The war on drugs is built on the idea that the chemicals are the problem. Once you realize that disconnection and isolation are the drivers of addiction, you suddenly realize that what we do actually makes addiction worse. We take addicts who are addicted because they’re isolated and suffering, isolate them in prison cells and make it impossible for them to get jobs when they leave, and inflict more pain and suffering on them. As the doctor from Vancouver said to me, if you wanted to create a system that would make addiction worse, you would create the system that we have.
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Everything you know about drug addiction is wrong This is worth reading. All that science we have on addiction and how rats will drink cocaine-laced water to the exclusion of eating and sleeping and everything else? Turns out that rats who aren’t bored and isolated and being kept in tiny, unnatural cages where they have literally nothing else to do OTHER than take drugs have very little interest in drugs. A scientist built, basically, a rat park filled with toys and entertainment and friends, and not only did the rats in the rat park dislike the drug-laced water, addicted rats who were released into the park had a bit of withdrawal, but then stopped their heavy use and went back to living normal rat lives. The lack of stress and presence of pleasant forms of mental stimulation and the company of their own kind un-addicted them. Everything about how we’re conducting the war on drugs is based on bad assumptions. (via jessicalprice) |
There is no war on drugs because you cannot have a war against inanimate objects. There is only war on drug addicts. Which means we are warring on the most abused and vulnerable segments of the population.
You think ambushing me in some nightclub’s gonna stop what makes people take drugs? This country spends $100 billion a year on getting high, and it’s not because of me. All that time I was wasting in jail, it just got worse. I’m not your problem. I’m just a businessman.
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Christopher Walken as Frank White in “King of New York”. A very realistic statement about the “war on drugs’. |
