Key ideas from Keith Humphreys

• "10% of our country drinks about half the alcohol" - addiction industries profit most from heavy users, not moderate consumers
• Cannabis today averages 20% THC versus 3-5% in the 1980s-90s, making it "65 times stronger" - equivalent to coca leaf versus cocaine difference
• Contingency management (rewarding clean drug tests with escalating payments) is the only proven effective treatment for stimulant addiction
• GLP-1 drugs show promising early evidence for treating alcohol addiction, with patients reporting "I used to spend all day not eating, now I don't think about it"
• Cochrane review found AA produces 50% higher abstinence rates than cognitive behavioral therapy and other professional treatments
• "All learning is anti-forgetting" - many people mistake withdrawal relief for drug benefits, thinking substances help when they're just treating dependence
• Brain imaging can predict relapse better than self-reports - nucleus accumbens activation revealed who would relapse regardless of stated intentions