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tweet by Johann Hari: The core of addiction is not wanting to be present in life, because pour life is too painful a place to be. This is why imposing more pain or punishment on a person with an addiction problem actually makes their addiction worse.
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Meh. I’m pretty happy, just get bored and like to drink when the opportunity presents itself. I can go a week perfectly happy sober if I’m on travel or a busy week. But if it’s Friday night and the wife doesn’t have the night off you bet I’m drinking playing games.
There are very very different types of substance abuse. Not everyone is depressed.
Availability is definitely a concern. I’m not out looking for k at 2am. But you better believe it it was available at 711 I’d do it a while lot more.
There is a middle ground somewhere that is empathetic but realistic.
This post is obviously not talking about people that can handle their alcohol like you.
I agree. It’s a giant generalization. Exactly what I said.
The post is talking about addicts. You aren’t one.
🙄 I would love to drink less and I can’t. As I said in my original comment, lots of different addicts.
Isn’t there also a chemical element to it that makes trying to get a heroin-addict to go cold turkey kinda like shaming a diabetic for using insulin?
Yes. The withdrawal symptoms are real and physical.
I have a nerve disorder and the original neurologist kept trying different opiates on me (they didn’t work). I never got mentally addicted, but there must have been some physical addiction because I definitely had withdrawal symptoms when I switched to another type of medication and it was not a pleasant few days. I can’t imagine what it must be like for people with serious heroin or fentanyl addictions.
Probably about the same. They they take low doses usually, only a a subset of users go on to take heroic doses and or IV. That’s what makes it so dangerous, you are yo-yoing dosage trying to find that sweet spot, all it takes is one too large of a dose with a few drinks and you are night night forever, or choke on your own spit or vomit.
people wouldn’t have to steal to feed their habit or overdose on laced shit if you could simply buy a portion over the counter barrier free and fairly priced
I would hope that decent, mental health treatment would be the first option until drugs are decriminalized. You wouldn’t need drugs if people weren’t self-medicating.
That’s barely even an option for most people who aren’t struggling with drug problems.
It should be for everyone that needs or wants it.
So much of overdose etc is not having a regulated dose! Not to mention, I bought coke and it was fentanyl instead. Should have known to test, but learned the hardest lesson.
It’s the one time things don’t go right that you don’t make it back
Also, they wouldn’t be financing drug criminals and terrorists, but would actually be supporting legitimate small business and pay taxes.
Legalization, regulation, harm reduction. That’s the way.
I would support legalizing drugs that can’t be abused, like psychedelics. Try taking acid or shrooms a couple days in a row and it won’t have any effect until you take a tolerance break. But coke, opioids, & meth shouldn’t be easily accessible to the regular person especially in a store. I don’t even think you should be able to buy weed till your 26 and your brain has fully developed.
Do you actually believe that drugs are not easily accessible?
I could drive right now to a brand new city and find a dealer.
Yeah you could, but me, my family, or friends can’t and I much prefer society being that way. And I’m talking about hard drugs, I could literally get weed or psychedelics anytime and in a lot of cities. I just wouldn’t want my little nieces and nephews getting hooked on meth or heroine from a store and having a new industry that could legally abuse peoples addictive tendencies.
Brother you sound pretty naive.
I don’t drink alcohol, never have, and that’s available in every store.
If you think just because something is decriminalised or legalised then the usage will increase then you’re misinformed. You can look at legal marijuana in many countries, or even Portugal and Switzerlands approach to harder drugs to see that isn’t the case.
It’s hardly like it’s carte blanche for companies to start marketing crack to kids. In fact it should be government controlled and the proceeds can go to educating people. Or we could just do what we’ve done since the war on drugs started which has had little to no effect on the trafficking of drugs.
Furthermore, by limiting these substances to the black market, you’re essentially happy for the proceeds to fund larger crimes like terrorism which will result in someone’s else’s nieces or nephews being killed. Also, you’re happy for the drug cartels to control some counties, what about the nieces and nephews in those counties?
Incredibly naive.
Finally, it’s heroin. Heroine is a courageous female.
