On 13 April 2011 Michael Sylvester wrote: >As a matter of fact there has been some controversy as >to whether cocaine is a true addicted substance. >Crack is a highly concentrated form of cocaine and the >experience is much more potent-it is like having >an orgasm in every cell of the body.
I profess no expertise on this subject, but leaving aside numerous reports of cocaine addiction prior to the advent of crack cocaine, I know something of the furore that accompanied Freud's claims in the mid-1880s that cocaine was not addictive. His 1884 paper "Über Coca" (also abstracted in *The Lancet*) was a eulogy to the health benefits of the substance, including a false claim of its having cured an individual of morphine addiction: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n08/borc01_.html However, after reports of cocaine addiction started coming in, Albrecht Erlenmeyer (editor of the journal *Centralblatt für Nervenheilkunde*), alleged, no doubt over-dramatically, that Freud's advocacy had unleashed "the third scourge of humanity" after alcohol and opiates: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626061/pdf/jnma00904-0091.pdf Dr J. B. Mattison was prominent among physicians in the United States in reporting cases of cocaine addiction among his patients, many of them doctors having easy access to the drug and believing it to be harmless. He published his article "Cocaine Dose and Cocaine Addiction" in *The Lancet* in 1887. References: R. Byck (ed.) (1974). *Cocaine Papers: Sigmund Freud.* New York: New American Library. E. Jones (1953). *Sigmund Freud: Life and Work.* Vol. 1. London: Hogarth Press, chapter 6. E. M. Thornton (1983). *Freud and Cocaine.* London: Blond & Briggs, pp. 170-188. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org ----------------------------------------------------- From: michael sylvester <msylves...@copper.net> Subject: Re: question about maternal cocaine use and punishment Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:42:42 -0100 It appears that the prognosis for crack cocaine babies is good in contrast to fetal alcohol syndrome.There are many explanations for this;the prevailing one seems to be that cocaine addiction is different frrom the other addictions. As a matter of fact there has been some controversy as to whether cocaine is a true addicted substance. Crack is a highly concentrated form of cocaine and the experience is much more potent-it is like having an orgasm in every cell of the body. Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida ----- Original Message ----- From: Carol DeVolder To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 4:29 PM Subject: [tips] question about maternal cocaine use and punishment Dear Tipsters, I'm going to be talking to my behavioral pharmacology students this afternoon about cocaine use. One of the subtopics is prenatal effects. As an important part of that I want to discuss maternal treatment (or lack thereof) and prosecution. I've done a Google search (because I didn't plan far enough ahead) and most of the articles I've found are from the 1990s. I already have what I think is an excellent commentary on the topic entitled Pregnancy and the Public Health Hypocrisy, although it is via the organization Reconsider (as in "reconsider current drug policy"), thus it is understandably a position. Do any of you have other sources, knowledge, or ideas about this? I'd like to figure out what the most recent status is with respect to punishment of women who test positive for cocaine either while pregnant or at delivery, whether it is state-by-state or at the federal level. Any help would be appreciated. Carol -- Carol DeVolder, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology St. Ambrose University 518 West Locust Street Davenport, Iowa 52803 563-333-6482 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=10007 or send a blank email to leave-10007-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
