It is getting all this new attention because it is hitting the suburbs, and more accurately, white people. Now it’s something we as a society must deal with.
I’m sorry, but it is not a disease. I cannot catch it from someone I shake hands with or even have sex with. While little Johnny or Susie might be at risk, I believe it’s little Johnny or Susie, or their families, who have to deal with it. Why should I? Is lousy financial management also a disease? Is getting pregnant at 14 a disease? Please, enough of this it-takes-a-village crap.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sorry. There are a thousand problems and diseases to be dealt with in this world.
Junkies – irrespective of how they are related to someone – are NOT what the government should be wasting resources on.
The quickest way to reduce the number of junkies is to stop bailing them out and pulling them back from the dead. The message will get through quickly.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Addiction is a PERSONAL brain disease by which the addict feeds themselves with the substance that releases all the good neurotransmitters. The body then craves more substance to release more neurotransmitters and the cycle continues. The only way you can blame SOCIETY is that we, as a whole, have been too soft and non-judgemental – AKA enablers for the addicts. Before we pass any more legislation giving all drugs the get-out-of-jail-free card, we should ask if flooding the market with a means of escape and/or stupification by substance is the best course of action in the REAL world.
A lot more research should be done to figure out why Americans have such a propensity to abuse drugs. In most countries, people have access to prescription drugs without needing a prescription. I was recently in Mexico and you can walk into any drug store and buy oxy and Percocet easily. Yet, Mexico is not facing an epidemic like we are. The problem here is and always has been a demand problem, not a supply problem. Why is that? Is life so terrible here that we need to numb ourselves? Or have we been coddled to the point of ignoring the notion of personal responsibilit?. How many bulimics are there in the third world?
Look. we don’t even classify ACTUAL mental illness as a disease, but instead embrace it as normal and codify it in law, so why is it surprising that poor choices and bad behavior are classified as disease?
@John: Take it from someone who has lived in different countries and traveled to many others, substance abuse is pretty common everywhere. It does vary in terms of substance types, but this typically has more to do with the rich-poor gap. We like to think that wealth disparity is an American thing, but if you really want to see wealth disparity, it’s a much bigger deal in places like India, the Middle East, SE Asia, and much of Latin America. The escapist drug of choice in these places if usually cheap alcohol or glue. Rx abuse is more the choice of wealthy (a relative term) people in North America and Western Europe.
So, “lifestyle” diseases like those related to obesity (heart disease, skin cancer from sun exposure, joint replacement) and lack of exercise should not be covered? People with type 2 diabetes should suck it up? Sports injuries are a lifestyle choice too.
It is easier to treat diseases that Respond to surgery, PT and meds. Hard to treat addiction and mental illness, we can’t just cut it away.
mental illness, like I am male but think I am female are classified as normal lifestyle so why not classify abusing drugs as an illness…
why don’t we treat the real mental illness?