I'm not arguing for drug use. I have never used illegal drugs, rarely drink, and don't have drug or alcohol issues in my family. I also have a major problem with the pro-drug attitude that our society embraces. Have a headache? Take a pill. Feeling tired? Drink coffee. Kid can't concentrate in school? Ritalin. Depressed? We have a pill for that.
Having said that, I'd like to present another perspective. Not to convince you to change your mind, but to at least open it to think about other ideas.
The majority of people in the US look upon drug use and abuse as a moral failing. People use drugs because they are weak, self-centered, and lazy. You yourself said "the people I'm dealing with at least have the decency and self worth to think the same."
But if you really get to know an addict, most of them have one commonality. They all faced incredible histories of abuse. Physical abuse, mental abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse by adults. We're not talking strict parents here. We're talking powerless children being subjected to what would be described in adults as torture. Once you get past the defenses, and protective walls, most addicts will related to experiences that will horrify anyone with any sense of compassion.
Let me relate a story.
A friend who is a physician at Boston Childrens' Hospital volunteered to be the medical staffer on a mobile van that provided outreach for youthful and teenaged homeless kids and run aways. After the first night, my friend commented to his driver that it was sad that so many lazy, irresponsible kids were not willing to live within the constraints of their childhood homes, schools and neighborhoods, and instead, preferred to party it up on the streets.
The astonished driver pulled the van to the curb, and proceeded to explain reality to the doctor, who had no idea what was really going on.
"99% of those kids are LGBT, who when they were found out by parents, their church, or their schools, were attacked, abused, and thrown out of their houses. Think about it. How do you survive on the cold streets when you're a kid, lack money, education, maturity and experience? You sell drugs, or sell your body, and do things to survive that are horrific. These young people use drugs to self-medicate, to get through days that would cause most of us to kill ourselves. These kids aren't run aways. They're throw aways.
Addicts use drugs to self-medicate away the pain of rejection, isolation, and being unwanted. So what do we do when we find them? We exacerbate the problem by jailing them and isolating them further. We give them a criminal record that makes it almost impossible to find decent work. Without decent work, they can't find decent housing, food, medical care. They can't fit into any decent social system, and are relegated to the street / drug world that preyed on them in the first place. Think about how you would feel and then cope if you were stuck on the streets as a young teen with no money, no ability to continue education, to work, or to even get a regular meal?
Scientists have done studies, and have found that being abused psychologically and mentally is as destructive as being physically assaulted. If I walk up to you, and punch you in the face, I will be arrested and jailed. If I mentally abuse you, nothing happens. I can get away with any and all of it. Yet research shows that my abuse does far more damage than if I hit you with a bat. Think back to the time when you were physically hurt. You can't relive the experience of physical pain. You know that the punch, or the burn, or the broken bone was painful, but it's like watching it on a movie screen. It's just a memory. Think back now to the most humiliating, fear-filled, emotionally painful experience. For most of us, we'll have an instantaneous flashback as if it's happening for real once again. Physical pain is momentary, but the humiliation, fear and powerlessness associated with mental abuse never gets weaker.
Back when the Vietnam War was winding down, and plans were in the works to repatriate returning soldiers to civilized society, it was discovered that a significant number of vets were addicted to heroin. The thought that tens of thousands of drug addicts with military and combat skills would be loosed on society with an addiction to serious narcotics, petrified our leaders. So they made efforts to drug test returning soldiers, and try to get them help. After all, heroin is notoriously difficult to kick.
What they discovered is that when these kids were removed from the dangerous, stress-filled environment of war, most of them stopped taking drugs when they returned to the US. They had no more need to self medicate so they could forget the horrors that surrounded them every day. The problem was no longer a problem.
I'm not saying that we should enable drug addicts. I am saying that the war on drugs has been an abysmal failure. Even if we measure this war on the availability of narcotics, everyone would agree that you can buy any and all illegal substances in every town, county and city in our country. Further, not only can few of us understand what an addict is going through, we're not doing anything to really fix the problem. We're just mentally masturbating ourselves into feeling like we're doing somehting. Just as most of us would not discriminate against someone with a physical disability as long as they were capable of doing the job, we should reconsider our aversion to someone who is in serious psychological pain.
I'm not saying that we should tolerate drug use, or let drugged people operate heavy equipment. I am saying that what we're doing now is not working, and perhaps we should try something different. And maybe we should stop, and ask what if that addict was one of us. One of our kids. Our parents. Our siblings. Maybe we'd want to stifle the judgement, the condemnation, and the hate, and maybe try to put ourselves in their shoes.
