drug addled chimp?

June 18, 2012 6:53 AM

Trying to locate a study in which they gave a chimpanzee (or other ape?) all the hard drugs he wanted (though it may have just been cocaine and/or heroin?) and found that with sufficient care, the subject actually lived a perfectly healthy and long life.

I may be crazy, maybe this study doesn't exist, but I'm pretty damn sure I read about it years ago. Anyone know of such a study?

posted by imagineerit to Science & Nature (4 answers total)

Nim Chimpsky was given recreational drugs, but not hard drugs.
posted by Ziggy500 at 7:09 AM on June 18, 2012

I think you may be thinking of the Monkey Drug Trials of 1969. Caveat: all that appears to exist online regarding this study are a handful of blog postings, so even this may be an urban legend. In any case, if it is real, none of these poor animals lived a long or healthy life.
posted by xenophile at 7:09 AM on June 18, 2012

This is not what you're looking for (sorry) but in case it's useful or interesting: Rat Park.
posted by Lexica at 9:27 PM on June 18, 2012

xenophile's referenced study, almost certainly. Self-administration at Wikipedia.
posted by dhartung at 2:48 AM on June 19, 2012