Addiction
Before getting into the discussion, let me be clear, addiction is not a disease. A disease can be fought through medical options, even though there are some diseases that cannot be healed. When a disease is being fought, the infected person can't make a difference through decisions on their own. A disease can be healed, if possible and the person infected has no choice about getting better if the disease is caught in time and the remedy is available. An addition cannot be resolved with a shot or capsules, it is a matter of personal choice and nothing else, even with medical applications, if the addicted person decides not to stop the addiction then they will not stop the addiction - read more and you decide.
Another topic that is reflective of political position instead of reality. Liberals love to convert human weakness into a failure of society or in the DNA of the human being. If you have ever had a cold or the flu or strep throat then you are familiar with the with the biological form of a germ or bacteria or virus. These biological agents invade the body and replicate and this is what causes the symptoms of each sickness.
From a biological perspective, once the agent has entered the body and become entrenched, you can fight and kill the agent or the agent may kill you. Either way, you do not have an active choice as to whether or not the biological agent begins the invasion of your body, there is not active decision on your part. Your body responds by using the tools that are available to it to fight the invasion. These tools include your white blood cells and anti-bodies that your immune system develops when your body fights an invasion.
If your body develops an anti-body when you are invaded by a biological agent, why do you get sick? Very simply, there are millions of germs, bacteria and viruses and you will never be exposed to every single one and each one can make you sick. The problem is that you may not be able to survive on your own, which is the reason science invented medicine. Medicines are often enhanced anti-bodies, giving your body the edge when fighting certain biological agents.
More important, biological agents result in symptoms which can be identified by the human mind and create a desire to resolve the symptoms and eliminate the biological agents. These symptoms are normally reflective of the runny nose, coughing, inflammation and exhaustion. The human has a desire to eliminate these symptoms because the negative physical impacts are not desirable.
These invasions of biological agents are completed without any decision on the part of the human body, no input is required, which is why these conditions are referred to as 'diseases' instead of choices. However, as the number of people that have made the wrong decision and become addicted to something as a result of their choices needed something to blame since they don't want to accept responsibility of their own actions. This is the reason that liberals are now referring to 'addiction' as a 'disease', because a person can't control a disease, we are expected to believe that an addiction is the result of a germ or bacteria or virus instead of a personal responsibility.
Liberals do not want people to be held responsible for themselves, they want society to share the responsibility for poor choices. Now ask yourself, if you spend money without control and drive yourself into debt, is this your fault? Based on this approach of addiction, you are not responsible for your 'addiction to spending'. If you gamble and can't make your rents or payments, does everyone forgive you and let the payments or rents slide?
The point is simple, each person has the RIGHT to control their own lives. This control is the result of decisions that you make and those decisions have consequences. The failure to make intelligent decisions and end up addicted to a drug or action has nothing to do with biology, it is a matter of choice. People make stupid decisions and then must accept those consequences, and often, those consequences are the 'addiction'.
So the real question is: Are these really stupid decisions? The only way to draw a reasonable conclusion is to determine what it takes for a decision to be stupid. As a young person, did anyone ever tell you not to touch that because it is hot? Did you touch it? Were you burned? If you listened and did not touch then you are capable of accepting information and making smart decisions, if on the other hand you were burned when you touched it, you are incapable of making decisions using information available to you.
This would be an example of a stupid decision, having information available and refusing to incorporate that information in your decision making process. The world around you is loaded with information about the potential damage and impact to your mental capability as a result of using drugs, marijuana, smoking and alcohol. A smart person will accumulate this information and incorporate it into their decision making process. A stupid person will ignore the information available, desiring to perform their own tests and determine the applicability. However, once utilizing the product, the person is incapable to making an objective analysis.
As an example, many people claim that smoking marijuana is not detrimental, in their opinion. However, if you know someone that has smoked marijuana on a frequent basis, you can identify the shift in the mental ability of the person. Marijuana interferes with concentration and analytical skills and conversation with this person will verify this conclusion.
The funny part with marijuana is that science has identified the agent in marijuana that causes the high and the sellers of marijuana have cross bred this chemical to a level that is 5 to 6 times higher today than the original marijuana 20 years ago. There is no doubt that the high from marijuana is one of the puposes of the drug and there is no doubt that this is the reason for using the drug for recreational purposes. Science has proven that the frequent use of any chemical that impacts the reality centers of the brain will cause damage over the long term use, and this use creates a dependency.
The funny thing is that science has also identified the agents in marijuana that assist the disabled with their pain and nausea however there is no attempt to enhance these agents in marijuana while reducing the agents that cause the high. In other words, the disabled can have the best of both worlds but want the benefits with the high because the dependency created.