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Addiction
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Addiction CravingsAddictionsObsessions Is The Topic For The Twentieth Virtual Symposium I’ve had addictions. The hardest one to break was smoking. I smoked for over forty years and it took sickness to break the habit. But I had quit smoking many times over those years, only to take it up again. The final time, the straw that broke the camel’s back, was when I couldn’t walk uphill hiking without being out of breath. I couldn’t run with my dog. I packed up all my pipes and tobacco and put them away, and have never picked them up again. All I need to keep me from smoking again is to think of that feeling of suffocating when I tried walking up hill, or chopping wood. It’s not so much humiliating as it is depressing, and disappointing. Why the hell could I have not done that forty years before? Partly because it was always so easy to get, and partly- probably- because there are actually some benefits to smokers that anti-smoking groups refused to acknowledge could exist. It was condemned as a pure evil without any research into what compels people to smoke. They were written off as weak and stupid. But there are benefits to the smoker. It’s clear that the benefits are outweighed by the harmful effects, but people continue smoking even when they’re aware of the damage they’re doing. They aren’t stupid! Studies have shown that smoking stimulates pleasure centers in the brain and enhances other pleasures that you experience. The same pleasure centers in the brain that are affected by morphine and heroin are activated by nicotine. And for years smoking was a socially accepted vice, like alcohol. Opiates were never socially acceptable. It was the drug of the ghetto and used first by Chinese immigrants and then found its way into working class and racially segregated black slums of the big cities. On the tail of prohibition and its dismal failure as a social experiment, religious zealots and moralists went after free love, public lewdness, including that depicted in films of the time (which frequently featured nudity), and drugs. All the intolerance of non-smokers today was then directed at the supposed moral weakness of hedonists and drug users who were seen as substandard, and this of course could be attributed to their belonging to inferior races and economic groups. They just weren’t as strong and upright as white Europeans. They didn’t have our inherent moral fiber. White youth were warned to resist the siren call of hipsters, to preserve the purity and natural superiority that was their birthright. In the sixties, when young people began rejecting the values of their parents’ generation, a reassessment was in order. White were using drugs! That was a problem, and had to be explained by the destabilizing influence of rock and roll, the devil’s music, and the coddling of negroes in our modern culture. This couldn’t be allowed to stand- our white youth were being corrupted, and along with that our position as the natural rulers of lesser races was being threatened. Parents were said to be too permissive., and drug addiction and moral degradation was the result. if there’s anyone who doesn’t realize that this is pure and unadulterated bullshit, let him stop reading here. President Nixon declared a war on drugs. The already vast federal bureaucracy would see to it that no drugs would enter the country. They’d make drug use impossible by eliminating illegal drugs. I won’t attempt even a cursory history of the drug war. Anyone who’s been paying attention can see how well that’s worked out. You’d think that Americans of all people would understand the law of supply and demand, especially after our experiment with prohibition. The bureaucracy that was created to stop the flow of illicit drugs is dependent on the flow of those drugs for its existence. Smuggled drugs are their livelihood. We passed, state by state, tough laws, habitual offender laws, called three strike laws, to lock addicts up for being convicted more than twice of possession of controlled substances, but we can’t control the demand for more drugs no matter how many people we lock up. We incarcerate more people than any other nation on the planet. A great number of them are imprisoned because of drug related offenses. And very few rehabilitation programs are at all successful at curing addicts of their addiction. The British began a heroin maintenance program to try to fix their own problems with heroin addiction. Addicts would register and be given a daily dose of heroin. Eventually they would die out and Britain would be free of addicts. But after about twenty years heroin from the continent was again showing up on that sceptered isle. A new generation had grown up unexposed to heroin, and they represented a brand new and lucrative market for smugglers. There was a new market and a new demand. Unheralded, a man named Bruce Alexander, a professor of psychology in Vancouver, noticed something interesting about how rats behaved when exposed to drug laced water supplies. A rat is put alone in a bare cage with two water bottles. One bottle is clean pure water. The other bottle is loaded with heroin or cocaine. The rat will use the drug laced water supply until it kills him. So Alexander built a different kind of cage. He called it Rat Park. He put many rats in the cage, with plenty of room, and there were enough female rats to make life interesting for the most sauve “ rat about town”, to quote Johann Hari, who wrote about the experiment with Rat Park in his book “Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days of the War on drugs”. The rats had plenty of diversion, including colored balls to roll and play in. Apparently rats are crazy about playing with colored balls. Who knew? The rats tried both water supplies, and knew what the effect of each would be. They avoided the drug tainted water and drank the clean pure water instead. In Rat Park, they had everything a rat could want- toys, tunnels, and plenty of rat pussy. When hearing about this experiment, I was immediately reminded of something William S. Burroughs , a lifelong heroin addict, had said: that given the absence of any strong motivation or interest in another direction, people will gravitate toward drug use. The implication is significant and large. If people have decent, interesting and fulfilling lives, they may experiment with drugs but they will steer clear of relying on them to the point of addiction and death. I can personally vouch for this. I wasn’t just a smoker, I was a heroin addict. I won’t write about the time and the details of when I think I hit bottom. But when my life finally changed for the better, I was able to quit. I knew plenty of people who weren’t that lucky. The results of the Rat Park experiment ring true to me, just like Burroughs’ remark years ago had before. If they have the basic necessities to survive, some social support from their own kind and even a chance to prosper, most people can handle the rest on their own. Participants List For the Twentieth Virtual Symposium CravingsAddictionsObsessions Become a member now and get a free tote bag. |
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A+  Vive La Difference
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A+ Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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" given the absence of any strong motivation or interest in another direction, people will gravitate toward drug use. " Rat Pack experiment proves this beyond doubt.
