Legal Commentary

Meth-Craving Snails

By Jeralyn

This is one of the silliest studies I've read about in a long time. In the UK, a study was done of meth-using snails. The findings:

They discovered that the drug enhanced the creatures' abilities to learn and remember a task. This gives insight into how some addictive drugs produce memories that are hard to forget, and that can even cause addicts to relapse.

"These drugs of abuse produce very persistent memories," explained Dr Sorg. "It's a learning process - drug addiction is learning unwittingly. ...So addicts might be able to kick their habit in a treatment centre, but when they return to their old haunts, all those cues trigger craving and relapse."

If the meth high produces a memory, so would the meth crash, which is a very powerful and miserable experience. Who would seek to replicate that memory? And if they are suggesting that meth users only recall good memories while being able to forget the bad ones, I'm not buying it.

This was a Pavlovian experiment tinkering with the snail's physical ability to breathe. The snail wasn't trying to feel good, he was trying to stay alive. What bunk.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).