Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Feb 6, 2012, 8:56 pm
An interview with the man who blew the whistle on the neurotoxic malaria drug in the U.S. Army’s kit bag. A dangerous malaria drug invented by the Army and commonly used by soldiers and civilians alike causes everything from episodes of psychotic violence to nightmares more real than realit...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Feb 4, 2012, 4:58 pm
A compendium of tough prose and poetry about addiction. Here’s a book I’m delighted to promote unabashedly. I even wrote a jacket blurb for it. I called it an “honest, unflinching book about addiction from a tough group of talented writers. These hard-hitters know whereof they speak, and...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Feb 4, 2012, 4:45 pm
A tough new compendium of addiction prose and poetry. Here’s a book I’m delighted to promote without reservation. I even wrote a jacket blurb for it. Here's how I described it: "An honest, unflinching book about addiction from a tough group of talented writers. These hard-hitters know whereof th...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 31, 2012, 11:06 am
  Dopamine recruits a helper to track drug rewards. Ah, dopamine. Whenever it seems like researchers have finally gotten a bead on how that tricky molecule modulates pleasure and reward, and the role it plays in the process of drug and alcohol addiction, along come new findings that rearrange its r...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 24, 2012, 1:00 pm
How everything we knew about heroin was wrong. Editor's note: The famous Robins study on heroin use among Vietnam veterans has been so often—and so recently—misinterpreted that I felt motivated to reprint an older post on the subject. In 1971, under the direction of Dr. Jerome Jaffe...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 14, 2012, 4:29 pm
... insurance, but I was like, fuck that, no way. It’s funny, they cover detoxes and rehabs but they don’t cover talk therapy. Most of my struggle to get into the path of non-self destruction was because ... about how hard it is for addicts to lift themselves by their own bootstraps through ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 11, 2012, 12:10 pm
Defining addiction, making research more transparent, and dealing with the DSM-V (The “Five-Question Interview” series.) Like many incredibly busy people, Dr. Howard J. Shaffer, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, is generous with his time. This paradox works to t...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 8, 2012, 8:17 pm
X-ray specs for drug effects. The science of addiction and the technology of brain scans have both developed exponentially in the past two decades. The search for specific neurobiological markers for addiction was made possible by positron emission tomography, better known as the PET scan. Kn...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 5, 2012, 3:04 pm
Unlikely candidate helps alcohol-dependent mice cut back on the sauce. Say what you will about glutamate-gated chloride channels in the parasitic nematode Haemonchus contortus—but the one thing you probably wouldn’t say about the cellular channels in parasitic worms is that a drug capable ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 2, 2012, 3:33 pm
Meet another major player in the biology of addiction. The workhorse neurotransmitter glutamate, made from glutamine, the brain’s most abundant amino acid, has always been a tempting target for new drug development. Drugs that play off receptors for glutamate are already available, and more ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jan 1, 2012, 12:10 am

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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 28, 2011, 1:45 pm
Some food, or rather, some drink for thought. A recently released study conducted for the CDC Foundation estimates that the economic costs of excessive drinking in American totaled $223.5 billion in 2006.  Binge drinking accounted for 76.4%, or $170.7 billion of the total costs, according to ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 26, 2011, 12:17 pm
A variety of drinking tests: the good, the bad, and the silly. Here’s a short, no-nonsense questionnaire that uses your weekly drinking habits to produce an at-a-glance comparison of how your intake stacks up against others your age and sex. For example, your result might say: “Only 4% of ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 20, 2011, 2:11 pm
Wrapping it up. From DrugMonkey’s blog: “The rules for this blog meme are quite simple. Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.” (Credit to Janet Stemwedel and John Lynch for the idea.) Here are the 12 first lines from 2011 here at Addiction...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 18, 2011, 2:21 pm
My article on women and alcohol. There are very real gender differences in the way men and women are affected by alcohol. Here's my summary of the subject in a December 16 article for Scientific American Online: "Women's Response to Alcohol Suggests Need for Gender-Specific Treatm...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 12, 2011, 7:58 pm
... Ecstasy target serotonin systems. Serotonin systems control feeding and sleeping behaviors in living creatures from slugs to chimps. Serotonin, also known as 5-HT, occurs in nuts, fruit, and snake venom. It is found in the intestinal walls, large blood vessels, and the central nervous system o...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 8, 2011, 2:40 pm
Raw carrots won’t cut it. How times have changed. You’ve heard of Rodale, the outfit that kicked off organic gardening in America, and publishes Prevention Magazine and Organic Gardening? Founded in 1947, the Rodale Institute’s mandate was to publicize J.I. Rodale’s personal vision of ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 2, 2011, 11:08 pm
