Career Advice MEGA - Courses and Careers related to Drugs

I think that almost everyone that has abused drugs and received treatment for it has considered going into the field.

As syntetix mentioned, it can be a trigger for you if you stop using drugs. That is one of the main reasons why I never pursued a career in that field. I wouldn't want to be surrounded by constant reminders of drug use if I were to stop using them.
 
Drug-related majors at university (studying psychology for my bachelor)

Well, as the topic title says; I'd really like to do something drug-related, (research, I don't want to work with addicts or something like that, I want to be a researcher, I also want to base my Ph. D on something psychoactive-related - helping people would never work out for me, I have too much malice and hatred for biological life inside of me to do so) but I don't really know which majors/specializations I can choose.

Note that I don't mind emigrating together with my fiancee later, so I suppose I have a lot of choice with a Ph. D. Now the things I can choose from for my master are:

Psychology (general)
Psychology of behavior and health
Sports-and prestation psychology
Psychology of training, coaching and development
Health psychology & clinical forensic psychology
Brain and cognitive sciences (research master)
Cognitive Neuropsychology
Social psychology
Cognitive sciences
Neurosciences
Pedagogic studies

Now I'm pretty sure what I *don't* want to do, but I really want to study something that can combine my interest in drugs, as well as my interest in transhumanism. Any ideas?
 
Lµs. D said:
helping people would never work out for me, I have too much malice and hatred for biological life inside of me to do so
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LOL

If you want to focus on drugs then the obvious area of specialization is pharmacology, you could then combine it with your psychology background and go into neuropharmacology.

EDIT: I'm sure sure exactly what subjects you're studying but you would clearly need to do A LOT of chemistry to do this.
 
Eh, I'm not too interested in making new drugs; I'd rather work with the cognitive/behavioural side of drugs, not their synthesis or exact pharmacodynamics. Neuropsychology has some limited chemistry, but it's only a master, not a full education; I'm not going to be a chemist unless I start a completely new 5-year study. I'd rather study for example the effects of various psychoactives on intelligence and memory (with the goal of improving my own, obviously), perception (and it's effects on behavior,) etc.
 
Lµs. D said:
Eh, I'm not too interested in making new drugs; I'd rather work with the cognitive/behavioural side of drugs, not their synthesis or exact pharmacodynamics. Neuropsychology has some limited chemistry, but it's only a master, not a full education; I'm not going to be a chemist unless I start a completely new 5-year study. I'd rather study for example the effects of various psychoactives on intelligence and memory (with the goal of improving my own, obviously), perception (and it's effects on behavior,) etc.
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How far into your education are you?- If you are 1-2 years in I would suggest picking up a minor/double major in physiology or biology. Also you should start volunteering as a research assistant as soon as possible. My uni offers credit for the first 2 semesters of research assistant work, a pretty good deal as an undergrad (I started my senior year, some of my colleagues started their sophomore year). This is the best way to get work experience and will put you ahead of the rest for grad school admissions. It's also the best way to find out how research is ACTUALLY done, as well as introducing you to the wonderful world of academic red tape.

Cognitive Neuroscience is probably what you're looking for, may I ask what sorts of psychoactive drugs you are interested in? If you're thinking about strong psychedelic compounds, you would be wise to go with psychopharmocology as it will help you with credibility and what you need to do to make sure scientific requirements are met (every experiment you run has to be approved by an IRB first). But if you are interested in nootropics like the racetams, I think cognitive neuroscience would be your best bet.

Also, what are the benefits of a full education for you? (Just curious) Grad school is pretty heavy, if you don't dedicate your entire life to it, you won't make it through. I've been juggling with the thought of just shooting for a master's. You can get a job with a masters and 2 years instead of 5 years of education could be the difference between baldness and semi baldness :p.


Edit: As to what AminoAcid said about having a lot of chemistry experience: I wouldn't worry too much about that, you can always collaborate with someone who has a strong chemistry background.
 
Choosing a career just because its related to drugs is a stupid idea, I'm just throwing that out there. Choose something that can sustain your interest for a whole lifetime.

AminoAcid said:
LOL

If you want to focus on drugs then the obvious area of specialization is pharmacology, you could then combine it with your psychology background and go into neuropharmacology.

EDIT: I'm sure sure exactly what subjects you're studying but you would clearly need to do A LOT of chemistry to do this.
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You can't jump into a pharmacology graduate program with a psychology degree, OP would have to retrain. And biochemistry or biology would be a much better major if you intend to go for pharmacology, I have a chemistry degree with my name on several publications in high impact factor journals and I was told by multiple pharmacology graduate programs that I would need to take a bunch of biology courses before I could gain admission, so I just said fuck it. If I end up going to grad school I'm sticking with med. chem. And pharmacologists don't do any chemistry FYI, they do a bunch of biochem stuff and basically run gels all day from what I hear.
 
