It’s every student’s dream. When you’re hung-over and about to pull all-nighter, forget coffee and red bull. Taking just one small pill will improve your memory, concentration and ability to focus, as well as preventing you from falling asleep.

Sound tempting? Well, research has shown that a growing number of university students in the US and the UK are taking just such pills in the form of prescription drugs Modafinil, Ritalin and Adderall. These so-called ‘smart drugs’ are a group of cognitive enhancers, which are usually used to treat conditions such as narcolepsy and ADHD, but are increasingly being abused by students who buy them illegally online.

It’s not difficult to see why students are popping pills to get through their degrees. Particularly at Cambridge, where the terms are so short and the workload so demanding that we are left with little choice but to cram as much as we can into 24-hour days. With so many demands on our time, sleep becomes a luxury rather than a necessity. I sometimes wonder if what we’re really being taught at university is how to live an impossible life. As much as we may want to do it all - become a member of a dozen societies, act in countless plays, play sport, go out all the time, maintain a long-term relationship and still have time to study for a degree - there’s only so much physical and mental exertion the human body can take. It just isn’t sustainable. These drugs present an enticing alterative, a way to make the impossible, possible.

But are ‘smart drugs’ really offering freedom from our human limitations and at what cost? I can’t help but question the reasoning behind a decision to buy drugs illegally online. For a start, there is a long list of side effects associated with these drugs – insomnia, agitation, anxiety, heart problems, unstable moods and blurred vision. Not to mention the fact that there’s no guarantee that the pills you receive do what they say on the packet. Illegal drug use is still a potentially harmful and risky business, even if it involves prescription drugs rather than crack cocaine.

But it’s not just our physical well-being that we should be concerned about. What’s more worrying is the mindset of somebody who feels the need to take such drugs. More often than not, they’re not being used by those seeking a surge of genius or a flash of inspiration. The reality is far more mundane. They’re being used out of desperation, by people who’ve fallen behind on their work, and are frantically cramming for exams; by people who are seeking a quick-fix before a deadline; even by those who want maintain a lifestyle that leaves little time for studying but still want to get a good II.1. We want it all, and we want it now, but we’re not always willing to work for it. We’re an MTV generation, with high aspirations and short attention spans. The way these drugs are used is surely a product of these values, not of some higher ideal.

It’s hard to say which is more unhealthy – the illegal use of prescription drugs or the fact that we’re willing to go to such extremes to shirk responsibility for our actions. These drugs don’t offer us freedom from our human imperfections. They only expose our shortcomings and anxieties, which cannot be solved by a quick-fix, want-it-all attitude to life. The truth is that there is simply no substitute for hard work. Perhaps we would be better to learn to live with our human imperfections and accept what we can and cannot do, rather than turning to drugs.