War on drugs

[swanhaggisman]

Found this article an interesting read ....

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-likely-cause-of-addiction-has-been-discovered-and-it-is-not-what-you-think/

 

[lurching]

The chemical hooks in tobacco come from a drug inside it called nicotine. So when nicotine patches were developed in the early 1990s, there was a huge surge of optimism -- cigarette smokers could get all of their chemical hooks, without the other filthy (and deadly) effects of cigarette smoking. They would be freed.
But the Office of the Surgeon General has found that just 17.7 percent of cigarette smokers are able to stop using nicotine patches. That's not nothing. If the chemicals drive 17.7 percent of addiction, as this shows, that's still millions of lives ruined globally.

That doesn't mean that only 17.7% of addiction is chemically driven and the rest isn't.

An independent study by the British Journal of Criminology found that since total decriminalization [in Portugal], addiction has fallen, and injecting drug use is down by 50 percent. I'll repeat that: injecting drug use is down by 50 percent.

Again, correlation does not imply causation..

Human beings are bonding animals. We need to connect and love. We have created an environment and a culture that cut us off from connection, or offer only the parody of it offered by the Internet. The rise of addiction is a symptom of a deeper sickness in the way we live -- constantly directing our gaze towards the next shiny object we should buy, rather than the human beings all around us.

Yeah dude. End the war on drugs, abolish the internet

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

Again, correlation does not imply causation..

Not necessarily no. But given the conditions applicable in Portugal I'd say there's more than a fair chance it does in this case. What alternative theories do you offer for this extraordinairy coincidence of timing Lurch?

Yeah dude. End the war on drugs, abolish the internet

Man, you're in a good mood today aren't you?

 

[lurching]

Sorry SHM, mood is fine, just didn't think it was a very convincing article, and the conclusion made me giggle