Drugs Don’t Cause Addiction

[Alan H]

Drugs Don’t Cause Addiction: This Brilliant Animated Video Will Change Your View on Drugs Forever

[Dave B]

Excellent.

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Drugs Don’t Cause Addiction: This Brilliant Animated Video Will Change Your View on Drugs Forever

Excellent video. The facts are fairly well known, and they deserve to be better known. Mind you, it isn't easy getting the facts across to the war-on-drugs brigade, who prefer not to cloud their judgement with facts.

I've often thought that the drug baron's best friend is the drugs tsar: the baron ( if he has any sense) will be sending the tsar birthday cards, Xmas gifts and solicitous notes begging him to wrap up in cold weather and to take care crossing the street. The firmer the resolve of the prohibitionist, the better the baron's business...

[jaywhat]

fascinating

[animist]

the war on drugs may well be a mistake, but that does not entail that physical addiction does not exist, does it? How about infant addiction due to the mother's addiction?
http://news.sky.com/story/1547817/babie ... ial-report

[Dave B]

the war on drugs may well be a mistake, but that does not entail that physical addiction does not exist, does it? How about infant addiction due to the mother's addiction?
http://news.sky.com/story/1547817/babie ... ial-report

Good point, animist.

I was wondering about the psychological dependency angle. Seem to remember reading about a possible genetic component in those personality types who have an "emotional" need for some sort of reward.

My only addiction was baccy, tried to give it up many, many times, grew heartily sick of the habit - but could not seem to break the need for the "dummy", the "comforter" (hardly surprising considering some aspects of my life experience!) However, after a day on morphine, after my heart attack, and during my subsequent three weeks in hospital I found that the link had been broken. In fact I think it was broken on day 2, I never missed it - unlike the bloke in the next bed who discharged himself because he was not allowed to smoke on the hospital grounds.

Back to work and I felt the occasional need for something and "habitual memory" dictated tobacco. However, I found that a two finger KitKat and five minutes sitting quietly in the canteen was a viable substitute! Luckily, since a fair slice of my job was purely brain work I could honestly get away with claiming that I was still working whilst staring into the far distance...

[Dave B]

Further on the subject of psychological addiction one has to consider non-chemical (discounting dopamine etc.) addictions such as gambling.

Thinkihg of pleasure hormones, is that the baeis of addiction?

[Ken H]

Very interesting. I borrowed the link.

[Lord Muck oGentry]

the war on drugs may well be a mistake, but that does not entail that physical addiction does not exist, does it? How about infant addiction due to the mother's addiction?
http://news.sky.com/story/1547817/babie ... ial-report

That's a good point, animist. There is a physical component to addiction, certainly. And in neonates the effects of addiction may be not only unpleasant but also dangerous to the child in the longer term:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2571530/

Neonates, however, are not psychosocial creatures as adults are: a baby may be happy or unhappy, but it can hardly be fulfilled or unfulfilled, be respected or slighted or rejoice in success rather than feel downcast at failure. One of the crucial points of the video is that addictive behaviour is less likely when there is something to be done that is worth doing. If that is right, we should be asking whether we can reduce the number of addicted neonates by reducing addiction in adults generally and, consequently, in expectant mothers.

That means changing attitudes drastically It's a lot to ask, of course. It means accepting that the war on drugs has been largely a failure; and that failure is less shameful than what has been widely seen as success...

I'm afraid this is one of the few subjects that set me off. If you hear me muttering darkly about the need for victors' justice, you may take turns sitting on me until the fit passes.