I highly recommend the book by Johann Hari, called Chasing the Scream. It talks about the horribly racist underpinnings of the original war on drugs, and how this war is doing the exact opposite of helping the situation when it comes to our addiction problem.
Having said that, I'd like to present another perspective. Not to convince you to change your mind, but to at least open it to think about other ideas.
The majority of people in the US look upon drug use and abuse as a moral failing. People use drugs because they are weak, self-centered, and lazy. You yourself said "the people I'm dealing with at least have the decency and self worth to think the same."
But if you really get to know an addict, most of them have one commonality. They all faced incredible histories of abuse. Physical abuse, mental abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse by adults. We're not talking strict parents here. We're talking powerless children being subjected to what would be described in adults as torture. Once you get past the defenses, and protective walls, most addicts will related to experiences that will horrify anyone with any sense of compassion.
Let me relate a story.
A friend who is a physician at Boston Childrens' Hospital volunteered to be the medical staffer on a mobile van that provided outreach for youthful and teenaged homeless kids and run aways. After the first night, my friend commented to his driver that it was sad that so many lazy, irresponsible kids were not willing to live within the constraints of their childhood homes, schools and neighborhoods, and instead, preferred to party it up on the streets.
The astonished driver pulled the van to the curb, and proceeded to explain reality to the doctor, who had no idea what was really going on.
"99% of those kids are LGBT, who when they were found out by parents, their church, or their schools, were attacked, abused, and thrown out of their houses. Think about it. How do you survive on the cold streets when you're a kid, lack money, education, maturity and experience? You sell drugs, or sell your body, and do things to survive that are horrific. These young people use drugs to self-medicate, to get through days that would cause most of us to kill ourselves. These kids aren't run aways. They're throw aways.
Addicts use drugs to self-medicate away the pain of rejection, isolation, and being unwanted. So what do we do when we find them? We exacerbate the problem by jailing them and isolating them further. We give them a criminal record that makes it almost impossible to find decent work. Without decent work, they can't find decent housing, food, medical care. They can't fit into any decent social system, and are relegated to the street / drug world that preyed on them in the first place. Think about how you would feel and then cope if you were stuck on the streets as a young teen with no money, no ability to continue education, to work, or to even get a regular meal?
Scientists have done studies, and have found that being abused psychologically and mentally is as destructive as being physically assaulted. If I walk up to you, and punch you in the face, I will be arrested and jailed. If I mentally abuse you, nothing happens. I can get away with any and all of it. Yet research shows that my abuse does far more damage than if I hit you with a bat. Think back to the time when you were physically hurt. You can't relive the experience of physical pain. You know that the punch, or the burn, or the broken bone was painful, but it's like watching it on a movie screen. It's just a memory. Think back now to the most humiliating, fear-filled, emotionally painful experience. For most of us, we'll have an instantaneous flashback as if it's happening for real once again. Physical pain is momentary, but the humiliation, fear and powerlessness associated with mental abuse never gets weaker.
Back when the Vietnam War was winding down, and plans were in the works to repatriate returning soldiers to civilized society, it was discovered that a significant number of vets were addicted to heroin. The thought that tens of thousands of drug addicts with military and combat skills would be loosed on society with an addiction to serious narcotics, petrified our leaders. So they made efforts to drug test returning soldiers, and try to get them help. After all, heroin is notoriously difficult to kick.
What they discovered is that when these kids were removed from the dangerous, stress-filled environment of war, most of them stopped taking drugs when they returned to the US. They had no more need to self medicate so they could forget the horrors that surrounded them every day. The problem was no longer a problem.
I'm not saying that we should enable drug addicts. I am saying that the war on drugs has been an abysmal failure. Even if we measure this war on the availability of narcotics, everyone would agree that you can buy any and all illegal substances in every town, county and city in our country. Further, not only can few of us understand what an addict is going through, we're not doing anything to really fix the problem. We're just mentally masturbating ourselves into feeling like we're doing somehting. Just as most of us would not discriminate against someone with a physical disability as long as they were capable of doing the job, we should reconsider our aversion to someone who is in serious psychological pain.
I'm not saying that we should tolerate drug use, or let drugged people operate heavy equipment. I am saying that what we're doing now is not working, and perhaps we should try something different. And maybe we should stop, and ask what if that addict was one of us. One of our kids. Our parents. Our siblings. Maybe we'd want to stifle the judgement, the condemnation, and the hate, and maybe try to put ourselves in their shoes.
I highly recommend the book by Johann Hari, called Chasing the Scream. It talks about the horribly racist underpinnings of the original war on drugs, and how this war is doing the exact opposite of helping the situation when it comes to our addiction problem.
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