The effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain

EFFECTS OF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL ON THE BRAIN

ALSO READ: Alcohol and drug consumption: alarming data from Italy

• So when one of those responsible for the massacre says, “I don’t know why I did it,” is he telling the truth?

Yes, a sad and dramatic truth. His frontal lobe of the brain He died at the time of the crime, and this obviously explains, but doesn't justify, the terrible crime. Likewise, the aggravating circumstance of the group, which makes violence contagious. Imagine a dog that, in the company of a pack, attacks. At that point, the others follow suit, the same dynamic as at a party.

• Among these generations, the simultaneous use of alcohol and drugs is very common. Why? An exponential pursuit of pleasure?

The combination lowers any inhibitions; you feel invincible. From the research we conducted with the Department, in collaboration with the National Research Council (CNR), on drug traces in the air, we discovered that peaks in cocaine use occurred during the "white nights." Young people transform, under the influence of violence, and the night truly becomes white, in both senses: because of the time and because of the river of cocaine flowing.

• Yet cocaine consumption has decreased.

It's true, just as heroin use has decreased. These are the fruits of a prevention, not a repressive, policy that we could have implemented, and which has now been eliminated.

• How do you explain it?

Good question. I'll start with the facts....

• Is it an effect of the new wave of positions in favor of the legalization of "soft" drugs?

This is an issue that concerns public opinion. There are freethinkers in Italy, as throughout the world, who support the legalization of cannabis, improperly calling it a "soft" drug, when science shows it to be extremely harmful due to the harm caused by its use, and also cocaine, based on two flawed assumptions.

• Which?

The first is that legalizing drugs can deal a blow to the criminal organizations that control their trafficking. It's an attractive theory, but it's never been proven in practice or through rigorous field analysis. If anything, I wonder: if we legalize drugs, what do we do with the doctors or drivers who regularly take them? Are we entrusting people's lives to them without any restraints?

• And the second assumption is wrong?

It's called free will. Drug use, as Romano Prodi rightly said, is not a right. And where other people's rights are violated, our freedom is no longer recognized. But in any case, I repeat, we're in the realm of opinion here, and everyone can say what they want. The political issue scares me...

• How can you prove it?

Look at the statistics on road accidents, especially fatal ones. Alcohol-related accidents are decreasing because traffic police enforcement is effective, but accidents caused by drugged drivers are increasing. Because enforcement is nonexistent. Yet a project has been ready for some time, involving seven Italian universities, willing to collaborate, with qualified personnel, on a special drug prevention plan on the roads.

• But there must be someone still doing research on drug addiction.

The Department had made a very specific choice, to avoid waste and cronyism: the funds would go directly to universities and research institutes, without any intermediaries. Now, however, the Department intends to entrust this role to an agency that would act as a filter. An unnecessary duplication, an extra step, which makes the process more opaque and less effective. In fact, we know only one thing: currently, government-funded anti-drug research is stalled.

• Did you understand the Department's objective?

Simple: drag Italy to the shore of liberalization of the drugIts meetings have become like those of the Carbonari. We received news of a meeting convened by the Anti-Drug Department last week, where only associations in favor of liberalization were invited to attend.

• What were we talking about?

Here's the point. The topic was important: it involves defining Italy's position at the next UN World Conference on International Drug Policies, which will be held in Vienna in a couple of weeks. And the Department intends to urge Italy to request a revision of international conventions.

• A risky choice…

A very risky choice, but equally clear. If, for example, the international convention banning the domestic cultivation of cannabis collapses, you understand that a floodgate will open to liberalization. And keep in mind that the European Commission has already expressed itself, ahead of the Vienna meeting, with a very conservative stance on all current agreements, and opposed to liberalization.

• Excuse me, but can the Department make such sensitive decisions without the support of the Prime Minister and the relevant minister?

This is the same thing I'd like to know. Also because, hierarchically, the Department reports to Palazzo Chigi. Do Prime Minister Renzi and Minister Lorenzin share this policy on drugs? Does it reflect their opinions, and have they discussed it with other ministers and the majority parties? These are questions that, at this point, deserve an answer. At least to clarify.

TO KNOW MORE: Free drugs: all the problems of a bad choice. Science says so.