Word: addicts
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...fundamental question remains: Should our laws punish the addict for using drugs or help the addict overcome his addiction? "The general public consensus seems to be shifting away from punishment and toward treatment," says Kenneth Sharpe, professor of political science at Swarthmore College and an expert on U.S. drug laws. "To many conservative drug warriors [many of whom legislate and enforce our drug laws], a drug problem is a problem of the individual. And punishment, the harsher the better, forces individuals to address their problems. Then there's a whole different model that recognizes drug addiction as an addiction like...
...four years. "Covering politics is largely the business of trying to figure out what it is that divides us and what it is that brings us together," says Karen. She will now do that figuring all across America, in her new beat as national political correspondent. Once an addict...
...structural problem. The film is telling three distinct stories. One is about a judge from Cincinnati, Ohio, Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), who is appointed by the President to be the new national drug czar only to discover that his own daughter (well played by Erika Christensen) is an addict, headed toward the lowest levels of degradation. Another is about an honest Mexican drug-enforcement officer (a marvelously watchful Benicio Del Toro) mystified by the cruel omnipotence of Tomas Milian, who is more or less Wakefield's Hispanic counterpart. The final story is of a San Diego material girl (Catherine Zeta...
...even when an addict has been clean for a long time, says Leshner, the addictive brain has been permanently primed for relapse. One common trigger for returning to drugs is stress, which can send the recovering addict back to a proven stress reliever. Another is contact with people, places and things associated with drugs--cues that bring up dormant memory circuits laid down during active addiction and thus reawaken craving...
...Since addiction is caused by drug exposure, Leshner believes, anyone who takes drugs long enough will become an addict. But "long enough" can vary dramatically from one person to the next. In Downey's case, it can't have helped that when he was six, he was given a joint by his filmmaker father (Downey Sr. has since expressed regret for that action). But without an understanding of individual biological differences, which scientists have yet to unravel, nobody can say whether those experiences turned Downey into an addict right from the start or whether repeated drug use over many years...