Should Addiction Illegal Substances be Treated as a Disease or Crime?

[Raban]

I personally believe it is somewhere in the middle; narcotics and other 'drugs' are not only harmful to the self but also to society, and there should be punishment for buying, selling, and using them. However I also think that it is a problem that most people cannot overcome without help. Now the question is how the government (doesn't matter what country) should do in the terms of dealing with addicts, (or anyone under the influence, and unable to stop using said substances)

 

[LuisDantas]

It is fairly simple far as I am concerned; addiction is a disease, while the use itself is a crime.

Not only, or even mainly in the legal sense as much as in the moral sense. Putting one's mental health under deliberate risk is in fact a betrayal of the social contract and not to be tolerated.

 

[LuisDantas]

Now the question is how the government (doesn't matter what country) should do in the terms of dealing with addicts, (or anyone under the influence, and unable to stop using said substances)

If the marijuana, tobacco and alcohol controversies are any indication, the governments are one of the lesser forces involved, far as actual influence goes. They certainly have little in the way of actual results to show.

It seems to me that the true solution to the drug problem has to come from a grassroots decision to abhor them utterly.

We reached some results on this front with tobacco, we should now do the same with marijuana, alcohol and the like.

 

[I.S.L.A.M617]

Addiction is not a disease, people use the "disease" label as a crutch because they'd rather not admit to being spineless and without willpower. Nobody is "unable" to end their addiction, they're simply UNWILLING. Having said that, I don't believe use of drugs should be a crime either. I think all drugs should be legalized and taxed by the government to end the violence of the illegal drug trade, and help pull us out of this deficit. People should be allowed to consume whatever they want, it's nobody else's business...

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

It is fairly simple far as I am concerned; addiction is a disease, while the use itself is a crime.

If addiction is a disease, so is liking chocolate or watching some show or movie just because x actor or actress is in it, or any number of similar situations in which behavior patterns literally change neural structure. In fact, learning is a disease by the same standards addiction is.

Until you can show me how one could diagnose addition as a disease the way medical science does, then you are simply reflecting the desperate needs of psychiatry to say that what they do is medicine.

 

[LuisDantas]

Addiction is not a disease, people use the "disease" label as a crutch because they'd rather not admit to being spineless and without willpower. Nobody is "unable" to end their addiction, they're simply UNWILLING.

There may be something to that, but far too many people try and fail to stop with tobacco for me to agree.

Having said that, I don't believe use of drugs should be a crime either. I think all drugs should be legalized and taxed by the government to end the violence of the illegal drug trade, and help pull us out of this deficit. People should be allowed to consume whatever they want, it's nobody else's business...

Wouldn't that exacerbate the problems, though?

I know you are far from alone in defending this line of action, but I don't see how that could work.

 

[BSM1]

[

quote=I.S.L.A.M617;3380192]Addiction is not a disease, people use the "disease" label as a crutch because they'd rather not admit to being spineless and without willpower. Nobody is "unable" to end their addiction, they're simply UNWILLING. Having said that, I don't believe use of drugs should be a crime either. I think all drugs should be legalized and taxed by the government to end the violence of the illegal drug trade, and help pull us out of this deficit. People should be allowed to consume whatever they want, it's nobody else's business...

[/QUOTE]

I agree with you in principle but one of the problems with this approach is that tax-payers will have to foot the bill for the inevitable treatment the the hard core users will require. I believe we ought to legalize drugs with this caveat: We (tax-payers) will pay for one-and one only- rehab or drug related treatment episode. After that we will allow you to die in the street. Harsh, I know, but to allow total freedom for people also transfers total responsibility.

 

[Sunstone]

So far as I know, addictions can be more effectively treated as diseases than as crimes. That is, criminal punishments for addictions seem to reverse the addiction much less frequently than do therapies.

 

[HonestJoe]

Addiction is not a disease, people use the "disease" label as a crutch because they'd rather not admit to being spineless and without willpower. Nobody is "unable" to end their addiction, they're simply UNWILLING.

It's not that simple. Disease is probably the wrong word but addiction can be a formal medical condition. Real physical and/or psychological affects beyond whatever the normal ones would be can be exhibited by an addicted patient when given or denied whatever it is they're addicted to.

A major complication is that the word is also used to refer to much more mundane situations which really are just a case of an individual not having the willpower to stop (much like lots of people who say they have "flu" do not actually have an influenza infection). It is potentially harmful to dismiss all addiction because of this though.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Neither. They should be treated as addictions.

 

[I.S.L.A.M617]

There may be something to that, but far too many people try and fail to stop with tobacco for me to agree.

I smoke cigarettes, and can stop for months at a time with no urges to smoke and no complications. I have been doing this since I was a teenager. I couldn't and still can't ever understand why some people are so weak they can't just put them down.

Wouldn't that exacerbate the problems, though?

I know you are far from alone in defending this line of action, but I don't see how that could work.

I don't think so. Pretty much everyone that would use drugs already does, I don't think there would be some huge wave of new users; it's not like illegal drugs are hard to find. Also, violent crime would reach its lowest point ever without a drug trade, seeing as the majority of homocides in the US are drug-related.

 

[Sunstone]

I smoke cigarettes, and can stop for months at a time with no urges to smoke and no complications. I have been doing this since I was a teenager. I couldn't and still can't ever understand why some people are so weak they can't just put them down.

Ah, the old "I know one example of something, therefore I know all about something." Yet, one example does not a law of science make.

 

[LuisDantas]

I don't think so. Pretty much everyone that would use drugs already does,

That is a risk that I would rather not run.

I don't think there would be some huge wave of new users;

I do.

it's not like illegal drugs are hard to find. Also, violent crime would reach its lowest point ever without a drug trade, seeing as the majority of homocides in the US are drug-related.

That I just don't see, although again, there are many who agree with you.

It still makes no sense to me.

 

[I.S.L.A.M617]

Ah, the old "I know one example of something, therefore I know all about something." Yet, one example does not a law of science make.

Not saying my experience in the end-all, just that I don't possess any kind of powers or strength that nobody else does, so if I can do it anyone can. I would have more respect for people that said they can't stop if they changed it to won't[/] stop. There's no force outside of yourself forcing you to consume drugs/cigarettes, and it's pretty hard to lose a fight against yourself.

 

[LuisDantas]

Not saying my experience in the end-all, just that I don't possess any kind of powers or strength that nobody else does, so if I can do it anyone can.

That just doesn't follow. Unless you are claiming to be atypically weak?

 

[I.S.L.A.M617]

That just doesn't follow. Unless you are claiming to be atypically weak?

I don't have the potential to be any weaker or stronger mentally than anyone else does, with the exception of retarded people.

 

[Sunstone]

There's no force outside of yourself forcing you to consume drugs/cigarettes, and it's pretty hard to lose a fight against yourself.

So what? There's ample scientific evidence that drugs and nicotine are highly addictive. There does not need to be any force outside of yourself.

 

[LuisDantas]

I don't have the potential to be any weaker or stronger mentally than anyone else does, with the exception of retarded people.

Even if I took for granted that you are right, do you expect me to simply accept that retarded people deserve to have trouble?

 

[I.S.L.A.M617]

So what? There's ample scientific evidence that drugs and nicotine are highly addictive. There does not need to be any force outside of yourself.

Addiction is mental; the only people who become addicted to these substances are those with no willpower, just as people who are fat need only to stop eating so much.

 

[I.S.L.A.M617]

Even if I took for granted that you are right, do you expect me to simply accept that retarded people deserve to have trouble?

No, just that retarded people probably shouldn't do drugs.