The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity―and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

by Daniel Z. Lieberman

THE POWER OF EASY ACCESS When it comes to addiction, easy access matters. More people get addicted to cigarettes and alcohol than to heroin, even though heroin hits the brain in a way that is more likely to trigger addiction. Cigarettes and alcohol are a larger public health problem because they are so easy to obtain. In fact, the most effective way to reduce the problems caused by these substances is to make it more difficult to get them. We’ve all seen “quit smoking” advertisements on buses and subways. They don’t work. We’ve heard about school programs that teach kids to say no to drugs and alcohol. In many cases drug and alcohol use go up after these programs because they pique the curiosity of the adolescent students. The only thing that has been shown to work consistently is raising taxes on these products and placing limits on where and when they can be sold. When these measures are taken, use goes down.4 As barriers to the use of tobacco have gone up, barriers to pornography have gone down. In the past, getting sexually explicit pictures was something of an ordeal. People had to muster the courage to walk into a drugstore, pick up a magazine, and then hope the cashier wasn’t a member of the opposite sex. Today, pornographic pictures and videos can be had in seconds and in complete privacy. There are no barriers of embarrassment or shame. We don’t yet know if compulsive viewing of pornography is exactly the same as drug addiction, but they have things in common. As ...