Thinking About Addiction

We’re already a society at risk of drowning in sciencey-sounding flapdoodle.

Drug epidemics, like other epidemics, follow a reasonably predictable pattern.

Having that particular label implies– the need to make a number of important changes in lifestyle that the patient frankly doesn’t feel like making.

A first offense can actually represent the product of a longstanding, well-established pattern of behavior.

No question that combining or ‘stacking’ these substances, illegal and/or prescription, increases the risk for unintended OD.

There would presumably be a real advantage to a genetic profile that pinpointed those at special risk for alcoholism

If you managed to turn 18 without at least some experimentation, people will assume there’s something wrong with you.

The reality is that if we’d had to rely solely on the healthcare system, a lot of people who are in recovery today would simply never have made it.

This is the sort of reasoning that leads unthinking legislators to chop funds for substance abuse services whenever there’s a budget shortfall on the horizon. It’s not based on return on investment from treatment, which research demonstrates is phenomenal.

The experience of addicts and alcoholics, particularly at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale, makes it clear that we could use more inpatient resources, not fewer.