Subjects’ choice: Cocaine or cash
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
March 26, 2009
Dr. Herbert Kleber used to help the government fight drug abuse.
Now he’s using the government to give drugs to addicts.
Government Drug Experiments |
He says the work is valuable.
“You don’t work with treatment seekers,” he told The Examiner in a phone interview. “I believe it’s unethical to work with people who want to stop.”
How does Kleber determine who’s addicted? He plays a buzzer game.
If the subject presses one buzzer, he or she gets cash. If the subject presses the other buzzer, he or she gets cocaine.
“If the money is little, a low dose of cocaine might be adequate,” Kleber said. “If the money gets higher, a higher dose of cocaine might not suffice.”
With a “base line” established for the acuity of a person’s addiction, “you can really establish a clear, scientific description of what it takes to get you to stop taking.”
Kleber says he understands why an outsider might balk at giving drugs to addicts, but the fact is the subjects “don’t come in for the drug.”
“When you take the drug, you want to be able to take how much you want where you want — not in a lab surrounded by white-coated lab scientists, measuring what happens while you’re doing it,” he said. “That’s no fun.”
