Equasy

Equasy (sometimes written equacy[1]) is the syndrome of addiction to equitation, or "equine addiction syndrome", as defined in 2008 by Professor David Nutt in an article contrasting the risks and government policies concerning horse-riding with those concerning drugs such as Ecstasy.

In order to question the criteria for the classification of psychoactive substances for matters of policy control relative to the numbers of related deaths and serious injuries recorded, Nutt published an article treating equasy as an addictive drug in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2008.[2] The word derives from equestrianism and other words based on Latin equus, 'horse'). He told the Daily Telegraph that his intention was "to get people to understand that drug harm can be equal to harms in other parts of life",[3] and in 2012 explained to the UK Home Affairs Committee that he chose riding as the "pseudo-drug" in his comparison after being consulted by a patient with irreversible brain damage caused by a fall from a horse. He discovered that riding was "was considerably more dangerous than [he] had thought ... popular but dangerous" and "something ... that young people do".[4]

Nutt was at the time chairman of the Home Office's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. In February 2009, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith criticised him for presenting Ecstasy in the article as statistically no more dangerous than an addiction to riding,[3] and he was dismissed from his position by Smith's successor, Alan Johnson.[5]

Equasy has been frequently referred to in later discussions of drug harmfulness and drug policies.[6][7][8][9][10]

See also

References
  1. Dashper, Katherine (2016). "Introduction". Human-Animal Relationships in Equestrian Sport and Leisure. Routledge research in sport, culture and society. 67. Routledge. ISBN 9781138934160.
  2. Nutt, D. (2008). "Equasy – an overlooked addiction with implications for the current debate on drug harms". Journal of Psychopharmacology. 23 (1): 3–5. doi:10.1177/0269881108099672. PMID 19158127.
  3. Hope, Christopher (9 February 2009). "Home Office's drugs adviser apologises for saying ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse". The Daily Telegraph.
  4. "House of Commons: Oral Evidence Taken Before the Home Affairs Committee - Drugs: Breaking the Cycle - Minutes of Evidence (HC 184-II)". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  5. Johnson, Alan (2 November 2009). "Why Professor David Nutt was shown the door". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  6. Chu, Ben (8 November 2015). "Why does someone dying from alcohol poisoning get no media coverage, while an ecstasy-related death does?". The Independent (opinion).
  7. Ellenberg, J. (2014). "Book Review: 'The Norm Chronicles' by Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter". The Wall Street Journal.
  8. Baggini, J. (2014). "Sind Drogengesetze moralisch inkonsistent?". Die Großen Fragen Ethik (in German): 56–64. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-36371-9_6. ISBN 978-3-642-36370-2.
  9. Watts, Michael; Jolliffe, Gray (2017). Sanación psicodélica para el siglo XXI (in Spanish). ISBN 9781912317042.
  10. Gøtzsche, P.C. (2015). Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial. ISBN 9788771596243.
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