Addiction in America

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by Alex

I do think that while it may be a medical condition, the move over the last 30 years to treat it on a disease model is not good. I consider AA to be a fraud (see that episode of Bull**** to understand my point of view).

I do not think addiction is sufficient cause for criminalization, nor do I consider it a public health issue. All drugs should be legal to any adults who want them and anybody who ends up in a bad relationship with those drugs has my sympathy and I hope they can kick the habit but they did choose (with very few exceptions) to get there, even if choosing to get back from there is not so easy. The societal evils of prohibition are far worse than anything that would result from decriminalization.

Oh lord I don't even know if I should start in on how horrifically wrong you are about this (regarding drugs). Losing the power of choice is a freaking scary thing. Doing something when you KNOW beforehand that you're going to end up in jail, or at best, in the hospital (or at worst, dead) as a result of that action and yet you have no choice to do that thing or you'll go COMPLETELY FREAKING BATSH8T and your mouth goes dry in anticipation and you cannot CANNOT thing of anything ANYTHING ANYTHING except getting something and needing something and DEAR GOD PLEASE MAKE IT STOP I DONT WANT TO DO THIS and youre SCREAMING in your head stop stop STOP....

Well yeah, it's a mental disease/condition. It is a disease in the same way that depression is a disease (a clinically depressed person cannot just "get over it".) With drug addiction specifically, addicts have had their brain chemistry altered (having to do with the pleasure centers of the brain). It is an obsession that cannot be turned off no matter how much willpower you think you have. There are people who are heavy users of their drug of choice, and there are people who cannot stop. The latter people we call addicts.

AA is a fraud? FYI there are a number of people on LOT that would be six feet under if it wasn't for AA. There are people who have been sober for decades through the 12 step programs who could not do it without AA. Even if you consider it to be brainwashing, if it makes hopeless addicts into responsible human beings actually contributing to society, then who the hell are you to judge?

Drug addiction not a public health issue? There are people who cannot control their drinking and then get behind the wheel of a car with or without their license.

Drunk driving not a public health issue? Doesn't affect anyone but the drunk now, does it?

The meth user will stop going to work, will alienate all friends, they drain their grieving parents and family members financially, they will lose the willpower to care about things like using condoms and ends up with AIDS which they then pass along to other people. Maybe they impregnate someone and then their baby is born HIV positive. I HAVE SEEN THIS HAPPEN WITH MY OWN EYES. But ho! They have my "sympathy". Boo hoo for them. Sorry, but f*ck your sympathy.

Addicts need treatment or they will die from the drug itself or various drug-related diseases and issues (and the vast majority take other people down with them). Addiction IS a public health issue. There are certain drugs which will drag you by your balls, screaming down into hell before you know what the f*ck hit you.

But ho, at least decriminalization will save a few dealers from lives of crime. How lovely for them.