Brenton
Rat Park
April 8th 2008 12:53
An Addicted Rat
Say again. Drugs are not bad. Neither though, are drugs good. Drugs just are. They’re little chemical reactions, which influence your life experience. Nicotine, Caffeine, MDMA, Alcohol, Morphine or Codeine – you’d be best to face it – they’re part of life and they’re here to stay.
So, if first we accept that drugs in themselves are neither inherently good or evil, why has society concluded that they are so bad as to be declared illegal? The main reason could be the tests that have been used for drug research. Experiments with rats suggest a direct link between drugs and addiction (I know, surprise! but just bear with me here…) which was summed up by a dude called Avram Goldstein in the following;
“Every addictive drug used by people is also self-administered by rats and monkeys. If we arrange matters so that when an animal presses a lever, it gets a shot of heroin into a vein, that animal will press the lever repeatedly, to the exclusion of other activities (food, sex, etc.); it will become a heroin addict.”
But lets take another look at this; what if it were you? What if we picked you up, took you away from your environment, dumped you in a sterile metal cage and gave you nothing to do but eat and get prodded of by people examining you and take drugs? What’s the chance you’d get addicted to numbing away your pain?
This was the thought of this other dude; Bruce K Alexander. His idea was to redo the experiment – only instead of having all his rats in little metal cages, he only put half in there – each provided with a container of clean water, and one of morphine water. The rest, went to a little rat paradise. The rest, went into Rat Park.
Rat Park was a 18.6 meters square enclosure, that was a rat paradise. It had food, women, nature, pictures, space – anything a rat could want… and it also had drugs. Two containers, just like the cages.
The interesting thing was – while rats in the cages lived in a chemical haze, Rat Park rats didn’t really want to get high – they just wanted to live life, have fun, mess around. They’d try it out sure, but weren’t interested in the chemical obliteration. Even addict rats moved into Rat Park, would begin to get clean. It was a fact: Happy rats don’t want to get high.
Rat Park was a ground breaking experiment that deserved to influence international drug policy. Instead it was ignored – the great human trait of selective hearing had come into play.
Maybe one day we’ll reconsider what we’ve always taken for granted as fact. One day, we might question the modern perceptions that determine the direction of our society instead of following blindly. However right now – we’re not too sure to where the rat race is running – but it certainly isn’t our cozy little rat park.
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Comment by Anonymous
Comment by jon
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Seriously though. This experiment could have huge implications for all kinds of experiments that have been done in the past.
Comment by Brenton
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Comment by Ahmed
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Don't get me wrong, its true that happy rats don't want to do drugs and I bet happy people don't want to go for the extra stuff, it has always been my belief thats why people do drugs. To get that much more out of themselves in their fruitless search for having a good time.
But humans are (unfortunately) more intelligent than rats and may want to do drugs for other reasons, perhaps to escape from their real life problems...
Comment by JohnDoe
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Whats even more amazing is the most damaging and socially harmful drug of all, Alcohol is legal.
Comment by Anonymous
So basically if they had no problems they wouldn't take drugs right? Which is exactly what Rat Park proved. Your logic fails.
"Whats even more amazing is the most damaging and socially harmful drug of all, Alcohol is legal. "
Alcohol is the most damaging and socially harmful drug because it's legal. That makes it widespread, and that's what makes it so damaging.
Comment by Ahmed
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Comment by Jacinda
People mostly tend to binge when it's illegal - the reason alcohol is so damaging is because teenagers and underaged youth binge on it due to it's accessibility. Sure there are those who have addictive personalities, and yes they do become alcoholics. But I know so many friends who, if over 18, if there parents have no issues with them drinking, and they don't have a vendetta out on the world that makes them want to rebel everything - will more then likely drink responsibly.
My parents let me drink some champayne and wine from the age of 8 for special occasions such as Christmas ... It actually turned me off alcohol a fair bit because they tasted awful, and such a small amount had no effect on my metal state.
I'm saying perhaps, other reasons probably include for the sake of leasure (stupid humans)
True, however the people I know who do this, do so for relaxing qualities (granted we are only talking weed here - but still). I however have a good life, and despite having been offered drugs and been in presence of drug taking even more so - have never even been tempted to take drugs. And as the experiment said - the rat park rats STILL DID try the drugged water - just not anywhere near as much.
Comment by Brenton
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People will get high on something no matter what. Personally I'd like to see them able to do that without unneeded potential for death.
Comment by Drug rehab
Comment by Brenton
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I thikn it is a mistake to regard any thing as an oject of evil, and should instead develop ways to deal with 'things in a way that is the most healthy for society.
I also note that you promote a drug rehsabilitation clinic, so i can imagine this impacts upobn your views.