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" given the absence of any strong motivation or interest in another direction, people will gravitate toward drug use. " Rat Pack experiment proves this beyond doubt. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Absolutely loved this! I can relate to quite a bit of your personal experiences. Very well done!     Rachel Mae
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Absolutely loved this! I can relate to quite a bit of your personal experiences. Very well done! Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Great Post I am myself a recovering Tobacco Addict, I tried several times to quit and eventually succeeded. My only other Addictions are Alcohol and Women Then nearly 20 years later, my job brought me to Germany. I met a woman who Smoked in a Bar  After a couple of weeks with her, I started Smoking again, my excuse was that it took away the Ashtray taste when kissing. This was of course total BS. We split up after a while, but I continued to Smoke. I also found my health was suffering, Breathlessness Etc. I stopped smoking at the end of October last year. I couldn't go completely "Cold Turkey", I use E Cigs as a crutch, a little Nicotene helps now and again. I have however, No Plans, to give up Alcohol or Women  Visit my Blog Older but no Wiser and find out more
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So your testimony is that your life is now interesting enough that drugs hold no sway over you. Thank PD for that! Love her and so glad that you will be with us longer because the drugs are no longer of interest. Good entry into the symposium , Kk The observant make the best lovers, I may not do right, but I do write, I have bliss, joy, and happiness in my life, Kitkat Come check out my blog KItkat1415 check out this post by me Adventures In Body Grooming #39 April Topic Link: What Lies Beneath If April Showers Oh Bloody Hell What Kind Of Weather Turns Me On Bloggers Symposium 40
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Great post! 
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Great Post I am myself a recovering Tobacco Addict, I tried several times to quit and eventually succeeded. My only other Addictions are Alcohol and Women Then nearly 20 years later, my job brought me to Germany. I met a woman who Smoked in a Bar After a couple of weeks with her, I started Smoking again, my excuse was that it took away the Ashtray taste when kissing. This was of course total BS. We split up after a while, but I continued to Smoke. I also found my health was suffering, Breathlessness Etc. I stopped smoking at the end of October last year. I couldn't go completely "Cold Turkey", I use E Cigs as a crutch, a little Nicotene helps now and again. I have however, No Plans, to give up Alcohol or Women  Honestly, I did have issues with giving up the walk on the wild side. I identified with those people. In so many ways I was a misfit and an outcast. But if you pare it down to the core, that shit was gonna kill me, and I didn't really want to die. That would only occur to someone who had options. Nobody else has any particular reason to go on.Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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So your testimony is that your life is now interesting enough that drugs hold no sway over you. Thank PD for that! Love her and so glad that you will be with us longer because the drugs are no longer of interest. Good entry into the symposium , Kk Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Leo, I've made my case before that terrorism could be much reduced by giving the young men who are seduced by radical ideologies a little cash via some kind of gainful and useful employment, and a reasonable supply of pussy. All kinds of guys will fight before getting laid, but who the hell has the energy after indulging in some fresh nookie? Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Great post! Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Addictions suck.  .. I know all about them.  They are a part of the Eco-verse. 
