Nonaddict

But methadone is a dangerous drug. If taken orally by a nonaddict, it can cause euphoria or even death.

What the science shows, he says, is that the brain of an addict is fundamentally different from that of a nonaddict.

Those nonaddicts who picked a winning card had increased blood flow to the striatum, but the gambling addicts who picked the right card had much less of it (their reward system was less active).

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has shown in several brain-imaging studies that people addicted to such drugs as cocaine, heroin and alcohol have fewer dopamine receptors in the brain’s reward pathways than nonaddicts.