Back in the early 1990s, students used to dose up on substances such as Coladex, a caffeine derivative which used to keep them up for hours.

It was popular in Malta, and it proverbially allowed students to burn candles at both ends. It was commonplace for students to dose up on them during school hours and after hours. Many used them to stay awake during lectures and then again to study late at night. When the weekend came around, teenagers used to take more still to allow them to go out and party till the small hours.

Then came the headaches and the palpitations. All of a sudden, the caffeine supplements disappeared from the shelves and similar derivates were also taken off the market.

That was 20 years ago. It might be a bit farfetched to call caffeine supplements drugs, but the dependency which students found themselves with made them almost as bad as other drugs. It is the brain which decides.

Although the intention of using them was ‘harmless’ and, in some cases, ‘good’, there is no doubt that a lot of that generation used caffeine supplements and became hooked on them.

We also saw how another drug came to the fore just a few years ago – miaw miaw, mephedrone… call it whatever you want. It crept in and Malta had to urgently legislate against what turned out to be quite a nasty drug.

Now we are faced with another worry - the drug Modafinil has led to controversy in the UK, with reports stating that, as much as a quarter of university students are using the sleep suppressing medicine.

Modafinil is designed to combat narcolepsy, a chronic sleep disorder. Users include shift workers who have their sleep pattern interrupted. Some militaries even give the drug to their troops, while on lengthy covert missions. But in the UK, and across Europe, students have learnt to use the drug to their advantage, as it helps them stay up till the early hours of the morning to study hard before an exam. Modafinil almost eliminates the need to sleep, with some people even coping with just two hours of sleep a night after ingesting the pills.

 The drug, which is approved by the Food and Drugs Administration in the US, is only imported by the government in Malta, and is not available in pharmacies. In Malta, the drug is imported under three different trade names, one of them being Provigil.

A pharmacist who spoke to The Malta Independent said that the process makes it quite difficult for students to acquire the drug through the normal channels. If a person asks a pharmacy for Modafinil products he would be referred to Mater Dei Hospital. Once there, one would have to face one or more consultants, who would then determine if the person qualifies for the drug. And the final decision is taken by an appointed board. So faking a sleeping disorder to get the drugs is almost out of the question.

However, British students have found a way to bypass this problem, and discovered that the drug can be easily purchased online from a vast number of sources. Pharmacists have deemed this practice unsafe, as one could easily be ingesting counterfeit medicine without knowing.

Sources told this newspaper that there is nothing in Maltese law stopping anyone from buying drugs on the internet and importing them, as long as they are for their own personal use.

The world is what it is today, and sub culture will always find substances that can be used and abused in myriad of ways. Suffice to say that some people take horse tranquilizer. The authorities should monitor the situation and make sure that all necessary safeguards are in place.