Cocaine, Valium and LSD

Hundreds of experiments are performed annually in which animals are forced to become addicted to drugs. on cocaine alone, over 500 studies have been conducted. An analysis of just 380 of these estimated that they cost about $100 million, most of it tax money. An example,In a laboratory at Downstate Medical Center run by Gerald Deneau, rhesus monkeys were locked into restraining chairs. The animals were then taught to self administer cocaine directly into the bloodstream in whatever quantities they wanted by pushing a button. According to one report,the test monkeys pushed the button over and over, even after convulsions. They went without sleep. They ate five to six times their normal amount, yet became emaciated.... In the end, they began to mutilate themselves and, eventually, died of cocaine abuse. Dr Deneau has acknowledged that "few people could afford the massive doses od cocaine there monkeys were able to obtain."Even though 500 animal experiments have been conducted involving cocaine, this is only a small part of the total amount of experimentation that involves turning animals into addicts. At the University of Kentucky, beagles were used to observe withdrawal symptoms from valium and a similar tranquillizer called Lorazepam. The dogs were forced to become addicted to the drug and then every two weeks, the tranuillizers were withdrawn. Withdrawal symptoms included twitches, jerks, gross body tremors, running fits, rapid weight loss, fear and cowering. After fourty hours of valium withdrawal, numerous tonic-clonic convulsions were seen in 7 out of 9 dogs. Two dogs had repeated episodes of clonic seizures invovling the whole body. Four of the dogs died- two while convulsing and two after rapid weight loss. Lorazepam produced similar symptons but not convulsive deaths. The experimenters reviewed experiments going back to 1931 in which barbiturate and tranquilizer withdrawal symptons had been observed in rats, cats, dogs, and primates.This next one is heart breaking. Danikah, this is probably going to upset you most of all.At the University of California at LA, Ronald Siegel chained two elephants to a barn. The female elephant was used in range-finding tests to determine procedures and dosages for LSD administartion. She was given the drug orally and by dart-gun. After this experimenters dosed both elephants every day for two monthd and observed their behavior. High doses of the hallucinogen caused the female to fall down on her side, trembling and barely breathing, for one hour. The high doses caused the bull elephant to become aggressive and charge Siegel, who described such repeated aggressive behavior as "inappropriate." The worse part of these experiments has to be how completely unneccessary they are. It's common knowledge that drugs are addictive and after constant abuse then abstinence you are going to experience withdrawal. Going into the PCI woods nowadays and you can see it occuring to multiple students. I personally have lost friends to drugs and have taken a addictions class during my first semester at Fanshawe. But no one needs to take a class about it really know all that much about drugs to know tehy are addicted and often lead to losing everything. You just need to take a look at those using and trying to get you to use. Look at their lifeless eyes and meaningless lives. This experiments do not need to done esspecially not on animals. There are enough addicts in the world, we don't need to force animals into it to conclude anything useful.

Information for this entry came from Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation. I find it inspiring and eye opening. It's important to inform people about what is really going on and just maybe change how they feel about the situation.