WHATEVER THE FACTS ARE, NOT EVERYONE WILL AGREE

Simon Fraser University Prof. Bruce Alexander is not the first
scientist to catch flak because of controversial conclusions.
Galileo, for example, caused a stir with his kooky notion that Earth
orbited the Sun.

But, where Galileo was put under house arrest, Alexander has merely
had to suffer a fusillade of fulminating letters to the editor. This
is progress.

Alexander's experiments involved rats and morphine. He found that
rats that were in a "healthy" social situation -- lots of room, lots
of interaction with other rats -- took a pass on the drug, even when
it was sweetened. This upended previous postulations, gleaned from
experiments on solitary rats, that drug availability was enticement
enough for drug addiction.

For his skeptical studies that have added to our understanding of the
dynamics of addiction, tomorrow Alexander will be awarded SFU's Nora
and Ted Sterling Prize.