Call me old fashioned, but I believe it takes time and hard work to get what you want — or at least to keep it.
So it seems a little too good to be true that a drug could one day exist to cure cocaine addiction.
But that’s what researchers today, including some at LSU-Shreveport , are working on.
A quick fix to correct a quick-fix-gone-bad – there’s something poetic in that somewhere. But not in a good, Shakespearean sort of way.
To begin with, the nature of cocaine itself causes me to doubt the usefulness of the drug.
A lot of drug propaganda and warring perspectives exist in the world, but the general consensus seems to be that cocaine is a psychologically addictive drug.
The physical harm caused by cocaine happens while the drug is in the body. Withdrawals are uncomfortable, but rarely dangerous.
After taking cocaine, you want more. Immediately. Still, with a good rest, the feeling fades. Actual cocaine addiction increases with time and requires not just occasional but chronic usage.
It isn’t like heroin, where the addiction hits hard and fast and doesn’t let go. Cocaine users show a marked level of control as far as when and how much they use.
In other words, cocaine addiction isn’t regularly a case of one stupid mistake ruining a person’s life — rather, the user makes a conscious decision to use the narcotic for a prolonged amount of time.
And it’s not like information on drugs is scarce. It would be a rare occurrence for a person to take a drug as popular as cocaine and not know something about it.
Drug research focus on the physical symptoms and misses the underlying cause  — namely, what psychological factor triggered the user to start taking cocaine in the first place.
If the cause is psychological, it makes sense the treatment should be, as well.
And, seriously, even the most basic reason for making the drug has its flaws.
If you’re cutting down a dead tree, you don’t start at the top. What researchers really need to focus on is prevention — how to cut off the drug supplies at their source. Among other things, cocaine contributes directly to crime and the destruction of rainforests. And no drug is going to fix that.
Researchers should consider that a cocaine treatment drug would take focus away from prevention.
Take a diet pill, for example. If you have a tablet that’s going to cut your caloric intake in half, you’re going to eat as much cake as you want.
In addition — and it’s possible I’ve been reading too many dystopian novels, but bear with me — this drug could become a commodity in and of itself in the drug world. There are those people who would want to be able to quit just long enough to pass a drug test and get a job, and then be able to start right back up again.
To put it succinctly, the cost of the new drug could outweigh the benefits.
On a small scale, it could have a place, but a drug to cure the effects of another drug should be used rarely and alongside therapy — with no compromise on the therapy.
What really cures addictions is willpower and the desire to quit, and there’s no drug for that.
So next time, it might just be better to take the long road to better health.
Or just don’t find yourself in that situation in the first place.
Macy Linton is a 19-year-old international studies freshman from Memphis, Tenn. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_Mlinton.
 
 
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Contact Macy Linton at [email protected]