saoutchik

After a hundred years treating addicts as criminals (probably longer) and in that time the problem getting significantly worse it would suggest a different approach is called for. I don't know what that approach is but it should be evidenced based rather than opinion based.

newhope01

I find this discussion to be quite interesting.

I think people should be treated with compassion. I've witnessed people with severe substance abuse problems choose jail time than treatment when offered by an empathetic judge. Some people either are not ready or unwilling to stop abusing drugs.

I know for me, I relapse because deep down there is a piece of me that is still in denial of my substance abuse problems and am not ready to abstain for the rest of my life. How to help people like me accept the obvious is a difficult task. Hard to understand and hard to empathize with. However, condemning people who suffer with this affliction is not going to help anyone, society or the addict.

Wholesome

I think using drugs should be decriminalized. The war on drugs has been a huge failure. The gov can't stop people from wanting to get high. Legalize it, tax it, stop locking people up over it, stop ruining a person's entire future with a criminal record for getting high. I don't think AA's message of powerlessness and defects and one day at a time abstinence is helpful but I know that's not a popular opinion on here. I think it gives society a negative opinion of addicts as people who are ticking time bombs unable to control themselves and hanging on by a thread. Treatment doesn't work because the only cure is abstinence. You can talk a thing to death but unless the person quits for good it's useless.

newhope01

I couldn't agree more with you Zenchaser.

wpainterw

ZenChaser: I have been sober for many many years and am no longer "a ticking time bomb and hanging on by a thread". It rather astonishes me that what with all the personal stress of growing old (90), family problems, health problems the thought of self medicating by drink just does not occur to me. I deal with stress according to medication prescribed by my doctor, in small amounts usually less than permitted. I did have to use the medication for four consecutive months when iI was in a very unsatisfactory cardiac rehab after a heart valve implant (e.g. a cleaning woman nearly tore out my Foley catheter, risking severe damage and another operation. This was at 5:30 a.m. and fortunately I woke up just in time. She just kept on sweeping since she could not speak English).
As to Saoutchik's suggestion that the approach should be evidence based rather than opinion based, I think that there is plenty of scientific evidence out there but many reject it as they have rejected global warming. They say that Antarctica is about to launch an iceberg as big as Delaware?

Bill