Time to update the regulatory framework for cognitive enhancement–especially nootropics?

Seek­ing an edge, these brain hack­ers mix up risky chem­i­cal cock­tails for break­fast (Stat):

“…A 31-year-old entre­pre­neur, Gutiér­rez has thrown him­self into the emerg­ing move­ment of body hack­ing — or, more pre­cise­ly, brain hack­ing. He’s a con­nois­seur of “nootrop­ics,” a broad cat­e­go­ry that includes phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs, dietary sup­ple­ments, and do-it-your­self con­coc­tions, all of them meant to turn the brain up a notch.

They haven’t been clin­i­cal­ly proven to work, and there’s emerg­ing evi­dence that some could be dan­ger­ous. But nootrop­ics, also called smart drugs, have become pop­u­lar among young type A per­son­al­i­ties on Wall Street, in the Ivy League, and here in the fren­zied start­up cul­ture of Sil­i­con Valley…

Like all dietary sup­ple­ments, nootrop­ics are only very loose­ly reg­u­lat­ed; the man­u­fac­tur­ers don’t have to prove safe­ty or effi­ca­cy before putting them on store shelves. By law, the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion can step in to recall a prod­uct only if it’s mis­la­beled or caus­ing ill­ness or injury…

To give some idea of the pop­u­lar­i­ty: The nootrop­ics page on Red­dit, which serves as an online forum for the do-it-your­self-crowd, has more than 65,000 readers.”

To learn more:

• Grow­ing aware­ness of the oppor­tu­ni­ties and risks posed by phar­ma­co­log­i­cal cog­ni­tive enhance­ment (aka “smart drugs”)