Enabling Addiction
At risk of seeming Neanderthal in one's views it somehow seems a questionable enterprise to agree that providing people addicted to drugs and alcohol with the substances that have ruined their lives, improves their lives when drugs and alcohol are doled out under supervision.
There are experimental programs that have been designed with special protocols to address the societal problem of people who have succumbed to addictions. These people have intentionally, at some time in their history, exposed themselves to mind-altering drugs like alcohol and opiates, for example, and have, in effect, created their own miserable conditions of dependence and degradation.
They have, in the process, sacrificed their futures to a life of bleak dependence and misery. They have, in effect, of their own free will, chosen to alienate themselves from society, from their families, from the workforce, and from opportunities to improve themselves. They seldom seek amelioration of their condition through actively looking for help.
They end up living homeless, absent human dignity; ill and susceptible to violence - violence that they direct toward others or which others direct toward them. Their tawdry lives have no purpose but to achieve the delirium of intoxication. They are an affront to human dignity, to the aspirations of most individuals to make something worthwhile of their opportunities in life.
They have victimized themselves and in the process victimize society. Their conscience is perhaps not bothered by this, but society's conscience is troubled greatly that among them live people in such dire conditions that arose from rejection of societal norms. Chronic drug users and alcoholics in cities which have embarked on ameliorating programs have a choice.
They can seek opportunities for rehabilitation, to rid themselves of their dependency on drugs and alcohol. And they can also consider themselves incapable of making the effort to normalize themselves. Far greater numbers simply continue to submit to the incessant desire to remain dependent on drugs, than those who seek help to assert their will to succeed.
What to think of programs devised to ensure that addicts are given the drugs and the alcohol they need to keep on buzzing, and where their health is monitored and they are being counselled, and kept off the streets? The argument is that these methods are less costly in terms of human lives and the use of police, hospital and social services.
Society ends up offering this poor human flotsam the continued condition of intoxication in a 'safe' environment, rather than making the leap toward enforcing solutions through remediation; taking addicts through a process of de-toxification, both physical and mental.
There are experimental programs that have been designed with special protocols to address the societal problem of people who have succumbed to addictions. These people have intentionally, at some time in their history, exposed themselves to mind-altering drugs like alcohol and opiates, for example, and have, in effect, created their own miserable conditions of dependence and degradation.
They have, in the process, sacrificed their futures to a life of bleak dependence and misery. They have, in effect, of their own free will, chosen to alienate themselves from society, from their families, from the workforce, and from opportunities to improve themselves. They seldom seek amelioration of their condition through actively looking for help.
They end up living homeless, absent human dignity; ill and susceptible to violence - violence that they direct toward others or which others direct toward them. Their tawdry lives have no purpose but to achieve the delirium of intoxication. They are an affront to human dignity, to the aspirations of most individuals to make something worthwhile of their opportunities in life.
They have victimized themselves and in the process victimize society. Their conscience is perhaps not bothered by this, but society's conscience is troubled greatly that among them live people in such dire conditions that arose from rejection of societal norms. Chronic drug users and alcoholics in cities which have embarked on ameliorating programs have a choice.
They can seek opportunities for rehabilitation, to rid themselves of their dependency on drugs and alcohol. And they can also consider themselves incapable of making the effort to normalize themselves. Far greater numbers simply continue to submit to the incessant desire to remain dependent on drugs, than those who seek help to assert their will to succeed.
What to think of programs devised to ensure that addicts are given the drugs and the alcohol they need to keep on buzzing, and where their health is monitored and they are being counselled, and kept off the streets? The argument is that these methods are less costly in terms of human lives and the use of police, hospital and social services.
Society ends up offering this poor human flotsam the continued condition of intoxication in a 'safe' environment, rather than making the leap toward enforcing solutions through remediation; taking addicts through a process of de-toxification, both physical and mental.
Labels: Health, Human Relations, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 6:42 PM
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