I’m not saying I agree with the current state of the drug war, I just think the state should have the power to snatch you up and put you in treatment if you’re clearly addicted and constantly using hard drugs like heroin, meth, crack. I spent half my life in NJ and the other half in Iowa so I’ve seen how hard drugs like meth & crack could completely destroy people from varying ethnicities & socioeconomic backgrounds.
And Seattle did decriminalize drugs only to go back to making it illegal, because their streets started filling up with junkies and ruining their city. Some drugs deserve to be illegal to be served to humans because of how it completely destroys them, it’s just much better for society to lock people up and force them to be sober then for a state to willingly serve poison to its citizens. And if you think alcohol is addictive as meth or crack then you’re the one who’s utterly naive.
You are a bit naive on reality.
Right now, anyone can buy coke, opioids and meth without any checks. Even minors.
And organized criminal gangs take all the profit.
With regulation, rules can be put in place for even the hardest drugs. And it would also be registered to whom it was sold, when, what and how much.
Right now, anyone can buy coke, opioids and meth without any checks. Even minors.
But it’s really really hard, and it’d be even harder if fewer drugs required knowing drug dealers.
By the time I was 15 I had done cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, codeine, ketamine, mdma, amphetamine, methylphenidate, weed, mushrooms, acid, dmt and probably more that I just can’t remember. The mushrooms didn’t fund a drug gang, they funded my education, but everything else except those and alcohol funded a drug gang.
Which of those are you still on, if you think that experience was typical?
Psychedelics, weed and if I’m at a concert maybe md or k. I’m not on any of the really hard stuff like alcohol tho.
I mean, not really. I’ve never bought drugs like that, but I could have a bag of coke in about 5 minutes because only an idiot wouldn’t know a dealer when they drive past one.
It’d be risky, but otherwise easier than walking into the local dispensary or liquor store. And I don’t have to show ID if I’m buying shit on the street (which is why minors are more likely to take illegal drugs than legal ones)
But I don’t know where to get any of those things, so I can’t buy them.
By the time I was 15 I had done cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, codeine, ketamine, mdma, amphetamine, methylphenidate, weed, mushr9oms, acid, dmt and probably more that I just can’t remember. The mushrooms didn’t fund a drug gang, they funded my education, but everything else funded a drug gang.
I took mushrooms for 2 months daily so it will still effect you without tolerance break u just don’t really get many negative effects in my experience
Edit: I’m abt to go on an acid bender over Halloween too but that one tires u out alot more so I prefer shrooms
I take acid for a week straight during my birthday week and by the third or fourth day I’m not really experiencing much. Any psychedelic you take will have a very minuscule effect after a 3 day bender because your serotonin levels are very depleted. Personally I find shrooms just make me too emotional and I find the trips to be a little short so I much more prefer acid over any drug.
I do build a tolerance but I’m still 3xperienceing it by the 4th day. Shrooms r easier for me to talk abt cause I have more experience but got shrooms I can trip for maybe 3 weeks daily without any tolerance and I’m not entirely sure if I had tolerance at that point or was just getting more used to the situation
Edit: psychedelics don’t deplete serotonin they attach to serotonin receptors. Mdma depletes serotonin
I don’t even think you should be able to present an opinion here till your 26 and your brain has fully developed.
You shouldn’t have to wait 5 more years (assuming US law here) past the age you can legally drink yourself to death to buy weed. It’s also infantilizing and a denial of bodily autonomy to refuse adults the ability to make certain decisions because they might cause long term harm. By that metric nobody should be allowed to eat red meat, have sex, or get tattoos until they’re 26.
alcohol isn’t that bad, wine is actually good for you and spirits do prevent botulism and food poisoning but that might just be the french side of my family talking 😂
There is no known safe level of alcohol consumption. It’s certainly not safe enough to justify giving it to people 5 years before cannabis.
You’re right about that but weed is a carcinogen too, & as far as I know LSD and most psychedelics are non toxic and don’t cause cancer so there’s a bigger argument to be made about them being legalized.
I wouldn’t count the Known to the State of California warnings for much. They added that warning to coffee cups despite the link being weak and contrived.
And as others said, no study has linked consumption of weed edibles (or weed vaping) to causing cancer. In fact, it’s the opposite. Several (preliminary) studies show that marijuana retards of reduces the risk of some cancers. It is often prescribed to cancer patients for appetite-gain and pain reduction (with fewer side-effects than other prescriptions for the same), but is also now being prescribed for its potential anti-carcinogenic properties.