MonKeYDNA said:
How far into your education are you?- If you are 1-2 years in I would suggest picking up a minor/double major in physiology or biology. Also you should start volunteering as a research assistant as soon as possible. My uni offers credit for the first 2 semesters of research assistant work, a pretty good deal as an undergrad (I started my senior year, some of my colleagues started their sophomore year). This is the best way to get work experience and will put you ahead of the rest for grad school admissions. It's also the best way to find out how research is ACTUALLY done, as well as introducing you to the wonderful world of academic red tape.

Cognitive Neuroscience is probably what you're looking for, may I ask what sorts of psychoactive drugs you are interested in? If you're thinking about strong psychedelic compounds, you would be wise to go with psychopharmocology as it will help you with credibility and what you need to do to make sure scientific requirements are met (every experiment you run has to be approved by an IRB first). But if you are interested in nootropics like the racetams, I think cognitive neuroscience would be your best bet.

Also, what are the benefits of a full education for you? (Just curious) Grad school is pretty heavy, if you don't dedicate your entire life to it, you won't make it through. I've been juggling with the thought of just shooting for a master's. You can get a job with a masters and 2 years instead of 5 years of education could be the difference between baldness and semi baldness :p.


Edit: As to what AminoAcid said about having a lot of chemistry experience: I wouldn't worry too much about that, you can always collaborate with someone who has a strong chemistry background.
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Well I'm mostly interested in transhumanist studies, think nootropics, memory enhancement, consciousness emulation probably, neurointerfacing (one of the main things I'm interested in is replacing my eyes with synthetic retinas superior to human eyesight; At this moment it's already possible in low, black-white resolutions.)

Other than that, I'm interested in "rewiring" the human nature, mind reading/control if that's possible (I'm probably fantasizing now, and it probably won't succeed. But still, I think one should try to chase ones dreams. Also, you mean the sheer ammount of work? Is that why It'll cost me so much time?
 
Roger&Me said:
And pharmacologists don't do any chemistry FYI, they do a bunch of biochem stuff and basically run gels all day from what I hear.
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Maybe other universities are different, but to complete a pharmacology major at my uni you need strong chemistry prerequisites (plus biology and maths), which sort of makes sense as how the hell can you be a pharmacologist who doesn't know chemistry? %)
 
AminoAcid said:
Maybe other universities are different, but to complete a pharmacology major at my uni you need strong chemistry prerequisites (plus biology and maths), which sort of makes sense as how the hell can you be a pharmacologist who doesn't know chemistry? %)
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For most programs you need gen chem, o chem, biochem. You don't have to do any real chemistry. I hardly consider that "strong chemistry prerequisites" 8(
 
Sounds pretty cool, but you'll probably have to decide to specialize in either neurointerfacing or pharmocology, I guess you could do both but those are pretty different areas. If you choose the nootropics stuff it would be really good for you to take intro to biochem and o chem. For neurointerfacing stuff, I'm not so sure but either a minor in computer science or cognitive science would help you with that, you might look up human factors psych grad programs too.

And yes, the sheer amount of work will cost you a lot of time, but if you get a stipend and tuition waivered its pretty much a job
 
rogerandme said:
Choosing a career just because its related to drugs is a stupid idea, I'm just throwing that out there.
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A crucial point; people need to take a step back an evaluate what they're doing and why...
...
no, really, at what point are you in your studies, OP? We can't really give you useful advice if you don't tell us...

ebola
 
Ehh, well I switched from being a pure math major to a math-chem interdisciplinary major focused on combinatorial pharmacology/computational chem. It wasn't really because of drugs, and I don't think that's a good reason to do so. It was mostly because my only real hobbies are math and drugs, but pure math is too alienating. Very few people study it at my school (or any school, generally), I'm certainly not good enough to go to grad school for it, and while I love it, people generally hate math. Hell, one of my math professors told me that: a) If I wanted to be good at math at my age I'd have no friends b) to study physics. I like math-chem because I can still do/think about math, but when I talk to people about what I study, I have something more to say than "I spend 8 hours a day proving useless theorems that I can't explain to you without outlining 20 definitions", "Oh, what's the use of that?", "Math is about the exposition, not the result"--proceed to be lonely.

I switched to a drug related major to relate to people because loneliness is painful.

As for advice for you, OP, you should really learn some O-Chem and Biochem if you plan on going into psychopharm/neuropharm/behavioral neuro. If you want to go to cognitive neuro it may be better to take more physics and math classes.

