Some implications of conditioning theory for problems of drug abuse

Viewing the development of drug cults as a conditioning process, examples are given of specific effects of alcohol, barbiturates, opioids, amphetamines, cocaine, marihuana, LSD and other psychotomimetic drugs that can reinforce continued use of the drug in question through facilitation of specific patterns of behavior that serve to gratify specific biological and socio-culturally generated human needs. It is hypothesized that, through repeated temporal contiguity between such primary reinforcement and the performance of rituals prescribed by those who are already members of the drug cult, novitiates eventually learn to perceive the magical drug-effects defined by the cult and to experience them even without benefit of the drug when the rituals are performed (secondary reinforcement), thereby becoming a new, full-fledged member of the cult. It is suggested that the maintenance of secondarily reinforced behavior in the absence of further programmed reinforcement by the drug is a consequence of previous classical conditioning of primary drug effects and possibly, of interoceptive conditioning. Some therapeutic applications of conditioning theory are indicated, with special reference to the possible use of specific drug antagonists to facilitate extinction of drug-seeking behavior. Expansion of basic psychopharmacological research as well as of educational and social ameliorative efforts are stressed as desiderata for eventual control of the problem of drug abuse.