Still necessary to state the obvious: comment on Alessi, Roll, Reilly, and Johanson (2002)

S. M. Alessi, J. M. Roll. M. P. Reilly, and C.-E. Johanson's (2002) conclusions initially seemed to the author to unnecessarily state the obvious: that the determinants of drug effects and self-administration are not reducible to events within the body. On reflection, however, the author realized that this conclusion is not obvious to many individuals in the broader scientific, professional, and political environment that surrounds the behavioral pharmacology scientific community. Educating these individuals about the concepts, methods, data, and applied implications of behavioral pharmacology is of paramount importance, and one way to do this is to continue to state the obvious.