Comment · Thu, November 29, 2012 · Ceretropic
Why isn't DXM a more popular nootropic?
Original post in this thread
[deleted] · 0 points
Not in high doses, mind you, but I get a very "head-spacey clarity" and extreme mental alertness from doses 100-200mg. (Anything higher than 400 I've found dissociative)
Usually reserve it for times of high mental stress to avoid building up a tolerance.
What they were answering
nimmothemad · 1 points
Woah don't slip down that slope you might fall on a straw man.
If you are talking to someone familiar with nootropics then it's likely they will know what you mean so use the word nootropics. If you are talking to someone who is tangentially familiar with it like most of the populace you could try saying non-toxic nootropics.
Most pharmaceuticals don't fit neatly into categories so yes cocaine is a nootropic but it's low on the spectrum. Just as vitamin D is a nootropic with similarly marginal mental benefit.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
It would only be a straw man argument if I were to equivocate it with a scenario that you did not agree with. You agree that, by your definition, cocaine is a nootropic. So my points still stands. You and I disagree on what a nootropic is. I feel as though any substance that trades short-term gains in cognition for the possibility of long-term deficits, is not, and can not be called a nootropic. My stance is also the stance of the person who coined the term, and synthesized the first nootropic piracetam. Amphetamine existed before the term nootropic did, along with methamphetamine, methylphenidate, cocaine, and even MDMA. Trying to say that these substances are now part of a class of drugs that was developed to specifically avoid their widely known side effects, just doesn't sit well with me.
You are more than free to call them whatever you want. However, I will always argue the points for their exclusion from the term.