Those addicted to illicit narcotics have to come to the same place. They have to decide that something - life itself, or a partner, or a job, or whatever - is better, and more important to them, than their addiction. Persuasion, courses, propaganda . . . none of them will work without that elementary, life-changing decision on the part of the addict. I fear that with the advent of carfentanil, many of them won't have time to make it before the consequences of their addiction catch up with them . . . but it's their choice, no-one else's. Those knocking themselves out to save them from the consequences of their choice need to bear that in mind. Death is just as much a correction to the problem of addiction as is deciding to stop.
Emphasis mine.
Throwing money at an addict who doesn't want to change is wasting that money. A person has to want to quit, and if they don't, then they're not going to. Like Grant, I'm a former cigarette smoker. I've also worked in a hospital that had an addiction recovery unit. The rate of success for that unit was less than 10%, and most of the people in there were court ordered. Which means that the moment they got out, they went right back to using.
Sometimes, the kind thing to do is just put them in a room with the drugs of their choice and let them go. Think of the millions of dollars that could go to helping people who actually needed it: car accident victims, cancer patients, trauma victims, rather than pissing those dollars away on the crackhead who continues to use Emergency Rooms as their own private hospital and pharmacy.
You can call me cruel if you want. You can say that I don't care about people. But I do care about people. I care about the people who get less care and help than they need, because the medical care was used on a person who has no interest in getting healthy. They just want to be able to get the next high.
3 comments:
one of the sane ways to deal with the issue is to stop the insane war on drugs. if the weak minded want to wile life away lets' create a place for them to do it. a lot cheaper over time to do that than spend it on crime prevention (a fraud), police militarization ( a danger to liberty and too many family dogs), and emergency room visits etc etc. I am sure crack island can be created and let the junkies and crackheads be sent there for ever, and get high. there are plenty of real druggies and alcoholics who would be glad to get free stuff and hamburgers every day to stay away from society. the old ladies, family pets, and society as a whole will all be safer. the corruption and waste of the drug war can then be over
I've always liked the idea that Darwin is the ultimate arbitrator for people who choose the drug life.
The biggest losers in the war on drugs are people like me who have legitimate chronic pain, and are unable to obtain pain medication enough to make life bearable. I suffer chronic near daily migraines, am on disability due to them, so it is not made up, as it is hard to get on disability for migraines. And the only thing that helps my pain is narcotic pain meds. Due to the war on drugs, I have been allowed only 15 norco tablets per month. Those I have to try and determine how to make last a whole month. As you can imagine, it is a nightmare, and so it is no surprise that some other true pain sufferers have turned to heroin or other illicit drugs to cope. I will never do that, but I can understand their reasoning. They limit pain meds to true pain patients because of junkies, with the result of people dying from heroin overdoses. Who could have predicted that? Myself and a medi center doctor, about two years ago, when this crack down started. If I were a drinking man, I would just stay drunk, but that doesn't fit my personality. Here's to better days.
Post a Comment