What Addicts Need

I agree with thrasher32, that they addicts should get some help, but to continue to help themis spending good money after bad. If they do not want to help theirself then whay should society be burned with the expense of this sprawling problem. Some call it a sickness and being anurse myself I would never let a person suffer but when I see a person deliberately doing to themself that if another person did it to them they would be imprisoned! Look at our hospital ER's on a Friday or Saturday night, it is plaguged with people that do not give a rats patooty about what theyare doing and that they may have family or friends that happen to care about them. But, what are they doing pounding salt into the wound, would be a real understatement. Then all of us that have to work and pay into taxes are not afforded the care that a druggie gets because they code, and the person in the next cubicle comes in from being in a car accident and now the time we could spend saving lives must be spent on the self induced addict. This litterally makes me ill and it something has to be changed in our country and we must all adopt a zero tolerance to illegal and in some cases legal addictions. So do we need a change in our health care system, let us all start here. Because if you try to help and addict more than three times, and they do not assist in their own care, then why should we as a society be placed with such a heavy burden? One will never change a bad attitude, and if they do not offer some support for their own care, including the cost , then again, why should we as a society? Think about this, and it will make sense, and cents, on top of it all. Thank you.

Think about it: a drug to combat another drug. Does that make any sense at all? No, folks, drug addiction is a philosophical problem. People become addicts due to a particular outlook on life which leads to substance dependence. A man who believes all women are witches, for instance, likely will never marry. His not marrying will mean that he will have no children. That then will lead to his having no one to take care of him when and if he gets old. Well, you get the picture. One's attitude determine's one's actions or inactions which then lead to habits and consequences. Overcoming ANY addiction requires a complete overhaul of one's philosophy about life.

See, they keep making everything a DISEASE so people will act like they had no responsibility. Since when is it mandatory in this life to DRINK ALCOHOL, DO DRUGS, SMOKE CIGARRETES ETC.

It's not - the only addiction that I can maybe accept is medical addiction to prescription drugs following dispensing by a physician - because these folks didn't tell the doctor what drug to prescribe.

All the rest is human choice.

Treating alcoholism as a simple chemical alergy ignores the psychological dimensions of the problem. Yes, it is biological as any other alergy, but it also has deep-rooted psychological components that need to be treated as much as the chemical component. I would hate for the big Insurance compnaies to start treating alcolholism as a simple "tale two of these and call me in the morning" treatment. From such narrow minded thinking comes the very common phenomenon as the "dry drunk" and other characterizations. As a continually treating alcoholic myself, I have learned the importance of dealing with the psychological and spiritual dimensions of my disease along with the chemical/biological aspects. Only then can I really learn to live with sobriety and face life on life's terms. These things are often much more difficult than simply abstaining from alcohol.

I write about adolescent addiction at motherwarriors.blogspot.com and am a member of the Parent Advisory Board of Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Comments on the blog show that the public perception still does not accept addiction as a disease. How many people do you hear ranting about taking drugs for cancer or AIDS or insulin to control diabetes? Mental Illness and Addictions both involve brain changes in chemistry and in synapses. To ignore what medications can do to help balance or heal those areas is to be extremely prejudiced against brain disorders. It is a complex issue that even people in the field do not fully understand. But it starts with accepting that the brain is part of our physical being and that addiction is a medical AND a mental/emotional/spiritual problem.

People who do not understand this either do not have family members who are suffering or don't care about why their family members are suffering and are unwilling to learn about the challenges of living with addiction. .

Great points Stevie.

I should point out that the word "Marijuana" was not mentioned once in the entire article, but Marijuana prohibition enforcement eats up 75% of the drug war budget and incarcerates thousands of people a year, all on the taxpayer's dime.

The government mouthpieces (read LIARS) like John Walters will never admit it, but Marijuana is quite harmless ("less toxic than potatoes" according to the DEA's own Administrative Law Judge), and if it were decriminalized we could make some real progress in the fight against truly destructive drugs like Heroin, Cocaine, and Methamphetamine.

We have a limited budget to fight drugs and we need to concentrate on the harmful ones. It's time to face reality, drop the political rhetoric and admit that Marijuana prohibition is a harmful mistake, and use our resources intelligently to stop drug, alcohol, and nicotine addiction by fighting them effectively, without wasting our money fighting non-harmful "drugs" like Marijuana.

IT'S A NO-BRAINER.

what addicts need is a kick in their ass's!!

Thrasher it seems idiotic to point the finger at the government for trying to control marijuana use and not at the people using it. There are millions of us each day that conduct our day without the use of marijuana or any other type of drugs and it is those that use that are putting the strain on the US Taxpayer, not the US Govt. I haven't seen anyone acting stragely after eating potatoes but I could say plenty about how people act after using Marijuana. It still amazes me that people would even want to try any type of drug after watching the pile of documented evidence out there against drug use.

Once again the drug companies are looking for drugs as treatment for drugs. Pills to keep cocaine users from getting high .Most likley thay will morph into using more to get that high,increasing the chase of the first high as the crack user injusts more and more the risk of acidental susicide increases. Wait a second I see the brillance to this plan ,a dead addict is an addict that will never use again.
What will senator Obama do when the cancer of cocaine do when the "spirit of this drug "comes out of the darkest crevices of the human mind to announce "I'M BACK"
Pills do not work aginst the spirit and no one that has ever used cocaine should ever sit in the highest office of the land. Even one use of cocaine causes a pernmant change in the frontal cortex. the spirit of cocaine has entered and will never be removed 'expt by death ,to rear its ugly head .
For cocaine addiction is a spirital disease and only only waging a Christian war aginst this spirit will prevail.

Cheese is a huge problem here. And, Strawberry Quik. Many young people do *not* recover and go on to live a quality life. The best drug? None at all.

One of the simplest things we as a society could do to decrease the risk of alcohol abuse would be to stop advertising it to the public! There is a permissiveness regarding alcohol in Western society which runs so deep I'm not sure how many of us even think about it. We even like to draw an imaginary line between drugs AND alcohol when by any rational definition alcohol IS a drug. If one looks at the criteria for the manner in which drugs are supposed to be placed in one of the five Schedules of our federal drug laws (abuse potential, medical value, accepted safety), alcohol should technically be as illegal as heroin but is specifically exempted for reasons which are never explained.

Look at the book "The emperopr wears no clothes" by Jack Herer. That will tell you why they wont let people smoke pot. It's all a political, corporate lie. I dare you to read it, or just look it up on the net. No, I double dog dare you.

I am deeply saddened to read of people with severe difficulties transitioning through life. Nothing is easy, but some have a more difficult time maybe. It is not out of sympathy that I say this, merely thinking of others in their plight.
I am concerned about the idea of publicizing people's personal problems. The illusion that good things always come to those who need help is a dangerous awareness (or suggestion of a way to cope).... to set in front of young people. As a parent, I have not really wanted to have my children befriend drug addicts and alcoholics and people who are troublemakers. The resulting friendship or personal awareness may present complications in their accomplishing a wholesome and productive life.