Common drug most likely to land seniors in the hospital. High-risk drugs for seniors aren’t the ones you might think. Take warfarin, trade name Coumadin. Millions of seniors do. For people with certain kinds of heart trouble, or who have had a stroke, Coumadin works against the blood’s ten...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Dec 2, 2011, 5:26 pm
The tobacco industry’s war against plain packaging. After years of tightening regulation and dramatic declines in the number of adult smokers, Big Tobacco is targeting teenagers like never before. The fact that they intend to do it with aggressive package advertising has run up against plans in th...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Nov 29, 2011, 10:30 am
Designer stimulants surpass heroin and cocaine. A troubling report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) have, for the first time, become more popular around the world than heroin and cocaine. Marijuana remains the most popular ill...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Nov 25, 2011, 7:05 pm
Dr. David Friedman explains it all. Dr. David Friedman, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, is also the co-founder and director of the Addiction Studies Program, a workshop for science journalists in Washington, D. C., funded by the National Inst...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Nov 22, 2011, 12:10 pm
Mothers and the War on Drugs. Guest post by Gretchen Burns Bergman Gretchen Burns Bergman is Co-Founder and Executive Director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and lead organizer of Moms United to End the War on Drugs. The Holiday season is upon us. At this time, whe...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Nov 17, 2011, 11:16 am
Controversial meth treatment program fails in major study. Prometa—the drug cocktail designed to combat addiction to cocaine and methamphetamine—has fallen flat on its face in a double-blind, placebo-controlled 108-day study just published in the journal Addiction. Dogged all along by a la...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Nov 14, 2011, 1:32 pm
Meet cytisine, available in Bulgaria for 25 cents a pill. A clear majority of American smokers say they want to quit. But each year, only a small percentage of them manage to do it. For individual smokers, the will is there, but what’s sometimes missing is the money. For many smokers,...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Nov 7, 2011, 12:26 pm
District Court says FDA mandate would violate First Amendment. Consumers may yet be spared graphic images of diseased lungs and smokers with holes in their throats, after R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, and other tobacco companies prevailed over the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. District ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Nov 2, 2011, 4:36 pm
  What’s in that “Spice” packet? They first turned up in Europe and the U.K.; those neon-colored foil packets labeled “Spice,” sold in small stores and novelty shops, next to the 2 oz. power drinks and the caffeine pills. Unlike the stimulants known as mephedrone or M-Cat, or the several...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Oct 30, 2011, 12:40 pm
A hipster gets his shit straight—sort of. Addiction memoirs remain one of the most popular forms of autobiography on the shelves. But now, when considering a new addition to the genre, it’s impossible not to wonder whether the claims being made by the author are genuine. Since serious drun...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Oct 27, 2011, 10:04 pm
National Drug Facts Week is upon us. Yes, kids, times does fly, and it’s time again to do a CyberShoutout for National Drug Facts Week, which kicks off on Monday, October 31, and runs through November 6. (Check the map for related events in your neck of the woods.) Sponsored by the Na...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Oct 23, 2011, 3:11 pm
Why marijuana gets you high, and hemp doesn’t. Cannabis sativa comes in two distinct flavors—smokeable weed, and headache-inducing hemp. The difference between hemp and smokeable marijuana is simple: Hemp, used for fiber and seed, contains only a tiny amount of THC, the primary active ingr...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Oct 19, 2011, 3:11 pm
Brain scans, iPhone love, and state-dependent memory. (Third post in the “Five-Question Interview” series.) Brain scans have put cognitive neuroscience on the map. They have become a key part of addiction studies as well. In fact, brain scans have put neuroscience on the front page, ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Oct 12, 2011, 8:58 pm
An essay on the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. As the 20th Century began, America’s drinking habits were undergoing a thorough review. But In late 1914, five years before the prohibition of alcohol became the law of the land, the government also took aim at other drugs. The legal status of h...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Oct 6, 2011, 9:23 pm
Sending in the IRS instead of knocking down doors. It’s official: The Obama administration has thrown off the gloves, repudiating Attorney General Eric Holder’s vow of two years ago that the federal government was not interested in prosecuting “state-legal” cannabis activity. Instead, ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Oct 5, 2011, 12:08 pm
What you need to know about mephedrone. The Pat Moore Foundation has put together this nifty chart as a primer on mephedrone, the amphetamine-type stimulant marketed as "bath salts." Thanks PMF!   Created by Pat Moore Foundation
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 30, 2011, 11:49 am
