Month: September 2023

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The Rat Park Studies

unknown author. The Rat Park Experiment. Marin Mikulic website

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Bruce K. Alexander and other researchers run a series of experiments investigating the self-administration of morphine in rats firstly under a cage alienation and loneliness condition; then in a rat fun park condition, where there were other rats to associate and play with and engage in a number of playful activities. In both conditions rats were provided with two bottles: one contained just water and the other morphine in water. In the first instance rats consumed the morphine water to death; in the second they were interested in socialising mating and resisting to the morphine solution. The conclusion of these experiments confirmed that environmental and societal conditions are key in developing addictive behaviour, thus addiction.

References:

Alexander BK, Beyerstein BL, Hadaway PF, Coambs RB. Effect of early and later colony housing on oral ingestion of morphine in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1981 Oct;15(4):571-6. doi: 10.1016/0091-3057(81)90211-2. PMID: 7291261.

Alexander-et-al-1981-Effect-of-Early-and-Later-Colony-Housing-on-Oral-Ingestion-of-Morphine-in-RatsDownload

Hadaway, P.F., Alexander, B.K., Coambs, R.B. et al. The effect of housing and gender on preference for morphine-sucrose solutions in rats. Psychopharmacology 66, 87–91 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00431995

Hadaway-Alexander-Coambs-et-al-1981-The-Effect-of-Housing-and-Gender-on-Preference-for-Morphine-Sucrose-Solutions-in-RatsDownload

Rat Park drug experiment cartoon. (2013, May 29). Retrieved from http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comics_en/rat-park/

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It’s All Gone Wrong!

It’s all gone Pete Tong1!

…Frank just locks himself up in his room…didn’t come out of his villa for a long time.

He had this theory he was gonna get his hearing back…

He hired people to bring in supplies for him to the villa. The only accounts we have of Frank during this period come from various drug dealers. He was in a very dark place.

References:

Dowse, M. (2004). It’s all gone Pete Tong. Vertigo Films. True West Films.

see full movie transcript here

  1. Cockney rhyming slang for “wrong”. ↩︎
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Be Addicted To Life

“Choose Your Future.”

“Choose Life.” 

…Choose the slow reconciliation towards what you can get, rather than what you always hoped for. Settle for less and keep a brave face on it. Choose disappointment and choose losing the ones you love, then as they fall from view, a piece of you dies with them until you can see that one day in the future, piece by piece, they will all be gone and there’ll be nothing left of you to call alive or dead. Choose your future.Choose life.

References:

Welsh, I. (1996). Trainspotting. 1st American ed. New York, W.W. Norton.

Welsh,I. (2017). Trainspotting 2. Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781784704735

Boyle, D. (2017). Trainspotting 2. Film4Productions,PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Noel Gay Motion Picture Company, Figment Films

see full movie transcript here

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A Real RocknRolla

A Real RocknRolla1…

There is no spring without a winter.

No life without death.

And the demise of Lenny has blown a new season into the lungs of young Johnny.

Goodbye, Mr. Sidney Shaw!

  1. People ask a question: What’s a Rocknrolla?
    And I tell them it’s not about drums, drugs and hospital drips.
    Oh no. There’s more in than that, my friend.
    We all like a bit of the good life.
    Some, the money.
    Some, the drugs.
    Others the sex game, the glamour or the fame.
    But a RocknRolla, oh, he’s different.
    Why?
    Because a real RocknRolla wants the fucking lot. ↩︎

References:

Ritchie, G. (2008). RocknRolla. Warner Bros.

see full movie transcript here