With regard to alcohol, the non-addicted simply ask, “Why can’t people just have more self-control?” And they might be heard to say, “I like a drink or two, but I’m not dependent upon it for a good time, social identity, or physical need. Heck, if I have a problem, I deal with it without alcohol or drugs.” Easy for the non-addicted to say, right? I suppose the same can be said for those who comment on the use of opioids and the proliferating numbers of overdoses during the second decade of this century.
Would that self-control were an easy solution. It isn’t, of course, because the chemistry of the body takes control, powerfully so for many. True, peer pressures and individual life histories play roles in initiating addiction, but once the addicting chemical takes root, it grows like yeast, unchecked only by outside intervention or death.
Humans share a chemistry with yeast, the stuff that makes wine and beer what they are. That shared chemistry lies in the protein Cytochrome-C, composed of nearly 100 amino acids. You and I are the same kind of organism by virtue of our common Cytochrome-C. Other animals are recognizably different by variations in the molecule. Change Cytochrome-C by about 6%, and you’re a chimp; 15%, and you’re a horse. Change it by 25%, and you’re a bee. Change it by 70% or so, and you’re probably beer yeast. Maybe our related Cytochrome-C molecules are the reasons that we have developed a taste for beer and wine.
And that’s where this self-control thing comes in play. Yeasts turn sugar into alcohol under anaerobic conditions. But the growth of the fermenting yeast slows and then stops when the alcoholic content in wine reaches 13 to 14%. That’s why you don’t buy 100-proof wine; the yeast just can’t grow in increased alcoholic surroundings. Producing alcohol is a self-defeating process for yeast. There’s a natural self-control built into operation by the toxic nature of ethyl alcohol (CH3CH2OH). For beer, the shut-off for yeast growth is about six percent.
Unfortunately, humans, regardless of their distant relationship to yeast, have only a couple of options when it comes to shutting down alcohol: Personal self-control or enforced control by the deadly nature of the alcohol. And there are similar options for drugs. Either individuals shut down their use or the chemicals act to shut themselves down. Keep in mind that if yeast produces too much alcohol in the fermentation process, the increased volume of alcohol shuts down yeast growth.
Maybe someday some researcher will discover a truly safe analog of the yeast-alcohol process for drugs, something beyond an emergency administration of naloxone, something that can be incorporated into cells themselves and that acts as a safety valve that shuts down any runaway effect just as alcohol shuts down its own production in wine and beer. Until that time comes, however, individuals have only one safe process, self-control.
And that means the best way to slow the addiction rate is by teaching self-control before addiction occurs. In a permissive, narcissistic society, self-control isn’t an easy lesson to teach. All of us have some kind of addiction, even if in mild or slight form: Coffee for breakfast, NFL team, fishing, favorite pillow. They give us recognizable patterns in a complex and seemingly chaotic world. They ensure that we have something on which we can rely. That some people have more severe forms of addiction is a matter of both kind and degree. But if you are one to say, “Why can’t people just have more self-control,” then prove it by giving up cold turkey that coffee, that NFL team, fishing, or that favorite pillow.
Otherwise, like wine and beer yeast, you will continue to do what you do until the very doing undoes itself just as producing alcohol through fermentation quashes the growth of the fermenters.
Would that self-control were an easy solution. It isn’t, of course, because the chemistry of the body takes control, powerfully so for many. True, peer pressures and individual life histories play roles in initiating addiction, but once the addicting chemical takes root, it grows like yeast, unchecked only by outside intervention or death.
Humans share a chemistry with yeast, the stuff that makes wine and beer what they are. That shared chemistry lies in the protein Cytochrome-C, composed of nearly 100 amino acids. You and I are the same kind of organism by virtue of our common Cytochrome-C. Other animals are recognizably different by variations in the molecule. Change Cytochrome-C by about 6%, and you’re a chimp; 15%, and you’re a horse. Change it by 25%, and you’re a bee. Change it by 70% or so, and you’re probably beer yeast. Maybe our related Cytochrome-C molecules are the reasons that we have developed a taste for beer and wine.
And that’s where this self-control thing comes in play. Yeasts turn sugar into alcohol under anaerobic conditions. But the growth of the fermenting yeast slows and then stops when the alcoholic content in wine reaches 13 to 14%. That’s why you don’t buy 100-proof wine; the yeast just can’t grow in increased alcoholic surroundings. Producing alcohol is a self-defeating process for yeast. There’s a natural self-control built into operation by the toxic nature of ethyl alcohol (CH3CH2OH). For beer, the shut-off for yeast growth is about six percent.
Unfortunately, humans, regardless of their distant relationship to yeast, have only a couple of options when it comes to shutting down alcohol: Personal self-control or enforced control by the deadly nature of the alcohol. And there are similar options for drugs. Either individuals shut down their use or the chemicals act to shut themselves down. Keep in mind that if yeast produces too much alcohol in the fermentation process, the increased volume of alcohol shuts down yeast growth.
Maybe someday some researcher will discover a truly safe analog of the yeast-alcohol process for drugs, something beyond an emergency administration of naloxone, something that can be incorporated into cells themselves and that acts as a safety valve that shuts down any runaway effect just as alcohol shuts down its own production in wine and beer. Until that time comes, however, individuals have only one safe process, self-control.
And that means the best way to slow the addiction rate is by teaching self-control before addiction occurs. In a permissive, narcissistic society, self-control isn’t an easy lesson to teach. All of us have some kind of addiction, even if in mild or slight form: Coffee for breakfast, NFL team, fishing, favorite pillow. They give us recognizable patterns in a complex and seemingly chaotic world. They ensure that we have something on which we can rely. That some people have more severe forms of addiction is a matter of both kind and degree. But if you are one to say, “Why can’t people just have more self-control,” then prove it by giving up cold turkey that coffee, that NFL team, fishing, or that favorite pillow.
Otherwise, like wine and beer yeast, you will continue to do what you do until the very doing undoes itself just as producing alcohol through fermentation quashes the growth of the fermenters.
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