Dunno -- the radio article didn't get into that. (Although the same question did occur to me.)
I don't think it's obvious that anything *would* take its place, though, at least to a complete degree. Some number of addicts are people who desperately need a high of some sort; they seem likely to go find something else. But some are simply looking for something cool to do, or are trying it due to mere social pressure -- in those cases, there's no obvious reason why the same impulses wouldn't be channeled into non-drug outlets instead. Indeed, it seems likely that this has some effect on the memetic level, of making the whole addictive-drug thing uncool; that effect is probably only on the statistical level, but I would expect it to be real.
But yes -- it would be interesting to see a study on how usage of other drugs tracks with the fall of heroin in this case, to understand those correlations...
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Re: So what takes its place?
Date: 2006-06-13 05:36 pm (UTC)I don't think it's obvious that anything *would* take its place, though, at least to a complete degree. Some number of addicts are people who desperately need a high of some sort; they seem likely to go find something else. But some are simply looking for something cool to do, or are trying it due to mere social pressure -- in those cases, there's no obvious reason why the same impulses wouldn't be channeled into non-drug outlets instead. Indeed, it seems likely that this has some effect on the memetic level, of making the whole addictive-drug thing uncool; that effect is probably only on the statistical level, but I would expect it to be real.
But yes -- it would be interesting to see a study on how usage of other drugs tracks with the fall of heroin in this case, to understand those correlations...