A Conversation with UCLA Addictions Expert Dr. Adi Jaffe

Dr. Adi Jaffe is an up-and-coming expert on addiction (drugs, sex, gambling, you-name-it).   As an expert on addiction, he knows more than most: he has first-hand experience.  He suffered for many years from a raging meth addiction, which he eventually had to support the only way he could – by selling drugs and skimming off some for himself.  He was arrested several times, risking everything including his life and freedom, just for a hit of meth.  After many desperate attempts to stop, he realized that he would “end up either dead or in jail or homeless”.  He checked himself into rehab and finally broke the addiction.  It was not easy!  Amazingly, he pulled the pieces of his life back together.  He went back to school, and did extremely well.  Using skills developed during his successful drug business, he did a ‘full court press’ on UCLA and was admitted to their prestigious PhD program.  UCLA is the epicenter of the scientific study of  “Addiction Research”, and Dr. Jaffe is now a scion of the emerging field.    http://www.uclaisap.org/  He also maintains his own web site All About Addiction in which he writes a blog and promotes rehabs that have unfilled beds. Continue reading A Conversation with UCLA Addictions Expert Dr. Adi Jaffe

Why does every best seller on addiction turn out to be fake?

All of the best-selling accounts of addiction turn out to be fakes.  This is true of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey through his Son’s Addiction by David Sheff.  Why is that?  If you read this site, you already know the answer: because addiction is a myth, and therefore any account of it must be fictional or fraudulent.
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Addict Science

There is a multi-billion dollar medical industry dedicated to studying the science of ‘addiction’.  However, this is an exercise in futility.  There is no such thing as addiction (defined as an uncontrollable compulsion to drink/drug).  All they can show is that parts of the brain light up when people who use drugs see pictures of them, e.g. cocaine, etc.  Surprise, surprise!  I’m sure my brain would light up when I see a donut.  But I’m not addicted to them.  (Well maybe a little.)
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The Types of Addiction Fakers

Drug addiction is a myth, and drug addicts and alcoholics are total fakers. This may seem hard to believe, because the idea of drug addiction is so ingrained in our consciousness. However, we believe in drug addiction even though we never experienced it ourselves. Although the theory seems plausible, we are completely reliant on the accounts of others, and that they are accurately representing their internal experience. Unlike other diseases like cancer and arthritis, for which there is clear physical evidence, and even for some mental disorders such as schizophrenia, there is no clear physical representation for addiction. In fact, as shown elsewhere on the site, the medical evidence for addiction is often invalid and inconclusive at best. Is it really a disease? Or is it a modern myth? To what extent are the addicts themselves aware of their lies, or do they actually believe the addiction myth, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
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The Real Addicts

We know that drug addiction is real because every day we hear another story of a celebrity with a drug problem getting into trouble.  Drunk driving seems a particularly popular past time among many celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, and Robert Downey Jr.  These are people who could easily afford a driver (and probably have one) but choose to get behind the wheel anyway.  What were they thinking?  They must be addicted to drugs/alcohol and this impaired their judgment.  There is no other explanation.
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AA double talk

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Most people join AA because drinking is no longer fun and they are seeking a replacement for the bar scene. These people are not alcoholics. But when they say, “I am an alcoholic” or “I am powerless over alcohol” they are perpetuating the Myth of Addiction. It is no coincidence that this is the first step of the initiation into the group — a classic brain washing technique.
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How 12 step programs promote the addiction myth

There are many causes of the drug addiction myth, but one of the most important is Alcoholics Anonymous and other “12 Step” programs.  These programs require that the participant believe that addiction exists and that they are in fact a drug addict, in order to participate in the program.  The first step of the program is:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
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Legalization and the end of the drug war

20 years from now all drugs will be legal, and people will look back on the drug war and say, “What were we thinking??!!”.There will not be addiction or even widespread drug abuse.  People will be aware of the effects of drugs (good and bad) and will use them responsibly.  Some people will use drugs to excess, learn their lesson, and then stop (much like the great majority of us already do today).  The myth of drug addiction will be remembered as one of the many silly obsessions of the past that resulted in unnecessary and widespread oppression, destruction and death.
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Rat addicts and the science of addiction

Much of the modern medical conception of addiction is based on animal studies performed during the 1960s and 70s.  In the experiments, a needle was placed into the leg of a caged rat.  The intravenous apparatus was connected to a lever in the cage that administered a drug, generally either cocaine or heroin.  The rats soon learned that by pressing the button they would get a dose of the drug, and the rats were soon ‘addicted’.  They pressed the button continually, ignoring food sources, sometimes until death.  When the drug was withdrawn, the rats would go through characteristic withdrawal symptoms – anxiety, jumpiness, sleeplessness, etc.
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