To All Parents Worried About Their Kids Doing Drugs

[fluxrad]

[ QUOTE ]

Totally. This can apply to any fun activity; eating, sex, video games, sports, whatever. I was trying to dispel the notion, though, that there's some magical element specific to drug addiction that makes it somehow different to other addictions.

[/ QUOTE ]

The difference is in scope. I just watched a Frontline on crystal methamphetamine a few nights ago (oddly enough), and one of the things they analyzed was the seratonin level in addict's brains. They then compared the figures to the levels of dopamine released from eating a cheeseburger. The finding was that a single hit of meth equalled something like 30 cheeseburgers. It was an interesting analogy, and this anecdote doesn't really do the bit justice.

But the point is this: You ask why "drugs" should be considered different from over "fun" activities. I think the answer is obvious: because they're drugs. They're not activities designed to influence the body's natural production of chemicals (adrenaline, for example). They're substances taken for the specific purpose of tinkering with human brain chemistry in such a way as to produce euphoric reactions that cannot be replicated by natural activity.


[ QUOTE ]

What is this "hijacking" stuff anyway?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hijacking a thread means diverting it from its original purpose. For example, you were responding to my comment about the genetic factor in alcohol addiction

And then, from out of nowhere...

[ QUOTE ]
but I don't think we should let it inhibit our freedom and responsibility.

[/ QUOTE ]

This doesn't follow. What you're trying to do here is turn the topic towards legality. Unless you're trying to make some spiritual assertion for alcoholics that I'm not getting.

[hmkpoker]

[ QUOTE ]
But the point is this: You ask why "drugs" should be considered different from over "fun" activities. I think the answer is obvious: because they're drugs. They're not activities designed to influence the body's natural production of chemicals (adrenaline, for example). They're substances taken for the specific purpose of tinkering with human brain chemistry in such a way as to produce euphoric reactions that cannot be replicated by natural activity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not really. All any psychoactive drug does is facilitate or inhibit the transmission of the neurotransmitters that are already in your brain. They don't put something in your brain that isn't there already, they simply redirect it in a way that is so efficient that it is very, very difficult to rival with any other activity. I'm sure you've heard before that playing poker has physiological effects that are very, very similar to cocaine. Heroin stimulates the release of endogenous endorphins and enkaphalins, similar to the natural release of same as an analgesic reaction to pain.

This certainly seems to give drug addiction a qualitatively unique characteristic, but when you consider that it is just a behavior with the goal of assimilating a substance to provoke a response in the brains neurotransmission, the same quality must extend to an addiction to eating as well.

As to whether a person can experience the things he experiences on drugs without drugs, I really think it varies from drug to drug. Cocaine's effects are probably the most easily replicated naturally, and I think MDMA is up there too. The effects of opiates are very similar to a depressed teenage girl's addiction with cutting. Then you get to some other things that are really hard to simulate, like LSD. It's believed that meditative development can simulate it, and there was some stuff about a yogi who tried it and claimed he'd had the same experiences meditating, but I don't have anything to back that up with sadly.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't think we should let it inhibit our freedom and responsibility.

[/ QUOTE ]

This doesn't follow. What you're trying to do here is turn the topic towards legality. Unless you're trying to make some spiritual assertion for alcoholics that I'm not getting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nuts. You're right. Sorry 'bout the legality issue, force of habit [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]