Is Drug Addiction a Choice or a Disease? (Re: Drugs Are Super Fun)

Is drug addiction a choice or a disease? (re: Drugs are Super Fun) – This is a response to the following video: www.youtube.com Typical nervousneuron style, taking a 3 min video and making a 15 min response. But the question “Are people who are addicted to drugs weak?” is actually quite complicated. Of course, most of us could reply with our yes or no answer with a personal anecdote. But if we go deeper, new questions arise such as ‘are all behaviours choices?’ and ‘what is a disease?’. For the tl;dnw version, basically addiction is a disease of choice. People may be predisposed to addiction but that does not mean there is nothing they can do about it. There is still personal responsibility, but it is not weakness of character. Compulsions are strong, so resisting them would be more of a strength of character. LINKS: Pleasure unwoven: www.youtube.com Nicotine and gene polymorphism study: www.nature.com I did not go into this specific study into detail because it would require another 15 mins to explain it properly. And it requires knowledge of the pharmacology of nicotinic receptors as well as some brain anatomy (the habenula and the interpeduncular nucleus) and understanding the methods requires knowledge of rat/mouse self administration protocols and neurohistochemistry. Magazine article on the question: www.cosmosmagazine.com Animal models of addiction: www.acnp.org (I only skimmed this so don’t know if it’s the best) Any questions, ask away in the comments.

From Twitter:

#Drug #courts work. http://t.co/7eor0giR #recovery #addiction #military – by thirdcoastdiver (James Loffredo)

From Twitter:

‘Why can’t modern #medicine invent an anti-addiction pill?’ http://t.co/wC0ftyaa – by addictiontweets (Addiction Treatment)

From Twitter:

Medical News Today: “Prescription #Drug #Addiction Is Now An Epidemic” http://t.co/anIZa0qu #education #awareness – by GreggsGift (Gregg’s Gift)