That link says cannabis smoke is a carcinogen, not cannabis itself. You don’t have to smoke cannabis to consume it, and almost anything set on fire and inhaled will cause cancer, including campfire smoke. Should camping be a 26 and up activity?
alcohol isn’t that bad
Lol what? It’s toxic, it’s highly addictive, and its withdrawal symptoms can literally kill people. The reason so many people can use it without serious problems is because they have social support systems and a safe supply.
You’re thinking of older generations that weren’t properly educated on the harms of alcohol use and didn’t have safer alternatives like cannabis. Gen Z or zoomers actually drink less. And alcohol has never crippled society or been detrimental to a large groups of people in society. but opiates and meth have both had significant and detrimental impacts on various societies throughout history. Here are some examples of how these substances have harmed societies:
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The Opioid Epidemic in the United States: This crisis has strained healthcare systems, law enforcement, and social services. The economic burden associated with opioid addiction and its consequences is substantial.
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The Opium Wars in China: In the 19th century, China was ravaged by the Opium Wars, during which the British Empire and other European powers forced China to open its markets to opium trade. The opium trade led to widespread addiction and social problems in Chinese society. The opium wars and the subsequent opium addiction crisis had far-reaching social and economic consequences, leading to the degradation of Chinese society and the weakening of the Qing Dynasty.
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Methamphetamine in Japan during World War II: During World War II, the Japanese government distributed methamphetamine pills (known as “Philopon” in Japan) to soldiers and civilians. This widespread methamphetamine use had disastrous effects on Japanese society. It led to addiction, health issues, and a breakdown of social and familial structures. The consequences of this drug use persisted long after the war.
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Methamphetamine in the United States: Methamphetamine, commonly known as “meth,” has had a significant negative impact on American society. The production and use of methamphetamine have led to public health problems, crime, and environmental damage. Meth addiction has torn families apart, and the associated crimes and social problems have placed a heavy burden on law enforcement and the healthcare system.
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Afghanistan’s Opium Production: Afghanistan has been a major global producer of opium for many years. The opium trade has funded insurgency, corruption, and violence in the country. The availability of cheap opiates has also contributed to addiction problems both in Afghanistan and among international drug users.
The consequences include addiction, health problems, family disruption, crime, and economic burdens. Efforts to address these issues often involve a combination of public health initiatives, law enforcement measures, and harm reduction strategies to mitigate the negative impact of these substances on society.
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Author of this tweet (I dunno maybe it is copypasta) is a trip.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hari
Example: Hari is gay. He wrote an article claiming he had sex with men who were members of homophobic far-right and Islamist groups, stating that with drugs and “a lot of flattery” he “coaxed” a nineteen year old Muslim into "wild gay sex.
So he admitted to raping a probably-closeted gay man?
Sounds like, yeah
Here is what he wrote. Judge for yourself.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/13/gayrights.thefarright?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Now, I doubt that many of these blokes were shagging each other, not least because, for religious reasons, none of them drink, so it was hard to lower their inhibitions. But after a long smoke and a lot of flattery, Mo was fairly easily coaxed. Of course, he seemed a bit hung-up about it afterwards. Since I was nearing the end of my undercover gig, I tried to persuade him that perhaps gay people weren’t evil, especially in light of the fact that he had just been having wild gay sex.
Slam-cut to LA and Russ. He was a harder nut to crack, but at least he could (and did) drink an awful lot of vodka. I’ll spare you the details: suffice it to say that Germany did successfully invade Poland. So what’s the moral of this tale? Part of me wants to trumpet it as a victory for gay rights. Even in the most intense centres of homophobia and gay-bashing, you can still find the odd bit of sodomy. We are, quite literally, everywhere, including (literally) inside homophobes. Part of me is a bit ashamed - in the cold light of day, both Russ and Mo have some pretty repulsive views. But there’s something uniquely rewarding about bagging a homophobe. In fact, I reckon that this should be the new path for the gay rights movement. Every gay reader of the Guardian should henceforth dedicate himself to seducing every gay-basher they can find. Our response to hatred shouldn’t be to hate back; it should be to give them a jolly good seeing-to.
