Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, University of Cologne (UoC), Cologne, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), Munich, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2022 Oct 28;10:1028654. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1028654. eCollection 2022.
Pharmacological neuroenhancement (PN) describes the use of divergent psychoactive substances to enhance mental performance (cognition) without medical need. This kind of substance abuse takes place predominantly in stressful situations. Users implicitly-or even explicitly-describe this kind of drug abuse to be a coping strategy. Regarding the decision making process whether to use PN drugs or not, users indicate that legal aspects to be decisive. However, the legal situation has been neglected so far. To elucidate the German legal situation, PN substances have to be divided into over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs and illegal drugs. Amphetamines have the highest cognition-enhancing potential, followed by modafinil and caffeine-containing substances. It is pointed out that the use of both freely available and prescription PN substances and narcotics without medical indication have so far been largely exempt from punishment under German law. However, individuals (physicians, bus and truck drivers, etc.) taking PN substances may expose others at risk due to wrong decisions (driving or treatment), errors based on side effects of the used substances. Therefore, the protection of life and health of others could legitimize criminal regulation.
药物性神经增强（Pharmacological neuroenhancement，PN）描述了使用不同的精神活性物质来增强精神表现（认知），而无需医学上的需求。这种物质滥用主要发生在压力环境下。使用者含蓄地——甚至明确地——将这种药物滥用描述为一种应对策略。关于是否使用 PN 药物的决策过程，使用者表示法律方面是决定性的。然而，法律情况迄今为止一直被忽视。为了阐明德国的法律情况，PN 物质必须分为非处方药、处方药物和非法药物。安非他命类药物具有最高的认知增强潜力，其次是莫达非尼和含咖啡因的物质。研究指出，目前在德国法律下，广泛使用非处方和处方 PN 物质以及无医学指征的麻醉品在很大程度上免受处罚。然而，个体（医生、公交车和卡车司机等）使用 PN 物质可能会因错误的决策（驾驶或治疗）而使他人面临风险，这些决策是基于所使用物质的副作用。因此，保护他人的生命和健康可以使刑事法规合法化。
