Environmental Enrichment Can Reduce Cocaine Use, Researchers Find

Now this is fascinating research: Environmental Enrichment Can Reduce Cocaine Use, Researchers Find: and the reason is that it seems to demonstrate a link between marginalisation and social exclusion on the one hand and drug abuse on the other. Of course it's in monkeys, but it does seem likely that the principles would transfer to humans. If so, whither social policy and the war against drugs. You can bet the neocons are not going to be signing up for programmes to improve social status of the have-nots, are they? And yet that would seem to be part of the solution.
"subordinate animals are far more inclined to engage in the human equivalent of serious drug abuse than are the dominant animals. Research has shown differences in certain neurochemicals in the brains of the animals, both as predictors and results of the social ranking, and therefore as predictors of drug abuse."
Even more interesting was the effect of 'environmental enrichment': "enrichment reduced the drug response of all the animals; however, the detrimental affect of the stress -- more drug intake, less food -- was more prominent in the subordinate monkeys. "This is very significant for at least two reasons," said Nader, professor of physiology and pharmacology and of radiology. "First, it is a result that could be directly applied to the human situation. It suggests that a better environment could alleviate at least some of the risk that individuals will turn to drugs."
Perhaps decriminalisation and putting resources instead into environmental and personal improvement would be a strategy?