Drug policy has lagged behind the times- and well behind the science- for decades.
We know what methods are proven to work; a program of medical treatment, replacement drugs and psychiatric care combined to build up a solid rate of recovery. When you identify substance addiction as a medical issue and you treat it accordingly, people get their lives back on track.
But for a lot of people, substance abuse disorders are still viewed as a moral failing rather than an illness. When those people are in power, any assistance- even those forms of it that we know for a fact will solve the problem- is seen as being lenient on people who are a 'burden' on society.
They prefer programs that punish addicted persons rather than helping them get better.
It's a stunning lack of empathy that reveals a sick mindset. That kind of worldview doesn't belong anywhere near elected office. If your job is to be a public servant, then you should be serving the public, not going out of your way to be a complete bastard to people who need help.
Meanwhile, most of us self-medicate in some form or another (besides caffeine), albeit it’s more or less ‘under control’. And there are various forms of self-medicating, from the relatively mild to the dangerously extreme, that include non-intoxicant-consumption addictions, like pornography, chronic shopping/buying, gambling, or over-eating.
With food, the vast majority of obese people who considerably over-eat likely do so to mask mental pain or even PTSD symptoms. I utilized that method myself during much of my pre-teen years, and even later in life after ceasing my (ab)use of cannabis or alcohol. I don’t take it lightly, but it’s possible that someday I could instead return to over-eating.
The trouble with safe consumption sites is that they are sites. I live in a city of a million people and we have one consumption site and five hundred pharmacies. No-one objects to a pharmacy opening in his neighbourhood. Approaching a safe consumption site is like descending the circles of hell. Dispersion gives a better view of the problem. That is not intended to hide the problem. Rather, it makes it more manageable in all the neighborhoods affected.
Decades ago, I, while always sympathetic, looked down on those who had ‘allowed’ themselves to become heavily addicted to hard drugs or alcohol. Yet, I myself have suffered enough unrelenting PTSD symptoms to have known, enjoyed and appreciated the great release upon consuming alcohol or THC.
Addictions and addicts are still largely perceived by sober society as being products of weak willpower and/or moral crime. At the same time, pharmaceutical corporations have intentionally pushed their own very addictive and profitable opiate resulting in immense suffering and overdose death numbers — indeed the actual moral crime! — and got off relatively lightly and only through civil litigation.
The unfortunate fact about self-medicating is: the greater the induced euphoria or escape one attains from it, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their non-self-medicating reality, the more pleasurable that escape will likely be perceived. In other words: the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while not self-medicating, the greater the need for escape from one's reality — all the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.
When substance abuse is due to past formidable mental trauma, the lasting solitarily-suffered turmoil can readily make each day an ordeal unless the traumatized mind is medicated. (Not surprising, many chronically addicted people won’t miss this world if they never wake up.)
Societally neglecting, rejecting and therefore failing people struggling with crippling addiction should never be an acceptable or preferable political, economic or religious/morality option. They definitely should not be consciously or subconsciously perceived by sober society as somehow being disposable. Too often the worth(lessness) of the substance abuser is measured basically by their ‘productivity’ or lack thereof. They may then begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live and self-medicate their daily lives more haphazardly.
Good points. These talk about the demand side. On the supply side, the narrative provided by the United States is leading Canadians to believe that illicit drug production is not a problem in Canada. The low volume of drugs seized at the border is cited to claim it is not a problem. This belief ignores the growing illicit drug industry in Canada. It is a real emerging problem. The Canadian industry uses different distribution systems. The producers are also more fragmented, which is one reason why big volume seizures are less common.
In my social conversations, someone invariably has a story about someone they know who is involved in illicit drugs in amounts that qualify as trafficking. One of my classmates is in jail as the leader of an organized criminal group trafficking drugs. The anecdotal stories suggest there is more than the macro news suggests.
It is timely to deal with the criminal side now, before it gets out of hand. However, dealing with it in the manner prescribed by Trump does not address the problem. Acquiescing to that narrative is really about avoiding tariffs, which will likely come next month anyway.
