Is drug effect linked to expectation?

Question

People will smoke cannabis and expect to become pacific and nonviolent, wheras people will drink a lot of alcohol & expect to become agressive or more outgoing.

but how much of this is down to expectation rather than effect?

if we said ''smoking cannbis will make you agressive and violent'' would the reality begin to match up to the idea?

Answer 1

Yes and no.

"No", in that drugs are chemicals and chemical intakes have definite scientifically predictable effects on brain chemicals and body tissues. You drink a litre of hydrochloric acid and it will affect you pretty similarly whatever you expect, unless you have very substantial spiritual mastery indeed.

But "Yes", in two respects. Firstly, people's body chemistry varies. One brain will react very differently to a litre of alcohol than another. Same with coffee -- some people can't take any after lunchtime and sleep 12 hrs later, I can take it at 11pm and sleep 1hr later. Secondly, there has to be a mental "seed" in someone for a behaviour before they will do it. If a person has no violent or aggressive desires in their conscious, subconscious, or subtle subconscious minds, no amount of alcohol will create violent or aggressive behaviour.
Alcohol is a depressant not a stimulant, and the connection of alcohol with violence is not because alcohol stimulates aggression. It is because its normal (statistically normal, that is) effect is to loosen inhibitions. So people who have a (voiced or unvoiced) desire to hurt others, but normally restrain it because of social training, release that latent violence when pissed.

If a person has a well-developed habit of discernment, their habituated discretion is much more likely to over-rule the merely chemical effects of a drug than will be the case with a highly emotional person or one who habitually satisfies the cravings of their physical senses. (Discernment is the decision-taking skill.)

Answer 2

That's a good question...but I don't really think so. These two different drugs are associated with these two different states of mind because broadly speaking they are true.
Just look at the American anti drug films of the fifties and sixties that attempted to assert that marijuana turned people into psychotic maniacs. Something which patently wasn't true then, and still isn't today.
Although, when I have a beer, the affects that I expect are a mild relaxant. Another person may see it as a substance to get their fighting spirit up.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that drugs and their affects are as individual as we are.

Answer 3

I'm sure that some people would think what they were told to think. Most of us know that various drugs (even prescription and over-the-counter) do different things to different people. Some have side-effects, others have none. Some feel drowsy, others become hyper. All in all, most of us know how any type of drug is affecting us.

Answer 4

It would make for an interesting cultural experiment, drink this type of 'beer' & you will become relaxed and peacefully minded.

Maybe this is the root of the UK antisocial drink problem?, the expectation of drunkeness causing trouble. other countries don't seem to have the alcohol related troubles we have.

Answer 5

Research suggests that placebos are the most powerful drugs in the world - if people feel they are being given medicine to make themselves better they usually do improve. Our beliefs are very important.