“We have become a nation that has normalized chemical coping and chemical reward without realizing that chemical coping and chemical reward can lead to a modern form of slavery, chemical addiction. We have to begin de-normalizing the use of drugs to artificially reward our brains or to cope with life. We are accustomed to assuming that life should be perfect and stress free and beautiful every day. Life is full of stressors and of challenges which can be resolved and can give rise to pleasant and serene periods, and then decline into periods of stress. Americans are so universally optimistic and hopeful that the downside to our optimism and hope is a desire to maintain perfection daily; let’s pop a chemical to cope with life or pop a chemical to yield an instant easy reward. The consumption of drugs, which in the words of Arthur Koestler, play confidence tricks on one’s mind, achieves neither serenity nor perfection over time.


If you look at the history of the opioid crisis all the regulations that we had in place for Schedule II and Schedule III drugs, manufacturing quotas, chain of custody, prescriptions, tight regulations, did not protect the American public in the face of massive publicity, massive disinformation, massive campaigns to market opioids, and pressure on physicians to prescribe them. I fear that we are currently in the same situation with marijuana.


Finally, we can’t arrest our way out of the opioid crisis, we can’t treat our way out of the opioid crisis, and we can’t prevent our way out of the opioid crisis. We have to do all three.”

Source: Interview with Dr. Bertha Madras