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Addictions suck. .. I know all about them. They are a part of the Eco-verse. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Bonjour Kzoopair Dans ma jeunesse j'avais fumé quelques joints . À 35ans j'ai fumé pour la première fois une cigarettes de tabac et je suis devenu addict en une journée c'est vrai que j'étais en plein divorce et maintenant je fume toujours du tabac alors que je peux fumer des joints pendant plusieurs jours et ne plus en eprouvé le besoin quand je n'en ai plus . Je pense donc que le tabac est plus addictif que l'herbe . J'aime bien l'expérience des rats heureux qui n'ont plus besoin de drogue ♥ Bisou ♥ Poton ♥ Annie ♥ Hello Kzoopair In my youth I had smoked some joints. at 35 years I smoked for the first time a tobacco cigarette and I became addicted in one day it's true that I was in the divorce and now I still smoke tobacco while I can smoke joints for several days and no longer feels the need when I have none. So I think tobacco is more addictive than grass I like the experience of happy rats who no longer need drugs ♥ Kiss ♥ Annie ♥
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Great insight and the entire Rat Park experiment is EXTREMELY interesting to me. The small Kentucky town I grew up in was "dry" for my entire childhood and young adulthood. Many of the older decision makers in town refused to go "wet" because they were so fearful of the consequences of allowing liquor to be sold in town. The hubris of the entire situation was clearly present in the fact that many nearby counties were wet and the small expensive liberal arts college students in my town were NEVER going to abstain. Being a "dry" county doesn't preclude you from drinking alcohol in your home or apartment, it simply prevents you from being able to buy it there. No tax money generated even though liquor was still coming in. Eventually about 10 years ago they went "wet" after a trial period of meeting somewhere in the middle where liquor sails were only allowed in restaurants where more than 50% of sales could not come from liquor. Shocking news, but the town has actually NOT burned in a writhing sea of euphoric evil fornication and debauchery as a result. In a small town with little to do ... the less inhibited youth will find SOMETHING to occupy their time. Satyr in Sheep's Skin Peruse my many stories at Satyr39s Storybook Corner or my Renaissance Era BDSM fantasy story at Serial Story Reinport39s Crowning Index. 
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Excellent post! The so-called war on drugs has been a disaster. In some ways the so-called war on terror is following in the same way. Both 'wars' see both as mainly as a supply-side issues. The demand-side gets neglected by those creating and sustaining these moral panics. 
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Wonderful post, kzoo! Thanks for sharing so much with us. Cigarettes and sugar are the monkeys on my back......I will probably always fight them both, and figured I didn't need any others.
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Bonjour Kzoopair Dans ma jeunesse j'avais fumé quelques joints . À 35ans j'ai fumé pour la première fois une cigarettes de tabac et je suis devenu addict en une journée c'est vrai que j'étais en plein divorce et maintenant je fume toujours du tabac alors que je peux fumer des joints pendant plusieurs jours et ne plus en eprouvé le besoin quand je n'en ai plus . Je pense donc que le tabac est plus addictif que l'herbe . J'aime bien l'expérience des rats heureux qui n'ont plus besoin de drogue ♥ Bisou ♥ Poton ♥ Annie ♥ Hello Kzoopair In my youth I had smoked some joints. at 35 years I smoked for the first time a tobacco cigarette and I became addicted in one day it's true that I was in the divorce and now I still smoke tobacco while I can smoke joints for several days and no longer feels the need when I have none. So I think tobacco is more addictive than grass I like the experience of happy rats who no longer need drugs ♥ Kiss ♥ Annie ♥ À la fin j'ai constaté qu'il était beaucoup plus difficile de quitter tabac que l'héroïne. Le tabac est partout, et relativement bon marché. C'est tout récemment qu'il a eu un tel stigmate attaché à lui. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I tried pot and hash and peyote in college and discovered I did not like the "not being in control" feeling that they achieved ( loved the foodie cravings from pot LO so it never really got me hooked or curious to try anything further. I also had friends who came home from Vietnam who had done acid -they kept having flashbacks that were dangerous to themselves and those around them when the revisits" happened.As always very impressed with your writing style and presentation in your post. Thank you for the knowledge and insight. (Virtual Symposium Group) use Virtual Symposium Group
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Great insight and the entire Rat Park experiment is EXTREMELY interesting to me. The small Kentucky town I grew up in was "dry" for my entire childhood and young adulthood. Many of the older decision makers in town refused to go "wet" because they were so fearful of the consequences of allowing liquor to be sold in town. The hubris of the entire situation was clearly present in the fact that many nearby counties were wet and the small expensive liberal arts college students in my town were NEVER going to abstain. Being a "dry" county doesn't preclude you from drinking alcohol in your home or apartment, it simply prevents you from being able to buy it there. No tax money generated even though liquor was still coming in. Eventually about 10 years ago they went "wet" after a trial period of meeting somewhere in the middle where liquor sails were only allowed in restaurants where more than 50% of sales could not come from liquor. Shocking news, but the town has actually NOT burned in a writhing sea of euphoric evil fornication and debauchery as a result. In a small town with little to do ... the less inhibited youth will find SOMETHING to occupy their time. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Well thanks! I used to take more credit for it than I do now. I thought I had a stronger will than the ones who weren't able to quit. As I've got older it's gradually sunk in that we have less control over events in our lives than we like to think. I had alternatives...I had a way out. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Excellent post! The so-called war on drugs has been a disaster. In some ways the so-called war on terror is following in the same way. Both 'wars' see both as mainly as a supply-side issues. The demand-side gets neglected by those creating and sustaining these moral panics. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I smoked, on and off, for over 20 yrs. I also quit for illness reasons. I think the level of addictions might be based on those "pleasure centers" in every ones brain and how strong they are. Besides cigarettes, I've never been addicted to anything else, while I know people who did certain drugs less than me and became very addicted. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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