the rational choices of crack addicts

[bcbm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/science/the-rational-choices-of-crack-addicts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

[Yuppie Grinder]

Junkies can be clever with money. I've had friends fall into addiction, and their resourcefulness never ceased to amaze me. How someone who's dead broke and a high school dropout manages to spend a month's rent-worth of money on drugs a week I don't know.

[Os Cangaceiros]

“Eighty to 90 percent of people who use crack and methamphetamine don’t get addicted,” said Dr. Hart, an associate professor of psychology. “And the small number who do become addicted are nothing like the popular caricatures.”

It's insane how often I have to smash this erroneous belief (that all people who use drugs like coke or meth inevitably become addicted) in real life conversations. Even people I know who've taken a ton of prescription speed and coke up their noses will sometimes claim that you can become addicted to crystal meth after one hit. :rolleyes:

[Jimmie Higgins]

Clearly the US has a drug problem: that drug users are blamed for the misary that drives them to substances in the first place; that drugs are scapegoated for larger systemic problems of society; that the US government has initiated a war on drug users and distributers to increase its repressive abilities at home and push imperial policy abroad.

Anyway, good find especially:


Yes, he notes, some children were abandoned by crack-addicted parents, but many families in his neighborhood were torn apart before crack — including his own. (He was raised largely by his grandmother.) Yes, his cousins became destitute crack addicts living in a shed, but they’d dropped out of school and had been unemployed long before crack came along.

As "the New Jim Crow" argues strongly, the war on drugs began years before the explosion of crack-use and associated gang violence (in fact most street-gangs didn't have much of a role in the drug trade until the 80s... before then, slanging was counterposed to banging). Crack-use did not cause the implosion of urban areas (nor has meth-use caused the "rust-belt" conditions of the midwest) - crack/alcohol use was one outcome of an implosion caused by the nexus of capitalist restructuring (moving industry out of cities) and racism.


“If you’re living in a poor neighborhood deprived of options, there’s a certain rationality to keep taking a drug that will give you some temporary pleasure,” Dr. Hart said in an interview, arguing that the caricature of enslaved crack addicts comes from a misinterpretation of the famous rat experiments.

“The key factor is the environment, whether you’re talking about humans or rats,” Dr. Hart said. “The rats that keep pressing the lever for cocaine are the ones who are stressed out because they’ve been raised in solitary conditions and have no other options. But when you enrich their environment, and give them access to sweets and let them play with other rats, they stop pressing the lever.”

This implies, to me, a more general point about substance use and abuse in contemporary society: whithout organic thrills and an engaging life, people will tend to try and substitute other things to try and get fufilment. In other (marxist) words, alienation is probably one of the biggest factors in a whole number of contemporary problmes in life. Why wouldn't people want to escape from the demeaning and depressing feeling of uselessness in povery or, the alternative for most, a dull, regimented, repetative life where your efforts go to make the lives of elietes better while rewarding you with only being able to maintain that dull repetative life?

Why do people overeat, eat poorly, act reckless compulsivly, try and fill voids through consumer pleasures, do drugs, etc? Anexiety, depression, futileness, alienation, lonlyness - all things that come with life in capitalism. This is true for professionals too (who I think do drugs as much as the poor - if not more) because some of them have very competative lives where their work does have to come home from them and so they seek uppers to keep up or seek escape - often legally through prescription drugs too.

As the author of the book says, it's environmental factors... and what dominates our social environment more than the demands and requirements of capital.


It's insane how often I have to smash this erroneous belief (that all people who use drugs like coke or meth inevitably become addicted) in real life conversations. Even people I know who've taken a ton of prescription speed and coke up their noses will sometimes claim that you can become addicted to crystal meth after one hit. :rolleyes:

Right, well we get one report like this buried in the Science section compared with daily sensationalized TV news stories full of huge drug busts and violence for 30 years, cop shows, political speeches where both parties talk "tough on drugs", etc.

The last quote in the article says that "scientists have misled" people on this issue... well that's part of it, though I think there were political and grant incentives to do research on certain aspects of drug use - while conversly dissenting views were dennounced by politicians and the media and found it hard to get funding... you have to have special governmental permission even to test drug-effects in a lab. But ultimately if every scientist and doctor agreed, it wouldn't matter... most scientists agree that energy policies and fossil fuel use is incredibly harmful but that doesn't matter does it. So it would take a social movement (probably an anti-racist one) to really combat against the "war on drugs".

[Creative Destruction]

This is really interesting and not surprising to me in the least. I grew up in a town that was plagued by meth addiction and usage (and cooking -- that shit is dangerous.) Meth and heroin have killed a few people I knew growing up. But if you ask an addict why they keep doing it, one of the biggest reasons is because it helps them escape from their shitty environment. I heard one user say "Because it doesn't yell at me or berate me or make me feel like I'm less than nothing."

I believe it's the same thing that social scientists have been pointing to for years: the rate of this destructive kind of usage and its correlation with the horrible environment that a lot of users find themselves in.

[argeiphontes]

Good find (IIRC I've seen this researcher somewhere before...). I've always maintained that people who have problems do drugs. Drugs themselves aren't the original cause of their problems, though they may exacerbate for example money problems. This has been invariably true for people I've known in my life.

