The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts

[roseofjuly]

Long before he brought people into his laboratory at Columbia University to smoke crack cocaine, Carl Hart saw its effects firsthand. Growing up in poverty, he watched relatives become crack addicts, living in squalor and stealing from their mothers. Childhood friends ended up in prisons and morgues.

Those addicts seemed enslaved by crack, like the

Comments

[mycenaes]

That's a very good point.

[roseofjuly]

That's a really good question - you know when you are signing up for the study that you're going to be there for XX days and that the drug will be offered to you, free of charge. You don't have to count the days between that and your next paycheck and figure out that you have rent due the next time you get paid so you better buy some now.

[romp]

re running dry--I've heard of this for weed but crack? I guess there might be trouble if there's a bust but in many places, it's a sure thing

but you're right that the expectation matters

[tabaqui]

Extremely interesting. I can't see it making a dent in the hard-core 'all drugs are a gateway to more drugs and deeeeeeath!!' crowd, but it highlights what, to me, is pretty damn obvious - when you're living in miserable, grinding conditions of poverty and hopelessness, you will self-medicate to escape. And you'll do it with crack or you'll do it with prescription Valium, or you'll do it with cheap wine, doesn't matter.

For most, he idea that 'addiction' is some kind of moral failing on the part of a single individual is a kind of 'well, duh' thing. I think that the fact that we have people addicted to drugs and living in abandoned buildings is a moral failing on the part of our society as a whole. We *could* prevent, or at least alleviate 99 percent of it, but we don't.

[mycenaes]

I have a lot of thoughts on this study, but I don't quite know how to articulate them.

I'd love to see a study done about what I consider "situational" drug/alcohol abuse. Like, when college students binge drink and then graduate and end up drinking relatively responsibly when they're working adults. Are there studies out there like that?

Idk, this is just making me think about the sociological aspect of drug and alcohol addiction.

[roseofjuly]

Researchers are just now starting to get into that, surprisingly. Part of the problem was measurement and statistical technique to analyze that, but we kind of have it now. That's what I do now - I do situational substance use research, like people who only do drugs when they go out with their friends on the weekends or when they're about to get laid and need to calm down a bit. I do know some researchers who do research on college kids and alcohol drinking, but don't necessarily follow them into adult working life - that's actually a really interesting idea.

[mycenaes]

Yeah, I was just thinking about how I binge drank all through college and then once I graduated, I'll only really get smashed once or twice a year. The rest of the time, I have two drinks and call it a night. And I can say the same for a fair amount of my friends as well.

That's just anecdotal evidence, though. I'd love to see a proper study done on it.

[ar_feiniel_]

Interesting, though I don't think there's anything mindblowing in this article/study. It does indicate that addicts or users don't fit a lot of the "junkie" stereotypes, which doesn't really surprise me, but the article doesn't go into the data, so it's hard to analyze it.

I did try to track down the study (or studies) Dr. Hart is referring to. Which led me to this which led me to this list of publications.

I think this one seems to be one of the ones referenced, but only the abstract is available on pubmed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10821213

There were only six participants in the study, which is a bit of a flag, but I don't think that means it's without merit. I think it shows that not every user/addict is so overcome with their addiction that they can't choose long term rewards over it, but I wouldn't draw any broad statistics on the general population from it. Again, though, this is just the one article.

[dziga123]

If the statement “Eighty to 90 percent of people who use crack and methamphetamine don’t get addicted,” didn't give you a clue about this quack and his "research" I wander what planet do you guys live on?
Drug addiction is destructive physical disease, always with mental component to it . And yes, marijuana is an exemption, but not alcohol.
Drug addiction affects rich and poor alike, with different drugs though.
For those of you who think that poverty is a root of drug addiction I have one word: Hollywood.