On your NIDA link:MSimon wrote:
Actually it is trauma combined with genetics which spreads addiction. It is pretty well documented. I'm assuming you have read the literature. If so it just goes to show how hard it is for people to change their beliefs even when confronted with evidence. Which is why death is so useful. Most folks stop learning at age 20 or so. This idea (death changes persistent wrong ideas) is well documented in the field of science. And the nature of addiction IS a scientific question.
I have been fortunate in being able to change major parts of my world view several times in my 60+ years. Most people are not built that way. With people living longer (a good thing) bad ideas are more persistent.
I once confronted a retired Sheriff with my evidence (when it was much sparser) and got him to change his mind. Being a religious man he was very sorry that he had persecuted so many for nothing.
Note we have a wide range of drugs now for treating various mental conditions. Some are legal. Some are not. However, they all go to the same set of receptors in the brain. And we do not count it as addiction if your medicine comes through approved channels. Which is rank superstition. Cargo cult science.
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... holes.html
Let me go further. Hate is another well known addiction. To my knowledge it has never been studied in the context of brain chemistry. However, you can see its advantage in evolution. It is a survival mechanism. It is not very intelligent though.
Its a big website, I found a comment on it saying addiction was 40-60% hereditory. To me that's a far cry from saying your genes determine whether you are going to become an addict or not. In any case if you have any links to papers with numbers of participants etc. that would be of interest to me.
Past trauma may well be a big part in addiction, my point is drug addiction doesn't solve it if anything it will make the addicts life worse. I already gave examples of how drug problems create trauma rather than solve it. I reject your belief that this is because they are illegal. Alchohol causes plenty of problems from street violence through drink-driving to liver cerosis.
Perhaps nicotine does help schitzophrenics, I give you enough credit to take what you said in your blogs seriously and I presume you've done the research. That doesn't change the fact that they are poisonous and that 1/4 of smokers die as a result of them. My father's friend has emphacemia and can't lecture anymore because he smokes he's in his early 50's. Another example of how legalizing something doesn't make all those problems magically dissappear.
Regarding to your statement that the view that prescribing drugs is better them off the black market is "Cargo Cult Scence". I also disagree. Being prescribed a drug, be it heroine, nicotine or marujana is a world away from just "deciding to experiment", a drug has profound effect on the life of a user, some are long term, some are short term. Some are positive many are negative. The future results of taking a drug are not at all obvious to a users who decides to copy his friends and "experiment". The results of taking a drug also depend on the dosage. Someone whose hyperactive shouldn't take a stimulant, someone whose lethargic shouldn't be one sedatives. The difference between a medicine and a poison can be as split on as fine a line as who takes a substance, when they take it, how much they take and how often. To ensure any substance which profoundly affects the body is not abused, they need to be prescribed by a skilled physician who has dedicated his life to studying all the affects and result of taking a substance so that they are taken by the right people at the right time with the right dosage in order to have a positive rather than a negative impact on peoples lives.
I hate drug dealing. Drug dealers are people who push impure products to vulnerable people, with no investigation of their position their situation or the correct dosage, with total apathy regarding their affects on the lives of the users so long as they make a quick buck. I'm not out to demonize users. But drug dealing is one of the great evils of our time.