alcohol/drugs

Number of US Newborns with Drug Withdrawal Triples

May 14, 2012

Yahoo News recently ran an Associated Press article with the above heading.  Here are some quotes: Disturbing new research says the number of U.S. babies born with signs of opiate drug withdrawal has tripled in a decade because of a surge in pregnant women’s use of legal and illegal narcotics, including Vicodin, OxyContin and heroin, [...]

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Heroin Addiction is Not a Illness

January 19, 2012

A couple of weeks ago I heard a piece on NPR:  “What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits.”  It’s an interesting story.  It tells how in 1971, researchers found that about 20% of the American soldiers in Vietnam were addicted to heroin.  This was shocking news to the Pentagon and to President Nixon, who [...]

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Drugs and Alcohol (Part 3)

October 16, 2010

A Rational Policy on Drugs and Alcohol In my last post I argued against government prohibitions against drugs and alcohol.  My position is that substances such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, etc., should be legal in the same way that alcohol and tobacco are today.  I believe, however, that the distribution and marketing of these substances [...]

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Drugs and Alcohol (Part 2)

October 6, 2010

In my previous post on this subject, I discussed addiction to alcohol and other drugs.  I made the point that addiction to these substances is not an illness, but rather an extremely strong habit. Treatment Programs The notion that alcoholism is a disease gained popularity in the 50’s and 60’s.  At about the same time, [...]

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Drugs and Alcohol (Part 1)

September 30, 2010

The APA’s DSM lists two broad categories of diagnoses in this area: dependence and abuse. So we have alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse; amphetamines dependence and amphetamines abuse; cocaine dependence and cocaine abuse. And so on. Dependence is defined by the presence of three or more of the following criteria: tolerance, as defined by either [...]

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