Rat Park, the BC "morphine on demand" experiment that upended addiction theory

How a long-ago SFU study by psychologist Bruce Alexander helps explain the overdose crisis and opens the door to new approaches

From a laboratory rat’s perspective, the enclosure constructed by four Simon Fraser University addiction researchers in 1978 was Utopia, 200 times the size of the usual rat cage, with forest-like decoration, exercise equipment, comfortable shavings, abundant food, many friends of both genders and, strangely, free morphine on demand.

In the months that fo…