Ethical Issues Assignment: Use of Illegal Smart Drugs

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The primary ethical issue that is present in Augustine's case is whether or not to take the Adderall from his friend Ralph in order to concentrate and study for his midterms. There are many mitigating factors that go into this particular issue, namely Augustine's tendency to slack off in his schoolwork and classwork. Taking the Adderall would start a very unhealthy trend of continuing to reward laziness in favor of taking drugs at the last minute to power through. He would not be honestly rewarded for hard work that he had done. The issue of taking the Adderall also deals with the ethical dilemma of stealing. Ralph may have offered the pills before in confidence, but would Augustine steal a pill if Ralph refuses this time? Should he take the pills from Ralph, who had offered pills to him in the past, or should he refuse it, and run the risk of doing poorly on his finals? A much more dangerous situation presents itself when one considers the possibility of addiction to Adderall that Augustine faces - in continuing to abuse prescription drugs "when he needs it," he may develop a dependency, which could offer significant health hazards. In identifying Augustine's train of thought, it is possible to determine what he is going through. His purpose in taking the Adderall is to focus enough to do well on his midterm. In his point of view, he has no choice, since he needs to maintain his scholarships to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer. The question at hand is whether or not to take the pill in order to do well. The assumption that Augustine has is that taking the pill will equate to doing well on the midterm; he is assuming that, since it happened before, the Adderall would successfully help him focus on the ma... ... middle of paper ... ...e drugs. I feel the problem solving process could be improved greatly by making sure to see all sides of the story equally, without letting my own bias enter into it. That would allow me to look at the situation more objectively, and less in terms of what I would personally do. #Works Cited Brizer, David A., and Ricardo Castaneda. Clinical addiction psychiatry. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Teter, Christian J, Sean McCabe, Kristy LaGrange, James Cranford, and Carol Boyd. "Illicit Use of Specific Prescription Stimulants Among College Students: Prevalence, Motives, and Routes of Administration." Pharmacotherapy 26.10 (2006): 1501-1510. Print. Trudeau, Michelle. "More Students Turning Illegally To 'Smart' Drugs." National Public Radio. N.p., 5 Feb. 2009. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. .

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