How do we want to handle questions about drug use ("hard drugs", steroids, prescription drugs, etc.) when asked in the context of academic performance enhancements? See examples:
These might be poor health choices, but there is a slippery slope if we censor.
Does this answer change if the questions are about other potentially unhealthy activities not related to recreational drugs?
Just because we can answer questions about drugs, doesn't mean we have to.
We've had a similar situation with "Hackintosh" questions and concluded that
we didn't want to build a reputation for encouraging something that may or may not be illegal, so it was decided to stay safe rather than sorry.
We also had a similar discussion on Gaming regarding cheating (particularly in multiplayer games). Here the conclusion was:
I don't care about cheating in single-player games / game modes at all, but cheats in multiplayer games (including using external programs like wallhacks and such) are absolutely deplorable, and I would hate to see this site turn into a place where you can get answers to questions regarding cheats in multiplayer games.
I don't care one bit about people using drugs, I live in the Netherlands where we have legal coffeeshops and I grew up in a street with at least 2 of them.
However, I would hate to see this site turn into a place where we advocate the best way to use drugs. If you want to improve your performance, I'll gladly help you come up with a better training program, but if you decide to take the easy way out... Good luck elsewhere
That statement would be akin to legal technology use. On StackOverflow, we don't badger users asking if they reside in Iran, or if they're developing crypto for export... I see no reason why we should be concerned about the application here either. I think the community will be pretty good at dissuading juveniles and addicts from participation.
– Nobody
May 20 '11 at 18:45
I don't see why special considerations need to be made. In the scope of the site, drug use is almost always considered off topic. If one were to ask if marijuana had x, y, and z health benefits, it would very reasonably be closed as off topic, because the site isn't about something as broad as health and wellness. I have yet to see anyone dispense medical advice beyond 'see a doctor'. We simply deal with effectively working toward physical fitness and proper nourishment. The linked topic is certainly a weird question, but the thrust of it is on topic and so are the answers given. My main motivation behind my 'let's not have this discussion again' crack was that I personally felt the question was idiotic and obvious. No freaking duh, using cocaine is bad for you!
But in the general case, I see no reason why the simple truth won't suffice. "Doping" substances, be they cocaine, human growth hormone, or whatever have you, are not the way to work toward true fitness and proper nutritional balance. We can simply say that and move on.
This community has three options:
I think as long as the answers to the question are:
then these types of questions are OK.
There are plenty of supplements - do we disallow questions about only the illegal ones? What about doping? There is also a grey area about questions concerning new chemicals which may not be illegal, but which can eaily be every bit as harmful as an illegal substance.
My point is that it's pretty pointless to distinguish between legal/illegal and close questions solely on that basis.
Besides, any cut in traffic to this site would be harmful considering the statistics at the moment (we are very close to having a 'worrying' number of visits/day and questions/day.)
