Welcome back to the peripheral. This episode will be one that's close to my heart because it deals with addiction, how easy it is to relapse.

I remember hearing Professor Carl Hart, he talked about the rat cocaine study, pretty much the propaganda study that when

you give rats or mice cocaine in a cage, they will start using drugs over food and will

eventually die of starvation. but that study was extremely flawed.

They had to isolate the rat in a tank by itself and only offer it cocaine or methamphetamine,

whatever the drug was, and give it no other option, get it hooked on the drug first, and then offer it food,

and it preferred the drug over food. But when you had a large cage with multiple rats in it,

and you offered them both cocaine and food, they would go for the food.

There's a lot more angles and nuance to it than what you've heard about this study.

And these are just rats.

When it comes to human beings, when it comes to an individual,

there are far more aspects that need to be investigated, researched, and addressed.

While listening to the story, imagine if our guest was arrested and put in jail instead of getting treatment. Imagine if she had an extensive criminal record and was unable to get a job, unable to get health

insurance, unable to get a therapist. Think about the alternate reality that she could have lived

in. And I think this is why it's important that we treat addiction for what it is, which is a medical condition and not a criminal act.

Also, big thank you to her.

She recorded this on her own for me, and it's taken me a while to release it, so it really helped me out.

She also recorded a part two for me that gives a more detailed breakdown on the interactions of drugs.

Between her story and part two, I found her story to be more important, but I do want people to be able to hear her part two.

So I'm going to put it on my Patreon for free

it'll be a public post so if you go out to patreon.com slash the peripheral podcast

you will be able to hear her second part and what happens with the drug

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