Yeah but I’m not sure if this is even real. It sounds like something from The Onion if it were more R-rated:
On September 11 2001, the smoke and the fumes and the blood were barely settled on Manhattan when I was delegated to go undercover at the Finsbury Park mosque, the most hardline in Britain. Fortunately, I have always found Islam fascinating, and I was able to bluff my way in fairly easily - stuff about needing to rally around to keep up the assault on America at this time, and so on.
But this mosque (which is, by the way, totally atypical of Britain’s overwhelmingly decent and moderate Muslim population) was hardcore. The blokes were swapping videotapes with titles like Jihad tactics: how to kill and kill again.
You guys I think Hari might be gay
“I eat because I’m unhappy. I’m unhappy because I eat.” - fat bastard from Austin powers.
Also me.
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So you’re saying anyone who uses drugs recreationally should be in rehab? You seem quite confident, but I’m wondering if you forgot to think before you wrote this?
I believe the core of addiction is the culmination of many bad choices and no sense of personal responsibility. It’s something the addict did to themselves. They need to own it and not point fingers or try to justify.
Sounds like the opinion of someone looking in from the outside, and not a very compassionate or empathetic one.
Of course it is, and you are 100% correct in saying I have no compassion or empathy for anyone that refuses to take responsibility for themselves. I never will.
I hope something bad happens to you that you have no control over so you can understand how cruel and asinine your take is
I hope that some day you learn how to properly write and punctuate a sentence.
Sick burn bro
Username checks out, to coin a phrase that no one has used before.
Ah yes, the conservative position about literally everything.
That’s a wordy way of saying common sense.
Do people with PTSD who end up self-medicating because they can’t find another thing that helps them need to ‘own it and not point fingers,’ or can the fact that they were in a war or raped regularly by a family member or whatever caused their PTSD be a big part of the issue? Do people with severe mental illness lack personal responsibility? Maybe. But they aren’t going to gain it either what with being severely mentally ill.
You are talking about an extremely extremely small percentage of addicts. The vast majority do not come from any situation you mentioned. I stand by what I said.
At the risk of controversy-- and spoken as a ten year addict now clean for 25 years… I did not feel the motivation to get clean until I was made to fear the consequences of my own vile self centeredness, selfishness, and pain I was causing others and others in my own life. The stern judicial system played a strong role in helping me wake up.
I’d agree but feel the need to highlight a difference between chemical addiction and addiction for the sake of escapism. Though both can absolutely be present at the same time. I am neither a psychologist or neurologist, but have some experience. I’ve largely dealt with addiction in the forms of self harm, as well as an addiction to sugar.
Self harm absolutely was about escapism. And the addiction was not chemical other than the brain creating a need for it in order to soothe negative thoughts and feelings (anxiety, trauma, stress, sadness etc…).
Sugar on the other hand was a mix of escapism and chemical addiction. When I felt worse I naturally craved more sugar. But even when I felt glad or elated I would still crave it.
I can’t speak on addiction to drugs like heroin, opiates, cocaine, among others. But in my experience of addiction to self harm and sugar. Punishment would only end up deepening the addiction as I sought to escape the punishment through addiction as well. Even if that punishment was self-inflicted.
IMO the chemical addiction just acts as a mechanism to enact the escapism. Like with a cigarette I could shake my brain like an etch a sketch, switching to a new mental scene, by blasting it with dopamine.
Also, when I was out of cigarettes I had a mission: get cigarettes.
That chemical dependency thing just adds a new magnet to the mental filings so they align less along the lines of feeling bad about my life.
A drug habit is like a video game for your emotions. You assign yourself this arbitrary quest, and a whole set of missions and adventures come out of it, and it kills the time.
Glad someone points out the difference! I did not have to deal with psychological addiction, but during military I developed a (luckily mild) physical/chemical addiction to alcohol.
I did not notice during service. But when i was out, i noticed my body craving for it. This could take many forms like sleeplessness or general physical unsettling. In my experience the physical addiction is less about external pain, but the body giving you pain if it is missing that substance, it got too much used to.
I had a traumatizing amount of pain once. I mean it fried me from the inside and I screamed for three days. Doctors wouldn’t help because they figured I was faking it to get high. Not continual screaming, but screaming for a couple hours at a go, maybe five times a day. And I don’t mean yelling and begging I mean screaming. No words, just incoherent, uncontrollable vocalization from the level of pain.
