Bill went on to interview a variety of scientific and medical experts in the field of addiction and neurological research, including Dr. Edythe London and Dr. Drew Pinsky, who explained why addiction is a disease.
Edythe London, PhD
Drew Pinsky, PhD
This Frontline program discusses three theories of addiction: (1) the disease model, (2) a matter of personal choice or (3) a symptom of social ills.
At some point smart people will have to admit we have been wrong in the way we treat drug addiction. The "war" on drugs has been an unmitigated failure, filling our prisons, not stemming or even slowing the flow of drugs into our country, making illegal drug production and sale one of our biggest (untaxed) businesses in the U.S. and turning the police into soldiers in a "war" that has two sides us v. them, rather than their traditional role of professional law enforcement officer.
The part of the Bill Nye show that fascinated me was when they started to talk about why the "addiction gene" had not been eliminated from the human race by a process of natural selection. If all the gene did was cause a predisposition to acquire a disease it would seem reasonable that it would be bred out of the human race rather quickly, but that isn't the only thing it does. People who are predisposed to drug and alcohol addiction are predisposed to taking risks, being highly motivated and moving towards danger. If you think about it that's the kind of person you want in a lot of situations or occupations. Soldiers, fire fighters, nurses, doctors, successful business people, athletes - lots of situations/occupations call for taking risks, being motivated (maybe even obsessive/compulsive to a degree) and moving towards rather than away from danger.
Give me a person who is willing to take risks anyday.
My point is not that people have a choice to either try dangerous addictive drugs or rush into a burning building to save someone, but rather that lucky people have a gene that allows them to take a risk, move towards danger and become really good/obsessed/motivated with doing things that further the common good.
God bless the addicts - and for those of you seeking a way out, may we all be recovered or in a state of recovery someday and able to help those less able to help themselves.
Postscript - I'd temper that comment "give me a person who is willing to take risks", with one caveat though - a person who is willing to take risks and has a reasonable understanding of the consequences of that risk. That precludes anyone under the age of about 21 in my book, since adolescent's brains have not developed the ability to accurately calculate risk, but tend to the "I'm invincible" outlook.
The article Inside the Teenage Brain, which was preceeded by NIMH studies and a Time cover story on the teenage brain, says, "Nerve cells aiding intelligence, consciousness, and self-awareness keep growing even into a person's 20s".
NIMH: Teenage Brain: A work in progress
TIME Magazine Archive Article -- What Makes Teens Tick -- May. 10, 2004
