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Drug use norms and expectations: Obsessions and compulsions in our society.
I used to always say, back in my using days, that speed (methamphetamine) was The American drug. Why? Meth makes its users sharper, more alert, and more focused, and it allowed me to spend entire nights up studying like I’d never been able to study before. Unfortunately, like many other aspects of The American Dream,…
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Struggling with my addiction: Recovery, addiction, and the everyday stuff
I’ve written about my own struggles with my addiction on here numerous times. I’ve used crystal meth, ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, LSD, mushrooms, and more, though the first few were the ones that really got me. After an extended career as a dealer and addict, I turned a new leaf and made a new life…
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The brain addiction connection : Crystal meth, and our friend dopamine
We’ve talked about the general way in which neurons in the brain communicate with one another and then reviewed the ways in which cocaine messes some of the basic processes that the brain depends on. It’s time to move on to another drug, and since the brain-addiction connection is similar for meth and cocaine, it…
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The brain-addiction connection : Neurons and neurotransmitters
As I’d mentioned in an earlier post, while many people experiment with, or use, drugs at some point in their lives, only a small percentage (between 10%-15%) develop chronic drug abuse and dependence problems. While some of the specifics of what makes one person more likely to move from recreational use to addiction are still being…
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Student Dealing – College campuses and the drug supply
If you haven’t heard about the San Diego State drug-dealing arrests, check out the story. Aside from the obvious impact on the San Diego community in general, and on the school in particular, I can’t help but draw parallels to my own story. In the future, I’m going to try to follow up on this…