When I came out of that I was fucking fried. The slightest hiccup in my routine would send me into a panic attack. Any exercise would send me into an anxious state for like a week, full of insomnia, symptoms sort of like dehydration despite me being hydrated, super tense muscles, headaches, foggy mind, irritable as all hell.
It was the worst in the few days after this pain ended. It’s now been four years and I’m like 80% recovered. I still can’t do a heavy workout without re-activating the insomnia, the muscle tension, the anxiety and feeling close to overwhelm. Basically if I do a heavy workout the adrenaline spikes and just stays up and my heart rate doesn’t come down it’s bad.
But not nearly as bad as it was the first few days. Like I’ll give an example. I made a pair of waffles in the toaster. No clean fork. There was a dirty fork in the living room that I could grab and clean. But I’d have to soak it. Meanwhile the waffle’s getting cold.
Panic attack. That situation sent me cowering against the wall on the kitchen floor, crying and wincing and trying to unwind but unable to.
Later that particular day, I went for a drink with my friend. And — I’ve never done this before — when I ordered my beer I just said “and a shot of vodka”, just the cheapest they had. I downed that shot then brought the beer back to my table.
And boy, when that vodka warmth was spreading into my chest, it was the most perfect thing for those nerves I had.
It made me realize why certain guys look at booze that way. I realized that if a guy’s got those nerves, from wherever it is he’s been, he experiences alcohol in a totally different way.
It was like watching a hot water hose melt the ice off a windshield, the way that vodka cut through it all. Just perfect. Don’t know how else to describe it.
It’s not like that any more, at least on a daily basis.
I hope you’ve found a place that makes you feel safe and cozy here.
That sounds like a truly horrible experience to have happen. I’m glad to hear you’re starting to recover, though that is often exhausting on its own.
I avoided alcohol for most of my life simply because I feared becoming addicted to it. Now that I’m in a somewhat better place I’ve carefully joined in on social drinking. And I can definitely see how easily alcohol could become an addiction. It can free your nerves and worries. Not to mention it is widely socially acceptable to drink, as compared to other drugs or behavior.
Hot water melting the ice of a windshield is such a good metaphor. It really gives an understanding of how easy it is to turn to the “easy” solution. Rather than spending 5 minutes scraping the ice off your windshield.
I would say self-harm is akin to restarting your car because it’s making that weird noise again. It temporarily removes the noise but it never fixes the actual issue. So eventually the noise gets worse and you restart more and more until your car gives up and dies.
So it removed the worry and thinking? Is that what your pointing at with the car’s noise? Or more of a visceral feeling of anxiety or some other emotion maybe?
It temporarily relieves the anxiety and emotion. The pain and shock from an injury supercedes the stress and emotion giving you temporary reprieve. If you have a tooth ache and stub your toe. In that monent the tooth ache won’t hurt as much because the brain cannot process both equally.
I hope that makes sense.
I was hoping for a more subjective description of what it did for you.
Sorry, kind of a personal question and you don’t have to answer. Very much a getting to know you question so if that’s too private I understand.
It’s not too private at all. I often times find talking about it helps relieve some of that stigma.
To give a better understanding, the background to my anxiety and other issues come from bullying, a verbally abusive father, social isolation, and being transgender (male to female). All of this caused me chronic depression from a very early age. And a lot of issues in dealing with stress, anxiety, stigma & emotion.
When any if not all of those emotions become too much I have no healthy way of dealing with it. I can’t sleep, constantly fidget, extreme negative emotions and thoughts, withdraw myself, & and become suicidal (assuming I have no relief for some time). The way that self-harm comes into this is that it sort of… releases some of those issues. I’m not 100% sure of how it actually works. But when my self-harm was very active, often times the only way to sleep was to cut myself. I couldn’t sleep while all those thoughts and emotions ceaselessly raced through my head.
Of course it wasn’t just for sleep. When things became too much to bare I cut myself then too simply to relieve it. One of the biggest problems with self-harm is how it easily and quickly escalates. Just like how 1 cigarette a day won’t be enough for a chain smoker, you build up a kind of tolerance. You cut more and cut deeper.
