#86: Why you Can't Stay High Forever (Dr. Judith Grisel)

Neuroscientist Dr. Judith Grisel joins me to talk about mechanisms of addiction and why we can't stay high forever. We also discuss antiopioids, trends in drug use,  tolerance, sensitization, how to talk to kids about drugs, and why youth is both the most common and most dangerous time to become addicted to drugs. Plus we cover how drugs work in the brain, how cannabinoids might actually be a neural marker of important memories, cocaine's action in the synapse, the neurology of opioid and alcohol addiction, and much more.  I don't often read a book that teaches me as much as Dr. Grisel's book did about how drugs work and what our brains do long-term to establish tolerance. Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction is also written in a language that is understandable by the general public despite Dr. Grisel's unpacking of issues which require a degree in neurology to fully understand.BTW, the Nelson Mandela quote Dr. Grisel mentioned is, "There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children." Support the show