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posted by martyb on Friday August 19 2016, @08:13AM   Printer-friendly
from the where-*DO*-addicts-come-from? dept.

Medical Daily reports

Utilizing data from four decades of U.S. government drug use surveys, an extensive and easy-to-use collection of charts has just been created.

[...] The Brian C. Bennett Drug Charts provide a more accurate and illuminating picture of the use and abuse of drugs in America. The visual data components break down people's habits consuming alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine, crack cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, LSD, marijuana, MDMA, methamphetamines, nonmedical prescription pills, nonmedical prescription pain relievers, oxycontin, PCP, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers.

"The Bennett charts graphically illustrate the natural course of the use of psychoactive drugs", William Martin, director of the Baker Institute's Drug Policy Program, and Katharine Neill, the Alfred C. Glassell III Postdoctoral Fellow in Drug Policy at the Baker Institute, wrote in an issue brief called Drugs by the Numbers: The Brian C. Bennett Drug Charts.

"Most people who ever use such drugs stop using them shortly after initiation or a period of (usually brief) experimentation. As the introduction to the collection explains, this pattern is closely correlated with age, with illicit drug use (and other risky behaviors) reaching a peak between 18 and 20, declining sharply by age 26 and then dropping gradually over the rest of the lifespan", the researchers explained.

"This calls into question policies that levy harsh penalties and apply indelible criminal records to people for what may be experimental or incidental use likely to stop on its own in the normal course of maturation without treatment, 12-step programs or relapse. More rational and compassionate responses exist and deserve close attention."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @01:10PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @01:10PM (#390046)

    Addiction treatment, esp. for alcohol, when mandated by court for some drugs/alcohol related incident is a racket.
    It's a MASSIVE moneymaker, and your customer is captive.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday August 19 2016, @02:07PM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Friday August 19 2016, @02:07PM (#390067) Journal

    Especially when you consider that cannabis to an extent (for alcohol but apparently very effective for opioid addiction) but mainly LSD-25 and iboga root are much more effective remedies. I think I read that AA and talk therapy get like a 10% success rate after a year, and LSD-25 and iboga root both have around a 50% success rate after a year. It's not perfect, and it's not magic—it's a tool, a medicine. If we really cared about alcoholics, we'd sit them in a nicely decorated room with a therapist (in place of the traditional witch doctor, which may or may not be an improvement) and let them trip on LSD or iboga.

    Of course, even that approach requires that the patient be ready, which talk therapy could help work towards. I would also accept a religious authority such as a priest, rabbi, imam (yeah I'm going out on a limb there), yogi, lama, what have you in place of the witch doctor (who is basically a religious authority anyway) or therapist.

    Our drug policy has led to so much unnecessary human suffering, and that's not even considering the perverse criminal “justice” system and the inherent racism of the drug war, when Mom Nature has provided us so many ready-made or nearly ready (in the case of rye fungus/ergot, the precursor to LSD-25) tools for spiritual improvement, if only we would use them, if only we weren't afraid of somebody experiencing a hallucination (especially those of us who can't naturally no matter what we try), if only we weren't afraid of somebody having a religious experience not under direct control of said religious authority.

    (Done correctly, the religious authority can only be a guide. They open the door. The patient has to walk through, and what's on the other side of the door may not be what the religious authority expected. But it's not the devil. That is just so irrational I can't even, even when talking about mystical/spiritual experiences, which are just as important for the whole human being, mind, body, and soul, as air, food, and water.)

    But, what the hell am I smoking? Must be that Jimson weed that other AC keeps going on about. We want human doings, not human beings.