The world seems always to seek a newer agent that will bring us to a new level of pleasure, of joy. I have paraphrased Don Draper of Madmen before in his asking, "What is happiness? Happiness is the moment before you need more happiness.”  The review article on cannabis  (Journal of Psychopharmacology ) below brings the Senior Editor to mind of a previous initiative involving an alcohol substitute that was ostensibly hangover-free, "Alcosynth." The players may differ but the game’s objective stays the same:  pleasure without consequences.   Whether it is a "nonaddictive” opioid substitute, such as pentazocine (Talwin), meperidine (Demerol), or tramadol (Ultram); vaporized nicotine in place of tobacco fumigation (to supposedly evade damages resulting from tobacco smoke); benzos vs. barbs; or even synthetic sweeteners in that 32 oz. Big Gulp, the alchemists’ search for the hedonic Philosopher’s Stone never abates. 

Interestingly, a bit of the same can be seen with procedures, as with “mindfulness” in place of meditation or prayer.  Nothing wrong with mindfulness; just not clear what advantages it has over its more pedestrian origins.  The happiness of creating an object of art, of an act of altruism, or the euphoria attendant on running a few miles, seems to get short shrift.  Probably because you can’t really monetize these things; and certainly the patent rights expired some millennia back.

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This week we say goodbye, for now, to Ms. Deedee Camara, editorial assistant, the engine who ensures that the ASAM Weekly gets out each week.  Simultaneously, we welcome Mx. Talia Loeb, already carrying on for Deedee in the past fortnight.   Aloha & aloha.   

- Editor-in-Chief: Dr. William Haning, MD, DFAPA, DFASAM