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Everything Americans Think They Know About Drugs Is Wrong:AScientistExplodes the Myth

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wayab

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Jul 1, 2011
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http://www.minds.com/blog/view/1161...drugs-is-wrong-a-scientist-explodes-the-myths

"What many Americans, including many scientists, think they know about drugs is turning out to be totally wrong. For decades, drug war propaganda has brainwashed Americans into blaming drugs for problems ranging from crime to economic deprivation. In his new book High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society, Carl Hart blows apart the most common myths about drugs and their impact on society, drawing in part on his personal experience growing up in an impoverished Miami neighborhood. Hart has used marijuana and cocaine, carried guns, sold drugs, and participated in other petty crime, like shoplifting. A combination of what he calls choice and chance brought him to the AIr Force and college, and finally made him the first black, tenured professor of sciences at Columbia University.

Intertwined with his story about the struggles of families and communities stressed by lack of capital and power over their surroundings is striking new research on substance use. Hart uses his life and work to reveal that drugs are not nearly as harmful as many think. For example, most people who use the most “addicting” drugs do not develop a problem. Rather, Hart says, drugs are scapegoated for problems related to poverty. The policies that result from this misconception are catastrophically misguided. AlterNet spoke with Hart about his life and research."
 
Sounds pretty interesting, and like a very valuable perspective - someone with a foot in both worlds, so to speak.
 
Somebody could say there may be something biologically predisposing people who get addicted, but there is no evidence to support that position.
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That's just wrong. There are clearly genes associated with higher likelihoods of getting addicted to various chemicals or in general. If you have the mutant ALDH2*2 you are almost certainly not going to be addicted to alcohol.

Otherwise I like the article but would have appreciated citations for some of those statistics.
 
Ho-Chi-Minh said:
It didn't take long to find this

http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/addiction/addiction_journal1.shtml

As you can see, at least one institution thinks cocaine is only marginally more addictive than caffeine. Though it was conducted a while ago, I'd argue that this makes it more legitimate given the topic.
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That's what I've been saying for years! I can snort or smoke day after day, minute after minute and still drop it at any point. I can do it over and over again, and then stop with no effort whatsoever. I just choose not to stop, but that's my choice. It has no power over me, even when I've been smoking for 60 hours straight and have to go to work with a burnt upper lip and eyes that look like Marty Feldman's. It might as well be chewing gum.
 
^^ Cocaine is hardly a harmless substance like caffeine. It is incredibly hard on your body, and the behaviors that are typically associated with coxaine and crack are even more unhealthy than the drug itself. I say this as an ex addict myself.

However, you have hit upon one of the fascinating properties of cocaine: a lack of physiological dependence. I do heroin now and it's almost the complete inverse, where your body is not damaged by the drug itself but you get sick when it isn't around, as opposed to cocaine where time off of it is a healing thing.
 
Deinonychus said:
I do heroin now and it's almost the complete inverse, where your body is not damaged by the drug itself but you get sick when it isn't around, as opposed to cocaine where time off of it is a healing thing.
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Heroin also calls to you after you've stopped it. It's like a succubus. Even after you've fully recovered from the withdrawal, you hear it summoning you. Literally.
 
of all the drugs ive done smack was def the one that made the strongest neurol connections. Smells, sights sounds, so many different sensory stimuli are tied to dope. Its like it burned into my brain and imprinted its self.
 
I used to have a diabolical version of the Tootsie Roll song perpetually stuck in my head.

The world looks mighty good to me
Cause heroin is all I see
Whatever it is I think I see
Becomes a big syringe to me

Still makes me shiver.
 
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