Said@Duke: Dr. Anna Lembke on Myths That Play Down the Addictive Nature of Cannabis, Psychedelics

Stanford doctor Anna Lembke says addictive drugs are often presented as non-addictive.

The Duke Global Health Institute on Wednesday hosted "From Marlboro to Meta: Combatting the Health Impacts of Market-Driven Epidemics." Guest speakers included Duke Dr. Jonathan D. Quick and Stanford University professor Dr. Anna Lembke.

Lembke is medical director of Addiction Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Books she's written include "Drug Dealer, MD – How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop" (2016) and "Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence" (2021).

Lembke appeared in the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma," which examined the impact of social media on our lives.

"I just want to highlight that the advertising of a known addictive substance as a non-addictive medicine is not unique to the opioid epidemic," she said. "The same thing has happened with cannabis. ... In fact, we have had for many decades plenty of evidence that cannabis is highly addictive, and now with the super potent forms that we're seeing, we're seeing more and more harm related to cannabis."

"I will also want to emphasize that the same thing is happening now with psychedelics."

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