Canadian Supreme Court clears the way for Vancouver’s safe-injection facility. Insite, the controversial supervised injection site for addicts in Vancouver, has won its case before the Supreme Court of Canada for a permanent exemption from the nation's drug laws. CBC News reports that, in a ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 28, 2011, 12:33 pm
An essay on the losing battle for perpetual reward. The amphetamine high, like the cocaine high, is a marvel of biochemical efficiency. Stimulants work primarily by blocking the reuptake of dopamine molecules in the synaptic gap between nerve cells. Dopamine remains stalled in the gap, stimula...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 22, 2011, 11:39 am
On synthetic marijuana, organic medicines, and drugs of the future. (Second post in the “Five-Question Interview” series.) Back in July, Addiction Inbox ran a fascinating 5-question interview with clinical and research psychologist Vaughan Bell. The post touched on abnormal brain fun...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 20, 2011, 12:06 pm
How a blockbuster diet pill died. It took many years to bring depression and its treatment into the rational light of day. Addiction in the mid-1990s was in the process of undergoing a similar medical transformation. Even so, scientists were wary of pronouncing that overeating was in some cas...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 15, 2011, 12:57 pm
An essay on drug addiction and need. For years, craving was represented by the tortured tremors and sweaty nightmares of extreme heroin and alcohol withdrawal. Significantly, however, the one symptom common to all forms of withdrawal and craving is anxiety. This prominent manifestation of cra...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 11, 2011, 7:22 pm
“Drunkenness is a disease and I can cure it.” In America in the late 1800s, curing alcoholism was a serious business—and for Dr. Leslie Keeley, a very lucrative one. Dozens of clinics and cures already existed, and some treatment centers had even experimented with franchising. For the la...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 6, 2011, 11:41 pm
Maybe it’s not such a bad theory after all. The brain, as always, bats last. It compensates, reregulates, and adjusts. One of the major ways it accomplishes this is through the neuroadaptive phenomenon called downregulation. When we take drugs continuously, the brain compensates for the arti...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 5, 2011, 10:50 am
Filling the void between “doing nothing and formal treatment.” Good news for recovering addicts and addiction experts in Los Angeles: Dr. Adi Jaffe, a well-known addiction psychologist from UCLA and a longtime friend of Addiction Inbox, is kicking off a new venture: the A3 Academy. �...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Sep 1, 2011, 11:53 am
Another look at "behavioral addictions" and the DSM-V. The DSM-V, when it debuts it 2012, is set to replace the category of “Substance-Related Disorders” with a new category entitled "Addiction and Related Disorders."  Gambling is the only behavioral addiction currently recommended for in...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Aug 21, 2011, 3:39 pm
Staying on message in the liquor biz.  “Our national drug is alcohol,” wrote William S. Burroughs. “We tend to regard the use of any other drug with special horror.” This emotional loophole in the psyche has been skillfully manipulated by the alcohol and tobacco industries ever since ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Aug 15, 2011, 2:24 pm
A rift in the addiction treatment community over abstinence. What is harm reduction? How does it differ from the approaches traditionally associated with drug recovery and rehab? Originally, I became interested in harm reduction because its advocates were highlighting the folly of priso...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Aug 10, 2011, 5:45 pm
A 75-year old pot assay is due for an update. We’ve all seen it on cop shows: The little plastic bag, the officer breaking the seal on a small pipette and inserting a bit of marijuana, then a firm shake, and voila, the liquid in the test satchel turns purple: Guilty. Here’s an inter...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Aug 6, 2011, 6:34 pm
Ken Kesey and His Merry Band of Pranksters Search for a Cool Place "In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World's Fair. He was joined by "The Merry Band of Pranksters," a renegade group o...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Aug 4, 2011, 1:33 pm
The chemistry of sorrow during nicotine withdrawal. When you smoke a cigarette, nicotine pops into acetylcholine receptors in the brain, the adrenal glands, and the skeletal muscles, and you get a nicotine rush. Just like alcohol, a cigarette alters the transmission of several important chemic...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Aug 1, 2011, 7:09 pm
You're free to write off the cost of addiction treatment—if you can afford to. The cost of addiction treatment is a legitimate medical expense, as long as you are talking about drug and alcohol addiction, which the IRS recognizes as a genuine medical disease. If you go to Betty Ford on the ...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jul 25, 2011, 3:33 pm
Knowledge, not firepower, is the key to the future. In modern American society, heart disease, cancer, HIV\AIDS, diabetes, alcoholism, and cigarette addiction account for millions of deaths. They are all disease entities with strong psychological and behavioral components—complicated, multic...
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Dirk H. posted an article on Addiction Inbox - Jul 25, 2011, 10:52 am
My WebTalk Radio interview for the podcast, “Addicted to Addicts.”     Listen to the podcast at WebTalkRadio HERE. (Addiction Inbox is now on vacation. Hot fun in the summer sun...)
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