"addiction" ain’t real!
& it’s time we stop saying it!
7 arguments against “addiction,” “the addict,” & other lies they'd love to kill us with
a note to fellow drug users: i love u more than anything, we are all we have, and together we can make a better world than the one they built to kill us all. im kissing u all over, but especially ur tracks🥰💉💞
“addiction” is a concept so loosely defined that its rendered completely useless!! is every drug user an “addict” for using drugs, no exceptions? or is it only “addiction” when im doing something you don’t understand, something that you find gross, dirty, disgusting, or degenerate? is it “addiction” just because i dont have access to a shower, regular meals, & a safe place to be? or would you still call me “addict” in an ironed button-up, in slacks & polished shoes? hm! i wonder!
calling us “addicts” helps nobody!! we can hear it in ur voice when u call us “addicts” we know full well how badly u wanna go back to calling us junkies n tweakers n telling us to die!!💅💉do u want us to live full, happy, healthy lives? or do u just want us to do what u tell us to do? do u try to understand the choices we make & why? or are u pleased when our lives end in jails, institutions, and death? do u want us to be free, or do u want us made a permanent criminal underclass? hm! i wonder!
it’s not clinically or scientifically accurate to classify behavior as “addiction” or people as “addicts!!” on what criteria have u made ur diagnosis i wonder!! bc i didnt see u collecting any data, samples, scans, or really run any tests at all!! kinda just seems like u saw track marks on my arms and u freaked the fuck out ab it!! does your diagnosis actually mean anything or are u just trying to lobotomize & imprison me? are u interested in healing & repair & growth & preventative care? or are u just hurting me until i do what u want? are u my doctor or my jailer? are u my psych or my dealer? are u my therapist or my handler? hm! i wonder!
using “addiction” and “addict” centers the “disease” instead of centering the person!! “addiction/addict” is what they write on ur chart seconds before they take ur agency & autonomy away from u!! it’s not a real diagnosis!! it’s not real at all!! we know all too well these words are just pejoratives used to keep drug users under the heel of the state!! do u want us to be in our shared communities, living and loving together? or do u want us made the “other?” who does that serve? who does that profit? hm! i wonder!
the “addiction”-as-disease model is bullshit pseudoscience that was debunked years ago!! it’s not a chemical imbalance and it’s not a moral failing!! are u interested in objectivity, in finding the truth, in scientific inquiry & exploration & study? or are medicine & science just the nightclubs u chose to beat us with today? hm! i wonder!
prohibition kills, and they’re killing us on purpose!! without prohibition there wouldn’t be fent in the opiate supply!! the dea and all their bitch friends know it!! they do this shit on purpose so they can have a blood-soaked photo-op w gavin newsom!! our people are dying in the street by the thousands, week after week after week & we’ve been fighting for us and caring for us for decades, centuries, longer, and still u call us “addicts.” do u want us to live or do u want us to die? are we your lovers, your friends, your family, your neighbors? are we your teachers, your busboys, your gardeners, your mechanics? are we your writers and poets and artists and thinkers and drivers and pilots and fishers and farmers? do you realize we are all around you? do you realize we love you? do you love us back? or are we just stumbling corpses, zombies, fiends, lepers, just people u talk about when u need votes, or money, or attention? will you cry over me when im dead? or just step over my body in the street? hm! i wonder!
would you still call us “addicts” if we grew our own poppies, made our own drugs, if we had places to sleep and to live and to eat and to play and to dream and to build?? how much of what u call “addict” & “addiction” r actually just capitalism, racism, ableism, queerphobia, classism, etc etc?? “addiction” is often considered an experience defined by sickness, pain, trauma, suffering—but r those things all inherent to drug use at its core? or are those things inherent to the structures under which we’re forced to live? is what u call “addiction” real or are u ignoring the authoritarian hierarchies & carceral social structures built by state & capital interests to destroy all of us in a thousand tiny ways every day? is it “addiction” or are u seeing the wounds and scars left by a deeply repressive, trauma-inducing, dehumanizing machine, designed to either kill us or make us compliant?
HMMMMMMM!!!! I FUCKING WONDER!!!!!!!!!!!!
so ya there ya have it addiction aint real, there’s no such thing, it’s just some shit ppl made up about us to kill or control us because it lines their fuckin pockets & fills their fuckin jails. its their world, and they built it to kill us. the problem for them is, we've never died easy.
don’t ever let them convince u it’s real! don't ever let them call u an addict! don't ever let them lock u away! don't ever let them leave u to die! if this is a war, then its time we do war!
they want us to suffer! they want us to die!
ADDICTION AINT REAL
AND ITS TIME WE STOP SAYING IT
it’s completely free (costs $0!!) for u to just say someone has a chaotic relationship to drug use!! we sometimes do!! we also have positive relationships to drug use, orderly relationships to drug use, occasional relationships to drug use, former relationships to drug use….its so easy to just use ur brain when ur talking ab us:) we’re just like u, yknow🥰💖💞✨
