Hillary Clinton, The Presidential Debates, and Performance Enhancing Drugs

A good PDF here on the use of performance enhancing drugs for public performances:

Performance anxiety consists of several symptoms experienced in the context of public performance and is classified in DSM-III-R under social phobia. Performance anxiety must be distinguished from panic disorder, generalized social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Performance anxiety symptoms can be detrimental to both performer and performance. These symptoms can be controlled by the judicious use of beta-adrenergic blocking agents. The use of beta-adrenergic blocking agents should be considered as part of a psychiatric stress-management program for these patients.

Then there is the drive to do drug testing in video game tournaments:

ESL has announced a partnership with NADA, the Nationale Anti Doping Agentur, to develop an anti-doping policy that is “fair, feasible, and respects the privacy of the players,” while still providing effective measures against the use of performance-enhancing drugs at pro gaming tournaments. It will also begin testing players for the use of PEDs at the ESL One Cologne event in August.

The need for an anti-doping policy in the sphere of professional videogaming may not be immediately apparent, but the ESL was prompted to make the move following a confession by former Cloud9 player Kory “Semphis” Friesen that he and his teammates had taken Adderall while competing at ESL One Katowice in March. Adderall is typically used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy, according to its Wikipedia description, but because its side effects include increased concentration, alertness, and wakefulness, it’s also commonly taken as a “performance and cognitive enhancer.”

Friesen’s implication that the use of Adderall is common at ESL events drove the partnership with NADA, as well as WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency, which will also be involved in “making, enforcing, and further internationalizing” ESL’s new policies.

An eGame reporter talks about the use of drugs to enhance performance and cognitive function in eSports:

It wasn’t commonplace by any means, but I’ve seen players across a lot of different games take a lot of things and it wasn’t exactly a secret. Some high-level StarCraft pros swear by beta blockers to combat on-stage anxiety. Top Call of Duty players make sure to be cranked on Adderall before must win games, consuming so much it’s a great financial boon for fixers who attend the events. (If you’ve ever watched Call of Duty players trash talk each other, you must have realized the players had to be on something to lack the self-awareness required to be that embarrassing.) Counter-Strike players, used to terrible LAN events that see the best teams play for as much as 16-hour stints, would rely on coke, booze and uppers to get them to the end, then smoke weed to come back down to Earth and get sleep before a flight. I know that because I’ve been there and done all that with them, in the interests of earnest reporting.

If Trump were to ask the World Anti-Doping Agency to monitor Presidential debates, and maybe even political debates for House and Senate seats, that could hand a serious disadvantage to the neurotic, amygdala-addled leftists, and maybe even disadvantage left-leaning Cuckservative Republicans with addled amygdalae. Those who use pharmacology to quiet their amygdalae during debates with their opponents are exactly the characters we want to remove from the stage at every level of the process.

I have no doubt, if Hillary were to walk on to the debate stage absent any pharmacological help, she will look fit to be sent to a mental institution. Many such drugs, including Clonazepam, Ritalin, Valium, and Xanax, are detectible through simple saliva tests. Any of those would be a funny reveal right after the debate, if Hillary takes them. Bringing in WADA would help administer tests for Beta-blockers, antidepressants, and any other drugs which require urine or blood tests. If Hillary were caught using, or even if she merely needed to forgo drugs, it could be worth five points in the final election. Merely by making the demands, Trump looks like an honorable competitor vehemently opposed to cheating in debates, and dedicated to helping our leadership find the best, most honest leaders we could possibly find.

It is high time we eliminated any chance of problems with performance enhancing drug use in our political debates. Donald Trump is just the Presidential candidate to do it.