Gabor Mate: How Childhood Trauma Leads to Addiction

THE OPPOSITE OF ADDICTION IS NOT SOBRIETY; THE OPPOSITE OF ADDICTION IS CONNECTION

A MUST-LISTEN INTERVIEW ON ADDICTION

Interview is from Tom Woods Show.

Here are my notes . . . 

Anslinger was riding the fear of Latinos, a lot of parallels of today, “If you smoke cannabis you will murder your family with an axe.”  This was the reason why cannabis was banned.  

90% of crack and heroin users do not become addicted, leaving 10% or less of those who do use these drugs become addicted.  

Chemical hooks theory.  Patients recovering from serious injuries are put on heroin drugs in hospitals but they never get addicted.  If heroin is addictive, why are these folks not getting addicted?  The chemical hooks theory took place following a lab experiment with a rat.  A rat was placed in a cage with two cups–one with water only, the other laced with heroin.  Placed all by itself, the rat almost always preferred the heroin-laced water.  It’s not the drug that causes addiction, it’s the isolation.  Rat Park: lots of colored balls, other rats, lots of sex.  In Rat Park, they don’t like the drugged water.  They don’t use it very much.  In the 1970s, scientists came along and pointed out that you put the rat all alone in an empty cage, where it’s got nothing to do except use these drugs, what would happen if we did this differently?  So he built a cage that he called Rat Park. 

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety; the opposite of addiction is connection.  Places where addiction is highest is where suffering is highest.  Not a coincidence that the current addiction crisis spiked after 2008.  Core of addiction is trying to avoid pain, trying not to be present in your life.  Fundamental errors in the war on drugs.  One solution is to get rid of the drugs.  Can’t do that; they even appear in prisons.  If you could do that, that’s not the core of the problem.  War on Drugs says you stop addiction by inflicting more pain on addicts.  He gives the example of a woman in prison in Arizona where she is humiliated.  Stopping addiciton by afflicting more punishment on them.  Punishment makes suffering worse, and therefore makes addiction worse. 

Here is 

 

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Marcia Powell, 48, was baked in 106-degree heat for 4 hours under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a disciple of Harry Anslinger.  A woman cooked in a cage in Arizona kept getting arrested.  Judged by the courts to be mentally incompetent.  She was trying to kill herself, and the guards to stop her from doing that put her in an outdoor cage.  Exposed to the desert sun.  Prison guards said they forgot about her.  She screamed, she begged for water, and by the time they called for an ambulance, she had been cooked.  No one was ever criminally punished for what happened to Marcia Powell.  Because when you dehumanize someone with an addiction problem so deeply, you can brazenly murder someone with an addiction problem and it just doesn’t matter, it doesn’t get counted.  

To remedy a few addictions, see Bill Sardi's list:

Myricetin, a molecule from the Asian raisin tree, has been shown to block the cell receptor in the brain responsible for addiction to alcohol.

One of Myricetin's benefits is indicated in Alzheimer's.  Interesting.

Researchers at UCLA tested various molecules and found one that magnanimously blocked the cell (GABA) receptor on the surface of brain cells that produces alcohol craving.  [Acta Pharmacologica Sinica Aug 2014; Neurochemical Research June 2014]

N-acetyl cysteine, a sulfur compound, has been shown to reduce behavioral addictions such as gambling and physical addictions such as smoking. [Journal Clinical Psychiatry Jan 2014]

Zinc supplementation may be beneficial for those individuals who are hooked on opoid drugs (Fentanyl, morphine, Oxycontin, etc.). [Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention Policy Aug 4, 2015]

Carvacrol from oil of oregano is effective in beating back fungal overgrowth (Candida species) that creates sugar craving. [European Journal Clinical Microbiology Infectious Disease Jan 2011]

Zinc and magnesium may be helpful in reducing nicotine addiction among heavy smokers. [Addiction Research & Therapy 2012]