fun fact: any policy on drugs that isnāt harm reduction is going to cause addicts to suffer and die
fun fact: Drug addiction is a public health issue, and approaching it as if it were a law enforcement issue is prejudicial to addicts and will result in their suffering and death
if you just assume addiction is a method of self-medicating, youāll pretty much never be wrong.
now, not everything people self-medicate for actually has a proper treatment. iām pretty sure the reason my uncle made sure to be slightly drunk at all times āto round the sharp corners off of thingsā was sensory processing disorder. i have that too, and i just kind of accept that iām going to randomly get my brain sandpapered from time to time. there is no medication for that. all you can do is dull your senses. iāve chosen not to, but i canāt blame him for his decisions. when a ringing phone feels like getting hit upside the head with a frying pan, liver damage sounds like a fair price to pay.
anyway, it seems really self-evident to me that people donāt enjoy living the life of an addict, they do it because the alternative looks worse. people donāt get addicted to substances just for funsies. they start making a habit of taking something because of insomnia, or grief, or headaches, or depression, or seething undirected rage and terror they canāt put a name to ā something that they canāt ignore or shrug off. and for whatever reason ā lack of access, lack of knowlege, lack of money, or it just plain doesnāt exist ā they arenāt able to apply the Approved Correct Remedy. they use what they can get.
addicts arenāt some weird otherfolk who inexplicably just Do Drugs because theyāre Bad. addicts are you with a problem you canāt solve.
these facts arenāt fun but they are pretty important
