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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HPilot who wrote (713124)	11/15/2005 5:46:45 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Re: recidivism rate. "This is a habit not an addiction, yet has a high recidivism." The definition of "addiction" is a slippery thing. There are PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPONENTS of 'addiction' and well as PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES. For the... some call it 'strict', PHYSIOLOGICAL definition, it relies upon classic physical withdrawal symptons. By that definition, ALCOHOL, NICOTINE, OPIATES, BARBITUATES, AMPHETAMINES, etc., are "addictive substances", since they produce withdrawal symptoms when patients end their use. By that definition marijuana is not "addictive" since their are no withdrawal symptoms... but by the PSYCHOLOGICAL definition of "addiction", because many marijuana users will still have a clear desire to use the substance long after they have stopped it's use, it has been called "addictive". NOTE: that by the PSYCHOLOGICAL definition, anything people like to use... chocolate, driving fast cars, sex, etc., etc., can be considered an "addiction". The PSYCHOLOGICAL definition doesn't draw a bright line between "habits" and "addictions". (I think the old aphorism applies here: "all things in moderation!") Now, the RECIDIVISM measure for interpreting "addictive behavior", i.e., the clear statistical measure of how many people RETURN TO USE of the substance (or of the action, the behavior, etc.) after attempting to stop, ignores all the arguments over whether an "addiction" is PHYSIOLOGICAL or PSYCHOLOGICAL in basis. The measure of recidivism is agnostic in that regard, it's simply the percentage of a target population who return to use or the behavior. By the recidivism measure, as I've pointed out, nicotine produces as high, or higher, a return to use as the opiates do. These statistics suggest that tobacco "addiction" is one of the most difficult ones to break out of.