Bruce Alexander - Addiction’s Mysteries: Plato, Rat Park, and Carl Hart

really fascinating approach with a lot of credibility. I think a lot of Alexenders work is indirectly Durkheimian in nature. Emile Durkheim's famous study on suicide in 1897 has identical characteristics of Bruce's work - Durkheim believed too much or too little solidarity or regulation a society has the more suicide rates it will have. Bruce states that the problem lies in a fragmented society in particular when people lose connections with people; both Durkheim and Alexander highlight the power the environment, in particular sociability has over the individual.

This perspective on addiction is WAY overdue in today's environment. People need to reconnect with each other and support each other as they move towards recovery and away from self medicating with drugs!

Great information about addiction, capitalism, culture, colonization. #ratpark   #brucealexander   #ishmael   #readishmael   #straightedge   How the fuck does this only have less than 200 views...

This keeps on being groundbreaking. Although I still suffer from the anxiety brought to me by the concept of one or two or three diagnoses amplifying the problem to say the least or otherwise not particularly heplful, I ould love to learn more about that in this contextt. Just to speak for myself: PTSD, ADHD and BPD...

Harm reduction is recognized by Alexander as a compassionate response to the "problem" of addictions, but in this talk he goes much further into the mystery of addictions and recovery, offering a new historical and psychological consensus; that addictions are a spiritual, relational dis-ease, and moreover, that we can cure addictions, by creating a new world  in which we live vibrantly together, as members of communities.

Reasons why I believe all drugs should be legalized: 1) Freedom of choice, every person should be able to choose what they put into their bodies. This is public policy issue. 2) Hazards with even the most dangerous of drugs typically has more to do with purity, dosaging, and tool maintenance which can be better controlled in regulated markets. This is pharmaceutical issue. 3) Non-commercial markets encourage a lack of oversight and regulation which funds gun violence, burglaries, gang activity, and violent crime. This is an economics and criminality issue. 4) Illegality creates and encourages a public perception about drug users that never before existed. They lose jobs and are publicly ostracized for something for what is a natural human behavior. They are often cherry picked vices looked at unfairly and not given chances. This is an interpersonal psychology issue. 5) The study of these drugs and their affects will change. Our understanding of psychology will change as we gain new technologies to better see their affects. Illegality creates barriers to research. This is science and research issue. 6) They can make you feel good. This is an underrated interpersonal psychology issue. 7) Young people should be educated about how to control and moderate the joy happiness they feel in their lives instead they are taught to just say no, which in some cases can be a downright impossibility. This is similar to the sex education arguments which say to educate and teach birth control over abstinence only. It may be necessary to explain to people the processes of dangers and even more importantly the positive aspects of drugs and emotional consistency they can some times offer over common emotional states. Developing better value practices is a part of growing up and substance users face unrelenting charges of skewed values and information that cigarette smokers, alcohol drinkers, and even other much more expensive risky pastimes can be associated with. This is an education issue. 8) There is historical culture of substance use which is traced back to most ancient civilization that will be extinct unless properly preserved. This is a historical issue. 9) Drug illegality is the primary leverage against minorities and nonwhite communities, also, more general speaking communities of poverty and lower middle class. These sub-groups are unfairly targeted and ostracized for the habits of a larger socioeconomic class.  This is a community, racial issue 10) Recovery and Treatment options for substance users and abusers are currently, for the most part reserved for individuals with the resources and support structure that is not available to many poor and underprivileged neighborhoods and people.  Research has shown that these 'harm reduction" based approaches are cheaper on a state and easier/better for a populace than more putative approaches like jail.  Drug user should have opportunity for employment and standard of living same as anyone else.  This is a treatment and community concern issue.   11) At the moment prescription based opiates (oxycontin) and cocanites (novacaine) are grown in other poorer countries then shipped across the world for refinement and sale. A ground war in Afghanistan feeds the users of the United States while farms in India and Tanzania are the growing grounds for major world retail pharmaceuticals. These counties have low export costs and can be pressured into high militarization by the strong United States forces. This is a global militarization and security issue 12) The United States currently houses the largest prison population on the planet by an absurd margin.  Most jailed individuals are for drug use or possession, and a majority in the low amount possession.  Over half of individuals believe there should be a better approach to criminal justice and that at least marijuana legalization is a viable option in the United States.  This is anti-open society, and anti-representative government stance.  It is a crime-punishment philosophy issue.   13) While we have already discussed the blanket discrimination that systematically happens against all drug user, it is important to highlight the typically unfair discrimination which happens among the different types of drugs.  Marijuana is the ideal and primary example where it remains illegal despite being safer than alcohol a heavily commercialized commodity.