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Wednesday, 15 October 2003

Addiction ::

Dan Gillmor’s eJournal - Rush Limbaugh and the War on (Some) Drugs:

It would be wonderful if this experience persuaded a few “conservatives” to abandon their allegiance to the destructive “War on Drugs,” which targets certain kinds of substances but continues to ignore the really destructive ones like tobacco. A truly libertarian stance on this issue would suggest legalizing everything, taxing it and treating addictions like the disorders—medical, not legal—they are.

– Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor’s eJournal - Rush Limbaugh and the War on (Some) Drugs

I agree with Dan Gillmor about legalization.

But to consider addiction a “medical” disorder dangerously obscures the ethical and spiritual aspects of not just addiction but all psychological problems.

Modern medical theory considers addiction and all mental “illness” as just that, an illness scientifically diagnosed by a doctor, and in many cases treated with medication in addition to therapy.

Yes, the drug addict’s body is seriously out of whack, and that may require medical treatment. But the reason that 12-step programs work is that they encourage the recovering addict to come to terms with his own responsibility, responsibility for his beliefs and actions that led him to a state of unhealthy dependency. Addiction is a moral shortcoming; the addict hurts himself and everyone around him—not that we should judge, however, but rather view it with compassion.

For at some level, most of us are addicted to something, whether it’s a drug, sex, work, exercise, playing with our computers, Wanting to Be Right, or even meditation. Most of these things are not inherently harmful, but anything can be taken to excess, driving us to imbalance.

It’s tempting to divide the world up into addicts and non-addicts, and feel moral superiority to the “addicts,” but really, aren’t we all, at best, recovering addicts? In the face of that realization, can we do any more than try to become more aware of our compulsions, and thus less likely to become their slaves?

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