Drug policy has lagged behind the times- and well behind the science- for decades.
We know what methods are proven to work; a program of medical treatment, replacement drugs and psychiatric care combined to build up a solid rate of recovery. When you identify substance addiction as a medical issue and you treat it accordingly, people get their lives back on track.
But for a lot of people, substance abuse disorders are still viewed as a moral failing rather than an illness. When those people are in power, any assistance- even those forms of it that we know for a fact will solve the problem- is seen as being lenient on people who are a 'burden' on society.
They prefer programs that punish addicted persons rather than helping them get better.
It's a stunning lack of empathy that reveals a sick mindset. That kind of worldview doesn't belong anywhere near elected office. If your job is to be a public servant, then you should be serving the public, not going out of your way to be a complete bastard to people who need help.
Meanwhile, most of us self-medicate in some form or another (besides caffeine), albeit it’s more or less ‘under control’. And there are various forms of self-medicating, from the relatively mild to the dangerously extreme, that include non-intoxicant-consumption addictions, like pornography, chronic shopping/buying, gambling, or over-eating.
With food, the vast majority of obese people who considerably over-eat likely do so to mask mental pain or even PTSD symptoms. I utilized that method myself during much of my pre-teen years, and even later in life after ceasing my (ab)use of cannabis or alcohol. I don’t take it lightly, but it’s possible that someday I could instead return to over-eating.
The trouble with safe consumption sites is that they are sites. I live in a city of a million people and we have one consumption site and five hundred pharmacies. No-one objects to a pharmacy opening in his neighbourhood. Approaching a safe consumption site is like descending the circles of hell. Dispersion gives a better view of the problem. That is not intended to hide the problem. Rather, it makes it more manageable in all the neighborhoods affected.
Decades ago, I, while always sympathetic, looked down on those who had ‘allowed’ themselves to become heavily addicted to hard drugs or alcohol. Yet, I myself have suffered enough unrelenting PTSD symptoms to have known, enjoyed and appreciated the great release upon consuming alcohol or THC.
Addictions and addicts are still largely perceived by sober society as being products of weak willpower and/or moral crime. At the same time, pharmaceutical corporations have intentionally pushed their own very addictive and profitable opiate resulting in immense suffering and overdose death numbers — indeed the actual moral crime! — and got off relatively lightly and only through civil litigation.
The unfortunate fact about self-medicating is: the greater the induced euphoria or escape one attains from it, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their non-self-medicating reality, the more pleasurable that escape will likely be perceived. In other words: the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while not self-medicating, the greater the need for escape from one's reality — all the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.
When substance abuse is due to past formidable mental trauma, the lasting solitarily-suffered turmoil can readily make each day an ordeal unless the traumatized mind is medicated. (Not surprising, many chronically addicted people won’t miss this world if they never wake up.)
Societally neglecting, rejecting and therefore failing people struggling with crippling addiction should never be an acceptable or preferable political, economic or religious/morality option. They definitely should not be consciously or subconsciously perceived by sober society as somehow being disposable. Too often the worth(lessness) of the substance abuser is measured basically by their ‘productivity’ or lack thereof. They may then begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live and self-medicate their daily lives more haphazardly.
Good points. These talk about the demand side. On the supply side, the narrative provided by the United States is leading Canadians to believe that illicit drug production is not a problem in Canada. The low volume of drugs seized at the border is cited to claim it is not a problem. This belief ignores the growing illicit drug industry in Canada. It is a real emerging problem. The Canadian industry uses different distribution systems. The producers are also more fragmented, which is one reason why big volume seizures are less common.
In my social conversations, someone invariably has a story about someone they know who is involved in illicit drugs in amounts that qualify as trafficking. One of my classmates is in jail as the leader of an organized criminal group trafficking drugs. The anecdotal stories suggest there is more than the macro news suggests.
It is timely to deal with the criminal side now, before it gets out of hand. However, dealing with it in the manner prescribed by Trump does not address the problem. Acquiescing to that narrative is really about avoiding tariffs, which will likely come next month anyway.