#73: Speedballs—Myths & Misconceptions

Hollywood feeds viewers a lot of problematic stereotypes regarding drug use, perhaps none as misleading as the notorious speedball. Users who combine heroin with a stimulant like methamphetamine or cocaine to create a single injectable liquid are said to be "speedballing," and when it is depicted on television or in books, it is used as the proverbial rock bottom of addiction, the final stop along the train of illogical and uncontrollable drug use. But injectable speedballs are actually pretty uncommon in the drug world. The ways these drugs are prepared and the way the work in the body usually makes combining them a hassle most of us don't bother with; we just shoot them up one-after-the-other.But there are also a lot of reasons why we are tempted to use these drugs together. The chemicals which compose the individual parts of the speedball concoction compliment one another in ways that entice users. They fill the gaps in each other's affects; they both have properties which the other lacks.Check out the research mentioned in this episode here: Kent Berridge & Terry Robinson, "Liking, Wanting & the Sensitization Theory of Addiction."Kent Berridge, "The Debate over Dopamine's Role in Reward: The Case for Incentive Salience." Kent Berridge, "Evolving Concepts of Emotion and Motivation." Maia Szalavitz, Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction. For Donald Klein's ideas about the Thrill of the hunt/feast, see Peter Kramer, Listening to ProzacSupport the show