Well I'm mostly interested in transhumanist studies, think nootropics, memory enhancement, consciousness emulation probably, neurointerfacing (one of the main things I'm interested in is replacing my eyes with synthetic retinas superior to human eyesight; At this moment it's already possible in low, black-white resolutions.)
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Especially if you're interested in consciousness and sensation/perception, physics and (applied) math will be helpful. But I'm still not sure what "transhumanist" studies means.
 
What you have in mind to study sounds very similar to me. I've just completed a psychology degree. I took some general chemistry papers in first year as well as biology into second year. I volunteered in one of the animal research labs in third year as well which I found really fun. Worked on trialing new drugs to block cocaine and meth addiction in rats. I want to focus on the fields of psychopharmacology or neuroscience. Having talked to several lecturers about whether I need more chemistry or biochem they have all said that I'm fine with what I have already done.
I think if you stick with psychology for undergrad at least you will be fine. It seems that it opens up enough opportunities at post-grad level that you should be able find a way to do what you
 
Username123 said:
Ehh, well I switched from being a pure math major to a math-chem interdisciplinary major focused on combinatorial pharmacology/computational chem. It wasn't really because of drugs, and I don't think that's a good reason to do so. It was mostly because my only real hobbies are math and drugs, but pure math is too alienating. Very few people study it at my school (or any school, generally), I'm certainly not good enough to go to grad school for it, and while I love it, people generally hate math. Hell, one of my math professors told me that: a) If I wanted to be good at math at my age I'd have no friends b) to study physics. I like math-chem because I can still do/think about math, but when I talk to people about what I study, I have something more to say than "I spend 8 hours a day proving useless theorems that I can't explain to you without outlining 20 definitions", "Oh, what's the use of that?", "Math is about the exposition, not the result"--proceed to be lonely.

I switched to a drug related major to relate to people because loneliness is painful.

As for advice for you, OP, you should really learn some O-Chem and Biochem if you plan on going into psychopharm/neuropharm/behavioral neuro. If you want to go to cognitive neuro it may be better to take more physics and math classes.



Especially if you're interested in consciousness and sensation/perception, physics and (applied) math will be helpful. But I'm still not sure what "transhumanist" studies means.
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I'd actually like you more if you told me that about your study. It would tell me you're interested in understanding things and logic, which are things I value greatly in people :) Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
 
Roger&Me said:
Choosing a career just because its related to drugs is a stupid idea, I'm just throwing that out there. Choose something that can sustain your interest for a whole lifetime.



You can't jump into a pharmacology graduate program with a psychology degree, OP would have to retrain. And biochemistry or biology would be a much better major if you intend to go for pharmacology, I have a chemistry degree with my name on several publications in high impact factor journals and I was told by multiple pharmacology graduate programs that I would need to take a bunch of biology courses before I could gain admission, so I just said fuck it. If I end up going to grad school I'm sticking with med. chem. And pharmacologists don't do any chemistry FYI, they do a bunch of biochem stuff and basically run gels all day from what I hear.
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i would say don't listen to people who say you shouldn't go for drug related job. There are millions of drug related jobs out there, in the pharmaceutical industry, the research community, psychologists, neuro-scientists, etc. i could go on. Now think about it, if you decide at some age that you don't want to work around drugs, im pretty sure there are tons of neuroscientists and psychologists, therapists who don't touch drugs often, in their own lives and in their work. If your a psychologist its not as hard to switch jobs to one involving a different field of psychology for example.
 
Psychology,Chemistry,or Pharmacology?

Right now I am going to school to be a pharmacy technician. After I finish the program,get the hell out of the mill I currently work in,and get a job as a pharmacy tech I want to continue my education while I am working a job I actually enjoy. I am considering going for either psychology,chemistry,or pharmacology.

First, anyone got any suggestions to make this as easy as possible while still continuing to work? Secondly, anyone already got a degree in any of these areas and what advice wud u give about ur particular expertise? Finally, what I want to end up doing with this education is Psychedelic Therapy, which is currently illegal,so what field would be best till this field becomes more accepted (and legal,which I do see eventually happening)?Possibly Psychopharmacology,but what else?

Pariahprose
 
Im currently getting my undergrans in Biochemistry and plan to get my masters in pharmacology. It's insanely interesting and I love it! I know that doesn't help you much but figured id chime in.
 
lol,its cool, I do agree that its "insanely interesting",glad to see someone with similar interests though ^.^
 
... Medicine would the best field to go into if you REALLY want to do psychedelic therapy, one needs to have a medical licence in order to have prescribing rights, particularly when you're conducting in vivo experimental treatments using controlled substances.
 
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