Auckland University. New-Zealand: A visiting expert will be discussing whether stimulant drugs make us
smarter, at a public talk at the University of Auckland next month. Professor Wayne Hall is an expert in ‘neuroethics’ and over the past
20 years has led research in addiction, mental health and public health.
He is the Director of the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research
at the University of Queensland and has advised the World Health
Organization on the health effects of cannabis use; the effectiveness of
drug substitution treatment; the scientific quality of the Swiss heroin
trials; the contribution of illicit drug use to the global burden of
disease; and the ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience.
While in New Zealand, Professor Hall will give a range of talks at
the University of Auckland, including a public lecture on the impact of
stimulant drugs on the brain.
He says there has been growing interest and enthusiasm among
neuroscientists, ethicists and the media about the prospect of using
stimulant drugs to enhance human cognitive capacities in normal people.
“Ethicists have expressed concerns about the safety and efficacy of
these drugs; the possibility of individuals being coerced to undergo
enhancement; difficulties in ensuring equitable access to cognitive
enhancers; and the implications of using enhancement technologies for
human personhood.”
In this public lecture he will take a sceptical look at this debate.
Professor Hall says he will argue that the extent of enhancement use of
stimulants drugs has been grossly exaggerated; that enhancement use of
stimulants drugs is not novel; that it is doubtful that stimulants do
enhance cognitive function in normal individuals; and that proposals to
allow the use of stimulants as cognitive enhancers conflict with
international drug control treaties to which most developed societies
are signatories.
Professor Hall will be giving a seminar at the University’s Tamaki
Campus where he talks about the brain disease model of addiction,
assessing its validity, utility and implications for public policy
towards the treatment and prevention of addiction.
He discusses another aspect of this research as a keynote speaker at a
one-day symposium on e-cigarettes that looks at evidence, experience,
ethics and policy related to e-cigarettes. Professor Hall will talk on
tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarettes.
For media enquiries email s.phillips@auckland.ac.nz