Hollywood has long portrayed the cocaine addict as someone who will do anything to get the drug because it is the most important thing in their life. Researchers now know that cocaine is only most valued when immediately available to the addict.

According to a recent article in Medical News Today, the addicts' preference was nearly exclusive to wanting money now as opposed to cocaine later, showing the near-term reward was preferred among most. The director of the research center at Virginia Tech, Warren K. Bickel, along with his researchers, found that these results were quite different from earlier studies showing addicts prefer some money now versus more money at a later time. Bickel says when the cocaine was available later it wasn't worth as much to the addict.

The findings are promising for those developing treatment programs for drug addicts that can now try to base incentives on the delay of drug usage. Research has shown that no matter what type of addict, from smokers to overeaters, they all seem to prefer methods with near-term reward systems.

In the past, most of the research has been done with only money as the single product to impact their decision making. These findings are significant in understanding addicts' minds and the challenges of treatments which provide the promise of long-term benefits. Bickel's team evaluated the type of commodity as well as the timing of the reward to see how it influenced the addicts' decision-making process.

Participants eventually became indifferent to future cocaine rewards because they preferred the money now concept even when the value of the "future" cocaine was significantly greater.