Rat park

Dr. Bruce Alexander wanted to creatively examine the paradigm that has developed around the understanding of addiction as such. It was already known that if you put a rat in a cage, and offer it two types of water - one untouched, and one injected with heroin or cocaine, the poor rats will always choose the opioid water, until they die of an overdose. However, in the experiments that would later be called "Rat Park", the inspired doctor Alexander prepared a heavenly cage for the rats, in which they could run around, socialize with other rats, and have sex. As before, they were also offered plain water and drug-laced water, but in this case the rats mostly preferred plain, normal water. If it happened that they used the other water, they did not become addicted, they did not drink it often and they never died from an overdose.​