Hello, I would like to make known to LEAP an element of prohibition that is never touched upon, or acknowledged publicly. The information I am giving pertains to the fields I study and work in.
Prohibition deals most harshly with substances like cocaine, and methamphetamine - substances for which there is a huge market, involving organized crime, with much destruction and much death. These particular substances - cocaine and methamphetamine derive their sought effect from the release of dopamine which these substances induce in a user's brain. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter responsible for delivering information across the brain's synapses, and to understand dopamine's influence and importance in the brain, a person can think of it as though dopamine's presence in a brain were represented by a control knob that can be slid up and down - when the control knob is slid up, the transmittal of information across the brain's synapses improves, so: control of thought increases, memory improves, attention to detail increases, precision of thought gains accuracy, capacity to handle larger concepts and volumes of data is improved, and brain-and-body-health is generally improved overall. When the control knob is slid down, the reverse of all these things happens: the transmittal of information across the brain's synapses suffers, and all kinds of mental stress-based ailments can emerge, as well as many physical pains and difficulties in concentrating, paying attention, and working on tasks in general. The ability to remember fades, and everything become much harder for a person.
This probably leaves a reader, particularly one in policing, wondering about some cases of drug users who don't look better for their drug use - increasing dopamine with a drug like methamphetamine (though far less so with cocaine) has a reciprocal effect of releasing adrenaline, and a reciprocal adrenaline release can agitate many stress-based situations in a person, despite the dopamine increase simultaneously giving the brain better capability to handle those stresses - a bit like a counter-acting effect. Keep in mind that those stress thought-patterns in the person only emerged from there being a lack of dopamine in a person (relative to the amount of work their mind has been trying to do) in the first place. This adrenaline release leading to possible anxieties in a user is far less experienced by cocaine users because cocaine, in addition to releasing more of the dopamine that's already in a person's brain, simultaneously inhibits the further release of adrenaline - so cocaine is sort of like an exact stress antidote.
Here are some research links regarding what I've said about dopamine's influence as being accurately understandable as a slide control knob for the brain's all-around functioning:
Shrapnel
No comments:
Post a Comment