In this series I analyze the results of two different drug restriction policies; the prohibition policy of the U.S., referred to as the “War on Drugs”, and the Portuguese decriminalization policy. I do this in the aim of testing the hypotheses that a system that does not punish addicts, but reconnects them with society is superior to the more widely used prohibition system.

This is the last part of the series, and I will in this part discuss the underlying reasons for addiction and present the conclusions of this series. If you have not yet read part 1: "The War on Drugs" or part 2: Portugal's decriminalization policy I suggest that you read them before continuing with part 3.

This series serves as a critical analysis of a collection of academic articles, studies and web pages on the matter of addiction and restriction policies.

Part 3: Why do people become addicted?

The War on Drugs, started not only without much supportive evidence for the prohibition system (Mitchell 2009:32:2), but also without thoroughly examining why people get addicted in the first place.

Researching addiction

In the 1960's researchers started studying addiction, by examining rats. They placed the rats in cages and allowed them to inject small amounts of morphine into themselves, by pressing a lever. The researchers repeatedly found the rats continuing to inject the morphine until they got addicted, and even overdosed. So they came to the conclusion that there are chemical hooks in drugs that makes the user addicted to the drug.

Rethinking the research

In the late 1970's, psychologist Bruce Alexander (1981 15(4):571-6) decided to remake the study, changing one important aspect of it; the cage.

Instead of keeping the rats in a solitary cages with nothing to do he built Rat Park, a heaven for rats, where they had plenty of space, food and friends. It turned out that, in Rat Park, the rats did not like the morphine, they hardly ever used it and not one overdosed.

So according to Alexander, the drug addiction noticed in the rats in earlier studies was not due to the drug itself but due to the isolation. Here is a link to his study.

Bruce Alexander's study indicates that we should not focus mainly on the drugs,
but on the cages that the addicts feel like they are living in.

Conclusions: reasons for addiction

Addiction seems to occur when a person can no longer bare to be present in his or her own life, or is feeling like he or she has nothing to be present for. Humans are social beings with the need to bond with someone or something, and if we do not have healthy relationships to bond with then we will find something else. This could e.g. be cellphones, gambling, cigarettes or drugs.

So how could then this system, which builds on further punishing, isolating and cutting off the people who have already been beaten down by life, help control drug abuse?

When incarcerating low-level users, one does not only punish them for the things that have gone wrong in their life and the bad choices they have made but one also impairs their possibilities to make better choices in the future. When instead focusing on making the environment better, on creating new healthy relationships that the addicts feel like they want to be present for, one can help the addict to reconnect with society and find meaning in life.

Comparing decriminalization and prohibition - conclusions

All data in the analyzed articles, points to the fact that punitive measures alone do not reduce drug consumption. Even though the United States has made huge increases in budget since 1985, the accessibility and consumption of drugs has stayed at the same level.

In Portugal, the amount of addicts seeking treatment has increased significantly ever since decriminalization in 2001. The rate of new cases of HIV has been decreasing, as well as the rate of drug induced deaths. And even though the prevalence for having tried any kind of drugs once or more times during your life has showed an increase, a steady decrease in last month prevalence and continuation of drug use can be seen.

These findings do, however, not necessarily mean that all the aspects of the prohibition policy are ineffective, nor that all the aspects of the decriminalization policy are effective.

But the data analyzed by this paper do implicate that the decriminalization policy of Portugal has been more efficient in reducing drug abuse than has the prohibition policy of the United States.

A big thank you to everyone who read this series!

Here is a link to part 1: the "War on Drugs" and part 2: Portugal's decriminalization policy if you have not yet read them.

Please do share your thoughts in the comments, and feel free to upvote and resteem if you enjoyed the post!

I would also appreciate any comments concerning flaws in the language
since English is not my mother tongue.

mialinnea