Warning graphic stuff!
hidden or nsfw stuff
I started with simple epidermis or dermis cuts. This depth of cuts are what you might get from day to day life and the scars will eventually fade given 6 months to a year. Then it quickly progressed into open fat cuts (hypodermis), the kind you definitely go to hospital to get stitched or stapled (I didn’t). And at one time I ended up with a fascia cut which is really bad.
The above picture only shows to hypodermis. But underneath you have fascia followed by muscle and then bone. The escalation to hypodermis happened in only 2-3 months. And as such my left leg is entirely covered in thick scars at this point.
In essence self-harm acted as a release valve for everything that was bottled up inside me, whatever it may be.
Sorry for the long post. I hope I was able to answer your question :)
I appreciate your response and hope you’re well.
The language keeps evolving, but this is also described as the difference between substance use/abuse/dependance. Anyone that falls into any of those categories could identify as having an addiction, but each have different issues to be addressed when seeking recovery.
I’ve worked in substance use disorder treatment and have some challenges of my own but anecdotally, I think the starting point is almost always escapism whether it’s the persons circumstances or mental health. Occasionally it’s living a certain lifestyle or use being normalized by key people in a person’s life. Dependence comes later, and adds extra layers of things to overcome, as you described.
IMO one of the worst aspects of the punishment is when people who are in the stages of use/abuse are punished (whether criminally or otherwise), and after the punishment their circumstances are even worse.
Those who weren’t dependent before are headed right into the revolving door of hospitalization, jail, rehab, outpatient so on and so on.
We should do better.
Escapism, like how they escaped with my catalytic converter.
no that is capitalism
the invisible hand of the market is taking them because used second hand catalytic converters are really valuable.
they are entrepreneurs! try buying security equipment and buying online cameras and paying for bandwidth like a good capitalist until you can rent your side house to a cop aka be a vassal
Strictly speaking, catalytic converters are only valuable because of emission reduction regulations put in place by foolish communists like youself sir.
If the invisible hand of the market were to be set free, we could all simply go in raw as god intended.
That’s not true, they are valuable because they contain Platinum. They are inherently valuable regardless of why they were installed.
If appealing to empathy worked for convincing the rich and lawmakers into helping the poor and miserable, there wouldn’t be (…as many) poor and miserable.
They’re too busy, uhmmm *checks notes* fighting abortion or some insanely and inherently evil shit like that
I’m not really sold on that. Drug addicts are victims and shouldn’t be penalized but drug dealers definitely deserve jail.
In most of the world people who sell weed are “drug dealers”; are you including them as well?
If it’s illegal in that country, yes.
It should be legal everywhere, but if you’re selling it where it isn’t you’re still breaking the law. Iirc most countries that have it legal also have a lot of regulations on it so selling it in a random back alley without certification would still be a crime.
So what, I’m a victim of an evil drug dealer if I buy weed in Texas but I’m just a satisfied customer if I buy weed in Washington?
You’re engaging in the circular logic of thinking illegal things are bad because they’re illegal and they need to stay illegal because they’re bad. You need to understand the laws have no inherent moral value, and nothing is bad simply because it’s illegal.
They don’t need to stay illegal, I explicitly said they shouldn’t.
But if you’re buying it in Texas you’re likely doing it from a backalley random anonymous guy who takes no accountability and might give you who-knows-what mixed with it. I’d say in those circumstances even selling apples should be illegal.
It’s like comparing prescription Xanax to smuggled benzos from India.
I never met a junkie that didn’t also sell at least a bit to help pay for the habit. I get what you mean, some dealers/orgs are obviously bad people and often these aren’t even addicts at all to their own product, but where do you draw the line.
That’s why I think it’s a difficult thing to handle.
My opinion would be something like this (though it’s probably very flawed as I just thought of it on the spot and I’m not extremely knowledgeable on the subject):
Are you positive to a drug test? Are you willing to cooperate on where did you get them?
Yes-Yes: Confiscation and advice to go to a rehab center
Yes-No: Confiscation and advice to go to a rehab center unless it’s a repeat offense, in that case I’d force the rehab center
No-Yes: Just confiscation
No-No: I’m assuming you’re the dealer, jail
I just found these drugs on you, which you are obviously using. How’d you like to pee in a cup while a creepy, uniformed man watches your dingdong intensely?