(Once an ex-girlfriend of mine ended up in this shitty rehab that was basically a high-priced insurance scam (the people who ran it had been on Oprah and what not) where any underlying issues were given the most superficial, Oprah-rific treatment imaginable. I know a bit about psychology, so seeing that my gf wasn't getting the *real* care she needed, I tried intervening with the head counselor, but sometimes they're people who's ego is bigger than their paycheck... Often I could barely sit thru the bullshit but I was there to support her so I didn't just walk out with a scowl of disbelief on my face... I'm sure they would have explained me away as an uncaring bf who doesn't understand drug addiction or who's blinded by his own marijuana use, etc.)

I'm not a fan of processed drugs myself, thinking that these have greater destructive & addictive potential, but drugs in general have been safely used to get high for thousands of years (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/28034925/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/worlds-oldest-marijuana-stash-totally-busted/#.Ujs8QU3WU1I). Now, it's just an excuse to send poor people and minorities to jail or to justify the police/prison complex or to divide society against itself by presenting the image of poverty as a cess-pool of individual irresponsibility in order to bolster the system.

edit: needless to say, I'm a huge fan of marijuana legalization. I have my own Jungian views on legalization and drug use too. In an age where drinking has become Titanic, society could use the return of Dionysos, the deliverer from madness, the madness of alienation and capitalist distortion of society.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Aye, I remember a few years ago, someone on this board posted the published results of research on rats and cocaine addiction, and the role of environmental factors. As mentioned in this article, when provided with the opportunity for sex, food, and recreation as alternatives, coke isn't nearly so appealing. I credit the 2012 student strike helping me stay sober after my first serious relapse. ;)

It's funny that these tests are consistently with drugs that are no fun at all. I'd love to see some studies on this sort of thing with less addictive/incapacitating drugs. For example, I'd say it's harder to turn down pot or cigarettes since they don't actually tend to interfere with doing other things. Like, presented with the choice between smoke pot and fuck, or get $20 and fuck, probably a lot of people are going to chose the pot over the $20, y'know?

[Creative Destruction]

i wonder if there's a drop off somewhere. undoubtedly, these drugs can be physically addictive. at what point does it become more about getting the drug, above all else? i'm reminded of layne staley's last interview where he basically said his life had become getting high, even though he had his girlfriend, money and what not.

[Paul Pott]

Junkies can be clever with money. I've had friends fall into addiction, and their resourcefulness never ceased to amaze me. How someone who's dead broke and a high school dropout manages to spend a month's rent-worth of money on drugs a week I don't know.

I do know how. I work at a pawn shop.

[synthesis]

(Once an ex-girlfriend of mine ended up in this shitty rehab that was basically a high-priced insurance scam (the people who ran it had been on Oprah and what not) where any underlying issues were given the most superficial, Oprah-rific treatment imaginable. I know a bit about psychology, so seeing that my gf wasn't getting the *real* care she needed, I tried intervening with the head counselor, but sometimes they're people who's ego is bigger than their paycheck... Often I could barely sit thru the bullshit but I was there to support her so I didn't just walk out with a scowl of disbelief on my face... I'm sure they would have explained me away as an uncaring bf who doesn't understand drug addiction or who's blinded by his own marijuana use, etc.)

A huge portion of the drug rehabilitation industry (yes, it is an industry) is either an extortion racket or an arm of the criminal justice system or both. It's amazing, the God complexes some of these addiction specialists get as a result of the level of control they have over people's lives.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I do know how. I work at a pawn shop.

Is it just like on those dumb TV shows, where idiots come in and want to get their shit out (having foolishly pawned said shit) with no money, or go in and demand "free money", and stuff like that? I love looking in pawn shops. There's so much worthless crap in them but it's really interesting all the same.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Junkies can be clever with money. I've had friends fall into addiction, and their resourcefulness never ceased to amaze me. How someone who's dead broke and a high school dropout manages to spend a month's rent-worth of money on drugs a week I don't know.

I had a conversation with my friend once about this when we were both moody and how much it sucked that even with all our money schemes because of this drug we needed, we were spending over 200+ dollars a day a piece, are homeless and with the money we spend on drugs we could have had an apartment, car, food, etc. It was very depressing. Damn.

[Paul Pott]

No, Pawn Stars is about as relevant to the pawn shop business as Survivor is to wilderness survival. I've never heard anyone ask for free money. They have the 'quick loans' scams for that.

Also, in my state there are certain laws that protect the customer. We have to hold things for months even if they don't pay the interest and storage charges, and we have to send them a notice in the mail first before we can take ownership of the item.

I mean, don't get me wrong, half the people lose their stuff, it's just not like TV. And it's pretty much an open secret that many of them are buying drugs and that's a major reason for drug users' "resourcefulness". Those types rarely pick up what they pawn, actually they'll keep pawning new things.

[argeiphontes]

his life had become getting high, even though he had his girlfriend, money and what not.

Something was missing that this person couldn't get through wealth. (Imagine that!)

The proper (healthy, recreational) context of drugs is ritual, almost always with a social element, not just obsessively getting high. There's an understanding that something out of the ordinary is going to happen and that we (ahem, they) will experience this together. For example, note how marijuana use tends to be a ritual among friends. It's a far cry from Reefer Madness, to say the least.

The researcher in the OP is claiming, based on his research, that addictiveness of drugs themselves is overblown. There must be something else that makes people choose drugs, and that's at least partially a socioeconomic problem.

Insisting on a personal etiology to what are actually socioeconomic problems is a great way to blame the victim. *cough* capitalism *cough* ;)

@synthesis: God complex would be a good way to put it. Pathological narcissism too. edit: It's not only that, though, that pisses me off. It's for people claiming to be shrinks that have so little insight into their own situation. But I think the real motivation was money.