Marilyn Thipthorpe
What causes a person to get addicted? Addictive substances, right? I mean if there was no addictive substances like heroine, cocaine, LSD there would be no substance abuse? I’m afraid my dear friend, you are very wrong. Substance abuse is not the fault of the abuser or the substance itself rather the blame rests of the shoulders of a narrow minded society. This is the narrative that our society teaches us. It is the reason why we treat addicts like criminals, blaming them for the choice they have made when they could have just as easily chosen a normal, conventional life, like everyone else.
It’s not as simple as you might think.
The Rat Pack Experiment: In 1970, Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander and his colleagues at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia conducted a study that directly challenged the common notion that drugs are themselves the cause of addiction.
They put lab rats in small separate cages, each with two water dispensers; one of them filled with pure water and the other with water mixed with heroin or cocaine. The rats would end up compulsively pressing the drug dispensing lever again and again, even to the point of choosing it over food. Soon enough, they would starve themselves to death. Sounds like the typical drug addict behavior, right?
But the study doesn’t end there. Alexandre and his team built what one could call a “Rat Paradise.” Instead of isolating rats in small separate cages, they let them interact with each other in an environment 200 times more spacious than a standard laboratory cage — with plenty of food, toys, wheels, and space to mate. Their behavior and choices changed dramatically.
The rats in the rat park resisted the drugged water and chose pure water instead. Even already-addicted rats weaned themselves off their addiction after they were transferred from cages to the rat park.
This begs the question: were rats really hopeless addicts, or simply unhappy? Were they reacting to the drug itself, or to their confined, isolated, and depressing environment?
The same question should be asked about human beings.
The antithesis of humanity: From young we are instructed in schhol to university to attain good grades to get good jobs to earn money to have a great life-The great life expects you to sit in a cubile all day and punch in statistics! Don’t know about you, but this to me sounds a lot like a little cage in which there is no time or space to enjoy ourselves, act on our deepest calling, and feel a sense of community among fellow human beings — which I believe is key to human happiness and fulfillment. This is not to say that choosing the drug over reality is the right choice, but it is, in essence, just as reasonable as the poor rats’ decision to go for “feel good” chemicals rather than stay sober inside of a prison. Both the drug-addicted rat and human are hurting… and pain needs compassion and understanding, not punishment.