What a dumb thing to argue about in the comments?
I get it, but these substances aren’t “legal” in the same sense meant in the quote. Amphetamines, in the US at least, is a Schedule II drug. Meaning it needs to be prescribed.
If you’re using it in the same way you would cocaine, you’re abusing it. Which is still very much illegal.
That's not the point. The point is that workers are so dehumanized and alienated from their life essence that they need stimulants just function under the capitalist mode of production. The legality or the drug itself isn't the point. Had antidepressants and antianxiety meds existed in Marx's time he would have mentioned that instead. Indeed, elsewhere he talks about opium
Getting a prescription is what makes it legal.
Literal cocaine can also be prescribed.
