Thinking About Addiction

We already know there’s a strong business link between vaping and Big Tobacco.

That we have such a large and growing community of frequent users is a tribute not to evidence, but to hype.

Soon enough we’ll be hearing calls from the public for evidence of victory, and how will we answer?

I’m all in favor of wider access to good mental health care, and since drug and alcohol problems are included, I thought this might be an opportunity to point out some serious flaws in this approach.

These multi-billion dollar fines sound enormous, but like the one levied on Facebook, they represent a small portion of the company’s actual assets.

…the problems we decide not to deal with at present go on to undermine treatment for the rest.

Picture a horde of lemmings suddenly deciding to change direction and stampede off a different cliff.

Legal responsibility, however, is quite different. J&J’s attorneys will do whatever they can to shift blame elsewhere.

I’d argue that America has never adequately addressed its own problems with addiction, which have been with us in one form or another since before we became a nation.

Alcohol still gets credit for close to 90,000 deaths every year– more than other drugs, even in the middle of an epidemic.