High Price

cocaine inevitably leads to child neglect, even in rat models this is not the case. Like human mothers, rats tend to change their lifestyles when they become pregnant and researchers have found that pregnant and nursing rats choose to take far less cocaine than virgin rat females do. While it may not always seem like it, babies are actually powerful sources of reward to their parents.
    Similar findings have also been obtained in human laboratory studies that offer cocaine users a choice between the drug and other types of rewards. (One such study, which we did, was described in the prologue.) In another study, cocaine users had the option to snort cocaine under two conditions. In the first one, they had to choose between cocaine and placebo; in the second, their choice was between cocaine and a monetary reward of up to two dollars. Not surprisingly, the volunteers consistently chose cocaine over placebo. However, even though the monetary alternative was small, they chose to take less cocaine when they had that option, compared to when the only alternative they were offered was placebo. 9
    Basically, having choices makes an enormous difference, even when drugs are involved. Cocaine isn’t always the most compelling alternative, even for people whose lives seem to revolve around it. It can be extremely pleasant, of course, but at many times, the pleasure isn’t actually more desirable than that from sex or other natural rewards. The choice to use depends far more on context and availability of alternatives than we have been led to believe.
    Of course, you have probably heard about studies in which rats or even primates continually pressed levers to get cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine until they died, choosing drugs rather than food and water. But what you probably didn’t know is that these animals were kept in isolated, unnatural environments for most of their lives, where they typically became stressed without social contact and had little else to do.
    By analogy, if you were in solitary confinement for years with only one movie as a source of entertainment, you’d probably watch it over and over. But that wouldn’t necessarily mean that that particular movie is “addictive” or compulsively watchable. You’d probably still watch it if it were the worst film ever made, just to have something to do. Similarly, saying that unlimited access to cocaine “makes” animals addicted to the point of killing themselves, based on research in isolated rodents or primates, doesn’t tell us much about drug use in the real world.
    Obviously, if you are spending 24-7 alone and without any social contact let alone affection, some drugs, at the right doses, can be quite attractive. However, studying the drug without providing these important alternative reinforcers tells us little about how cocaine affects people or even animals in the natural world.
    It presents the drug as uniquely pleasurable and the addicted person as a fool caught in mindless hedonism: it obscures the fact that when people have appealing alternatives, they usually don’t choose to take drugs in a self-destructive fashion. But it does show that in the absence of social support or other meaningful rewards, cocaine can be very attractive indeed. The bottom line is that we have been repeatedly told that drugs like crack cocaine are so attractive that users will forgo everything for them. Nonetheless, overwhelming empirical evidence indicates that this is simply not true.
    M y own social network, however, was also profoundly affected by the stresses of my neighborhood, even as it often helped ease them. Early in my adolescence, one sister, the one I felt most connected to, was nearly taken from me forever. Although Brenda and her husband and his brothers may have had a bigger overall impact on my life, Joyce was the sister I was closest to, both in age and emotionally. She’s only a year older than I am. On the outside, Joyce seems tough: we mirror each other in that we both set aside and compartmentalize our emotions. She doesn’t take crap from anyone. Joyce is also very sensitive, however, and I think this made our childhood especially challenging for her.
    Unlike me and my other sisters, she didn’t resist the constant wear of growing up poor and black by trying to stand out or lead. She didn’t attempt to be a star athlete like I did or to aspire to college like Brenda. She didn’t do well in school the way my other sisters did. She wasn’t