Drug addiction: The complex truth
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Drug addiction: The complex truth
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Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#2Kind of on topic: I was surprised to find out that Nicotine is thought to be more addictive that Heroine...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Dependence_and_withdra...
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#3What's true of rats is true of people in this case. Economically deprived people are far more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs.
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#4"When Alexander’s rats were given something better to do than sit in a bare cage they turned their noses up at morphine because they preferred playing with their friends and exploring their surroundings to getting high."
Well, AFAIK, this doesn't happen with most humans struggling with addiction to hard drugs. Addicts will neglect everything, namely social activities, in order to get what they need.
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#5Does anyone really think "one try ... is enough to get us hooked"? They can't know any overt functional drug users if that's the case. Cocaine in particular isn't instantly addictive. If anything on the few occasions I've used it, it actively put me off.
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#6"When Alexander’s rats were given something better to do than sit in a bare cage they turned their noses up at morphine because they preferred playing with their friends and exploring their surroundings to getting high." Well, AFAIK, this doesn't happen with most humans struggling with addiction to hard drugs. Addicts will neglect everything, namely social activities, in order to get what they need.
As far as you know. Firstly, the study is about the onset of addiction from one single experience with the drug. People that take a drug once and decide to not do it again don't attract the same social and media attention as heavy users. Similarly, if functional users of hard drugs exist, you are unlikely to hear about them. This is one of the effects of the drug prohibition: it hides a lot of data.
More worryingly, science becomes compromised when researchers cannot attract funding to explore unpopular hypothesis.
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#7Kind of on topic: I was surprised to find out that Nicotine is thought to be more addictive that Heroine... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Dependence_and_withdra...
Nicotine itself (without the byproducts that happen when burning tobacco) is not even that bad [1] (deadly in relatively low amounts but unless you take it concentrated it's very hard to reach those levels). Unhealthy? Yes, but probably not much worse than caffeine [2].
Besides, Nicotine itself is not that addictive "Technically, nicotine is not significantly addictive, as nicotine administered alone does not produce significant reinforcing properties. However, after coadministration with an MAOI, such as those found in tobacco, nicotine produces significant behavioral sensitization, a measure of addiction potential." [3]
[1]: There are a few studies that look at nicotine excluding cigarettes on Google Scholar.
[2]: Compare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Pharmacology and http://www.energyfiend.com/harmful-effects-of-caffeine
[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Psychoactive_effects
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#8"When Alexander’s rats were given something better to do than sit in a bare cage they turned their noses up at morphine because they preferred playing with their friends and exploring their surroundings to getting high." Well, AFAIK, this doesn't happen with most humans struggling with addiction to hard drugs. Addicts will neglect everything, namely social activities, in order to get what they need.
>Well, AFAIK, this doesn't happen with most humans struggling with addiction to hard drugs. Addicts will neglect everything, namely social activities, in order to get what they need.Do you have any tangible data to support your claim?
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#9"When Alexander’s rats were given something better to do than sit in a bare cage they turned their noses up at morphine because they preferred playing with their friends and exploring their surroundings to getting high." Well, AFAIK, this doesn't happen with most humans struggling with addiction to hard drugs. Addicts will neglect everything, namely social activities, in order to get what they need.
For many people activities you mentioned is so called cage. Getting high is a way to get away from socializing, playing, friends and family.
And why? That is up to individual to answer, if he dares.
Re: Drug addiction: The complex truth
#10"When naloxone, which blocks the effects of morphine, was added to the morphine-sugar mix, the rats’ consumption didn’t drop. In fact, their consumption increased, suggesting they were actively trying to avoid the effects of morphine, but would put up with it in order to get sugar."
Is not completely right.. How about the usage increased because they were actually looking to get more morphine?