For John, BLUF: I think there is a lot of Pop Psychology driving Government Policy. Nothing to see here; just move along.
The sub-headline:
Right-wingers tend to think of addiction as a moral failing, and leftists tend to think of it as a disease. It looks like both positions might be wrong.
This Foundation for Economic Education article by Mr Jon Miltimore is datelines 17 November 2017.
The lede:
In his bestselling book Chasing the Scream, British journalist Johann Hari highlights a different study from the 1970s conducted by Bruce Alexander, a psychologist and professor from Vancouver. Alexander noticed something peculiar: the rats in these experiments were always solitary.Hat tip to the InstaPundit.What would happen if the rats weren’t alone? he wondered.
Eager to find out, Alexander created an environment he called Rat Park, a happy home where rats enjoyed playgrounds and the company of other rats. He discovered these rats “had much less appetite for morphine than rats housed in solitary confinement.” Importantly, none of the rats in the happy environment died from overdose.
Alexander’s research is just one of the many pieces of evidence Hari cites in his book, a three-year project that led him to a startling conclusion: “Almost everything we think we know about addiction is wrong.”
Regards — Cliff
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