Is cannabis addictive ??? was Re: Poitical abuses...

[Stuart Krasnoff]

In article <obrien-1111961051370001 at brass6.med.upenn.edu>,
obrien at pharm.med.upenn.edu (:-Peter) wrote:

> In article <01bbccf6$1f5b0320$dccd6981 at lkn033.nwu.edu>, "LKN"
> <lkn033 at casbah.acns.nwu.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> @--> > 3)      No obvious or unambiguous definition of addiction exists.
> @--> Rubbish. Miller et al. (Advances in Alcohol & Substance Abuse.
> @--> 8(3-4):33-42,1990), for example, use the DSM-III-R criteria.  for
substance
> @--> dependence. They also define it elsewhere (in Journal of Substance Abuse
> @--> Treatment.  6(3):183-92, 1989)
> 
> Lars, 
> 
> The definition you've applied to marijuana "addiction," warm and fuzzy
> though it may be is not the classical Pharmacological definition of
> addiction, where absence of the addictive substance has measurable
> physiological effect which often lead to the behaviors described in your
> definitio0n. 


I recall a pharmacological definition of addiction that requires evidence
of (1) tolerance and (2) self-administration in an animal model as well as
(3) evidence of withdrawal.  Sorry, no line and verse.