If you don’t want to be watched by a creepy uniformed man you can come to the police station and do it in the toilet.
Or just, not do stuff that’s illegal. If people nowadays still do it knowing they risk jail, risking a brief uneasy situation seems way less threatening.
How about fuck all that, and just leave people alone?
If they aren’t harming anyone, leave them the fuck alone unless they ask for help.
They are harming people by selling hard drugs to them.
that’s your view, there’s very different types of drugs, and not all hard drugs are harmful. Putting people doing harmless ‘crimes’ in jail, that is what is harmful to society.
What would you consider a “hard drug” that isn’t harmful? Isn’t its very definition a way to distinguish them from soft drugs which are less harmful?
Afaik only cannabis and alcohol are considered soft drugs. Cannabis actually has quite a few people addicted to it. Alcohol does an incredible amount of harm to health and society. Take a look at shrooms, which are usually considered hard-drugs: no-one is addicted to it, it’s not bad for your health, it’s actually a very healing experience and is being considered more and more as a proper treatment for psychological problems. Shrooms are usually consumed very responsibly, there are of course always some idiots who don’t know what they are doing. Still they’re considered hard drugs and conservative minded people often don’t want to hear about legalization, without any rational argument.
Or, hear me out, help those consuming them get out of that addiction and crush those who prey on them by selling drugs. They are the actual evil ones here.
On the one hand, you’re right. However, I would say most societies have already drawn that conclusion and have attempted to do what you say we should do. Can you think of any place that has been successful? Certainly not the US.
The US hasn’t succeeded because they haven’t really done shit. They will help people detox if they have insurance, or people can go to a state-run facility, which in most cases are horribly depressing jail-like environments. In those places they sell you the cure, which is a program developed by a guy in the 1930s based on an evangelical Christian program for sobriety. I’m sure you can guess but this program requires a belief in God to become sober and live a fulfilling life. You might hear about so called amazing treatment facilities but those places cost thousands of dollars a day, push the same “cure”, and good luck getting insurance to pay for it.
I agree with your assessment of the US. The point I’m really trying to make is that I haven’t seen a successful implementation of this approach in any free country, even though most countries buy into the premise of going after drug dealers. Whether it fails because the implementation is all wrong or human failings, the fact that nobody has been able to get it right makes me wonder if it’s time to conclude that we aren’t going to solve it this way.
Portugal
I think you misread. I was saying that the idea of solving the drug problem by going after the supply is flawed because it’s never been successful.
Legalize them. Consistent supply means clear perception of the situation, control over dosing.
To heal from trauma a person must willingly face the thing that traumatized them. Unwilling encounter only deepens the trauma. If a person is addicted because reality has traumatized them, forcing them back against it doesn’t help. They need to have control, and it has to be their own choice to stop.
With a legal market, a person could ramp themselves down off heroin by reducing their dose 1% per day. They can fiddle with it, roll it around in their fingers, poke and prod at their habit and take it apart.
When supply is sporadic, the instinct that develops is to always be drawn, to always say yes. When supply is sporadic it mixes the thrill of the hunt with the drug. You score just by getting some, and you celebrate the win by taking it.
It’s a whole thing that doesn’t exist when you can always walk down the street to the 7-Eleven and grab a six pack of Horse Girls with your reese’s peanut butter cups and gatorade, and pop a couple of them while you watch the game.
PSA that, while having said profound things about loneliness and addiction as of late, Johann Hari has a long history of plagiarism and making stuff up, and once really strongly implied in a TED Talk that if you have good social support then it can just vanish your opiate withdrawal symptoms
@5:00 https://yewtu.be/watch?v=PY9DcIMGxMs generally just web search this guy
Vietnam soldiers who were addicted to heroin were able to stop when they came back because it was a different environment. Addiction is usually caused by circumstancely factors rather than actual chemical imbalances that cause them to seek heroin. Like depression would be the root causing heroin addiction not heroin addiction being the root. This means that when those other things are solved the addiction can usually solve itself so I’d say in a lot of cases a good support system could definitely go a long way to solving an addiction. Albeit I don’t agree w her other points
