Welcome to Sentivia

Okay, let me try to summarize who I am and what I've learned. This has become a real passion project for me, born out of a deep personal connection. You see, I grew up with addiction in my family, including cocaine addiction later on. One of my earliest memories is actually trying to wake up a relative, and not understanding why I couldn't. As a kid, it was confusing, but as I grew older, I realized we had this real problem with drug addiction.

That personal experience has really driven me to look at this issue with a critical eye. It made me question everything when I realized it's been a century since drugs were first banned. We’ve had this policy of punishing addicts, thinking that'd be a deterrent. But, as I looked at the people I love struggling with addiction, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a better way. I found myself asking fundamental questions that I didn’t know the answers to. What really causes addiction? Why do we continue with this approach that doesn’t seem to be working? And is there a more effective solution we’re overlooking?

I tried to research these questions but couldn’t find the clear answers I needed. So, I decided to take things into my own hands. I traveled over 30,000 miles meeting with all sorts of people to learn from their experiences and expertise. From a transgender crack dealer in Brooklyn to a scientist feeding hallucinogens to mongooses – yes, mongooses! – and even to Portugal, the only country that has decriminalized all drugs, I heard some truly eye-opening stories. And, honestly, what I discovered completely blew my mind: almost everything we think we know about addiction is wrong.

I came to realize that this idea we have about addiction, that it is solely a chemical dependency, is flawed. The old understanding is that when you take heroin your body starts to crave the chemical hooks and you develop a physical need that is incredibly difficult to overcome and you are now an addict. I thought this too. I learned, for example, about diamorphine, which is basically medical-grade heroin. Think about all the people in hospitals who take it for pain. If the “chemical hook” theory was true, those people would all become addicts, right? But that isn't the case. We know that your grandmother didn’t leave the hospital as a junkie when she had a hip replacement. This started to unravel the ideas I held to be true.

Then I came across the work of Professor Bruce Alexander, and he had this incredible experiment with rats. Instead of just isolating them with drugged water, he created this “Rat Park,” this paradise for rats. It was full of friends, tunnels, cheese, and toys. In this enriched environment, the rats didn't choose the drugged water. It highlighted a big flaw in the experiments that have shaped how we treat addiction.

Then, the Vietnam War also presented an unexpected experiment in humans. Many US soldiers used heroin during the war and when they came home most of them just stopped. The “chemical hook” theory fell apart. I found that addiction isn't about chemical hooks; it's about the cage you're in, about your environment. It’s an adaptation to a painful or isolating situation.

That led me to the work of Peter Cohen, who argues we should think of addiction as *bonding*. We need to connect as human beings. We crave it. When we are healthy we do so in positive ways but when we can’t, we bond with something else that gives us a sense of relief. Maybe it's gambling, maybe it's alcohol, maybe it's heroin, but it’s driven by a need to connect. We’re not going to do heroin if we feel fulfilled by positive relationships and work that we love.

This leads to some huge implications. For example, the War on Drugs. We've been punishing and stigmatizing addicts. That's the opposite of what these findings suggest is helpful. Dr. Gabor Maté said it, we’ve created a system perfectly designed to make addiction worse. I looked at Arizona and their chain gangs forcing women to wear shirts that read “I was a drug addict”, and making them dig graves. This type of shaming and disconnecting from society and healthy experiences is the opposite of what we should be doing.

That is why the case of Portugal is so fascinating. They decriminalized all drugs and took the money they were spending on punishing addicts and put it towards helping them reconnect with society. It was a program of job creation, small business loans, and the simple idea that everyone needs something to get out of bed for in the morning. It’s not really like the drug treatment we have in the United States. Their approach has seen a massive decrease in drug use, overdoses and HIV. That's why I say we should be treating addiction with love songs, not war songs.

Finally, I believe this goes beyond drugs. We’re living in an increasingly isolated society. We have more space in our homes, but less connection with our neighbors, with our families and friends. I think these changes have led to a place where so many of us feel disconnected and vulnerable to some kind of addiction, whether it’s to our phones, or to shopping or to food. This isn't just about individual recovery. We need social recovery. We need to create a world that feels more like "Rat Park" and less like that isolated cage.

So, that's who I am. I’m someone who has seen the harsh realities of addiction firsthand, someone who has questioned everything we thought we knew, and someone who is now a strong advocate for connection, love, and a more compassionate approach.