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Comment by hvindin | Hacker News Reader

No shit speed and meth are stronger than coffee. I don't think that was the point being made. Or at least its probably safe to assume the commenter you are replying to didn't indend to imply that.

Sorry to be do blunt but casually ignoring things like modafinil which seems to be the go to drug for staving off sleep if you want to be able to pass drug tests is a bit of a mistake.

Subjectivly most users of modafinil find it "weaker" than coffee because there is no rush associated with it as there is with coffee, you just can't sleep when you take it.

So if the point you're making is actually just virtue signalling with the "well some drugs are worse than others because I guess they are classified as controlled?" bullshit then please provide an actual reason why the comment was disagreeable.

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??? I'm not sure you know what virtue signaling is. Also your tone is very unpleasant.

The point the comment was making was very simple: providing a single percentage that includes as a category things that are very different is misleading. In the extreme, saying "95% of the US takes painkillers at a rate considered addiction" where painkiller is defined as aspirin or heroin, is not a very useful metric

1. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is not "meth", that's methamphetamine.

2. I'm not judging people who use any of these drugs, whatever their purpose. If it were up to me, all drug laws would be repealed and the state would have no say about what anyone is allowed to put in their own bodies. I'm only pointing out that there are stark differences between caffine and drugs like amphetamine, methylphenidate, and, yes, even modafinil, and lumping them all together as "stimulants" isn't useful to this discussion. (If modafinil is no better than caffeine, why does anyone bother going through the hassle and expense of obtaining it when caffeine is dirt-cheap and easily accessible?)

This discussion is not about villifying drugs or people who use them, it's about the unreasonable, inhumane workload that medical students are expected to handle. If 75 % of medical students feel the need for and take steps to obtain prescription drugs, whether illegally or by getting a prescription, then there is clearly something wrong with medical school. If 75 % of medical students drink coffee or other caffinated beverages, that is not a cause for concern (for me, at least).

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