybin every day. People who don’t use these drugs are at a distinct disadvantage, for the same reason that performance-enhancing drugs are barred from organized sports competition. Unfortunately, whether illegal or not, the benefits are so big and the penalty so little, that ambitious people would be foolish not to engage. It’s become a 2-tiered society: natural vs. enhanced. There’s not much hope for those who don’t want to compete against drugged-up superstars; the only option is to opt out. Ironically, that’s also a hard pill to swallow.