Originally posted by kirksey957Hi Kirk.
Mike, do you accept the premise that addiction/alcoholism is a "disease." Would be interested in your thoughts. Kirk
Yes, I do, to some extent. Granted, when you begin taking drugs it's pretty much always voluntary, unlike a disease, but it can be extremely difficult (even physiologically dangerous) to stop taking certain drugs once someone has become addicted to it. Alcohol withdrawal can actually be fatal to some people who are full blown alcoholics.
I think in terms of treatment it makes more sense to treat drug abuse like a disease. Now that the health care system is beginning to consider something like depression an actual physiological disease rather than someone with purely psychological problems, the precedent is there. People who undergo medical treatment for drug addiction have a significantly lower relapse rate than even those who are incarcerated for possession or usage of illegal drugs. If people want to send the drug dealers to jail, that's fine, as long as drugs are illegal I think they're justified in doing so. But punishing the drug users for something they may no longer be able to control seems cruel to me.
-mike