> I don't have any great insight here - but I think there's more to it than environment as suggested by this study. There are people all around the world who li

> I don't have any great insight here - but I think there's more to it than environment as suggested by this study. There are people all around the world who live in far worse conditions and who aren't turning to substances, even when they are available. My feeling is that rats living in cages, who can see rats living in Rat Park would be more likely to seek addiction. And perhaps even more so if they see other rats being moved from cages to Rat Park, but not them. To a certain degree it comes down to a semantic argument about how you define environment. * Just the structural physical environment - nice benches, and trees, flats that are a decent size, and don't have mould on the walls, etc * this plus the consequences of other people on the physical environment - needles left in parks, shouting in the corridors, people pissing in the lift * this plus the immediate social environment - you are treated badly because you look like a drug addict * this plus the cumulative internalized values that you have picked up from your social environment throughout your lifetime - other people living successful, prosperous lives around you, or in mass media, and you falling short of your expectations Rats don't necessarily have the latter two, at least I don't think they have a social stigma for drug addiction! For humans, the parallels are inevitably to some degree limited, because you can't just take someone out of their own mind, and put them somewhere where they feel good about themselves, although you can try, and will succeed with many.