There is an interesting experiment about substance addiction, which has increased in recent years and is being struggled all over the world. Problems caused by addiction weren’t the only ones we knew. Mouse Park’s experiment best illustrates this.
It was played by psychology professor Bruce Alexander in the 1970s. This is an experiment designed to overcome the logic errors of other experiments that result in drug dependence.
- The process works like this:
- Caged rats are given two types of water, one with cocaine and one with pure water. Mice prefer cocaine water over time and actually become addicted and eventually die. However, Bruce Alexander finds the experiment problematic. The mouse has no other action to choose from than cocaine juice. Build a mousepark on top of it. It contains wheels, tunnels, a nice mouse dish and a ball. One contains cocaine and the other pure water. Results will of course vary. Rats don’t like or drink cocaine water very little, and they don’t die.
Bruce Alexander then extends the experiment. As in the first problematic experiment, he places several mice in an empty cage containing cocaine, and the mice become addicted. He then places it in Mouse Park. Rat had occasional withdrawal crises, but he quickly recovered from his addiction.
In conclusion, Bruce Alexander argues that addiction is not a substance problem, but a lack of communication. Unhappy and lonely individuals who are unable to connect with society connect with other things, drugs. So excluding, isolating or banning those who use these substances from society is not the solution.
