@maya54 I had to take it once for an injury. It definitely helped with the pain, and it also made me feel like I was hovering about 6 inches above my bed and slightly giddy. Mind you, I didn’t like that floating feeling at all but maybe someone less inhibited (or, honestly, control-freaky) would really feel great. I could never get into pot even after trying it several times. It always made me paranoid. Perhaps that’s just my reaction to mind-altering drugs.
For anyone who’s interested in learning more about this subject, there’s a new episode of NOVA on PBS tonight titled “Addiction.”
https://www.boston.com/news/health/2018/10/16/pbs-nova-documentary-addiction
I know from my own family history that we have a genetic predisposition to addiction. We were open and honest about this with our kids from the time they were young, because we felt it was important for them to be aware of this.
Of course something can be both a moral failing and a disease. Alcoholism can be a disease, and an alcoholic with a DUI can be a moral failing.
I do agree that alcoholism does not serve as an excuse for driving drunk. The drinker may not have control over their drinking, but they nevertheless chose to get behind the wheel.
The DUI is the moral failing there, though, not the alcoholism. A DUI is just as much a moral failing whether the person is an alcoholic or just someone who drank and got behind the wheel but was not an alcoholic.
Another powerful obituary:
Over $10,000 in donations after her funeral have been directed to the local police department toward purchasing more naloxone.
Here’s a letter that Mollie’s parents wrote 4 years ago to thank the police officer who saved her with Narcan the first time:
https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/chief/blog/documents/Exhibit%20A.pdf
(Linked from: http://www.cityofmadison.com/police/chief/blog/?Id=17178)
DUIs are a symptom of alcoholism. Alcoholism is a root cause of DUIs. If not for their alcoholism, they would not get drunk and would not drive drunk. The real moral failing in a DUI is not that they manifested a particular symptom of alcoholism on a particular night, but that they became alcoholics in the first place, often years or decades ago.
You are saying becoming an alcoholic in and of itself is a moral failing?
Some non alcoholic people DUI due to poor judgement about whether they are sober enough to drive after drinking alcohol.
People definitely drink and drive that aren’t alcoholics. People go out all the time and drink, often a little too much, and get in cars. Many are just never caught. It doesn’t make them alcoholics, just irresponsible drinkers.
Aside from the tremendous pain opioid causes, it is interesting query whether addiction is due to the desire to escape some pain without the opioid or due to the intense pleasure received due to the usage, or both.
I do have a friend who says his kid has schizophrenia symptoms but due to drug usage, he thinks his kid’s brain has changed in some way complicating things.
I shared the obituary to our local “Nextdoor” page, where posts appear every day from people castigating the homeless/addicted population.
Several years ago my sister’s husband reached out for help when it was apparent she was addicted to painkillers. We arranged an intervention with a professional interventionist which went better than we could have hoped. She entered a 30 day treatment program at a top hospital, most of which was paid by insurance. The treatment program provided educational seminars for family members and they showed this video series, which includes an excellent explanation of the biochemistry of addiction. The take home message is that addiction is a brain disease, morality and choice to do not enter the equation once the person is addicted.
https://addictioneducationsociety.org/dr-kevin-mccauley-pleasure-unwoven/
My sister continues to do well and has become active in several volunteer organizations. Her problems started when she retired from a very high power job and found herself with nothing to do.
“So this would mean that the wisest course is we should avoid everything, such as alcohol and cigarettes, which might be addictive?”
The badly addictive ones, yes. That group includes nicotine, cocaine, and methamphetamine, but not alcohol or marijuana.
Alcohol is not terribly addictive as drugs go. It causes most of the addiction-related agony in this country, but that’s because we normalize abuse of it, so that a huge percentage of those vulnerable to alcoholism become alcoholics.
The means of taking a drug affects addiction risk, too. OxyContin is particularly addictive when it is abused. It’s much the same as other opioids when taken orally. Crushing and then snorting or shooting it changes the danger level.
We have to hold conflicting ideas in our minds at the same time: 1. addiction is not a moral failing and 2. sampling opioids at a party is profoundly stupid.
I heard a presentation recently in which the speaker said that she is convinced, after 20 years of working in the field, that the use of marijuana can CAUSE psychosis, and not just in people predisposed to fall ill with schizophrenia. And the problem is that even if the person stops using, the psychosis does not go away. 
Some people are prone to addiction via their brain chemistry. That doesn’t mean that taking something at a party is going to lead everyone into addiction, but it does mean that some will succumb and eventually pay the ultimate price. I tell my kiddos, it’s like playing the inverse lottery. Nothing might happen. Or something so dire might happen that your world will be torn into a million pieces. So will the lives of your friends and family. You chose. Yes, alcohol might lead down a bad path-but heroin addicts are certainly going to travel at a higher speed. So sad to waste your life for a bad choice.
Ultimately, the oxycontin craziness is beginning to be looked at. Fewer people will take pain killers due to the knowledge of how addictive these legally prescribed drugs are. Parents need to be wary if their kid is taking anything.
I don’t think addicts are morally lacking. But I do think they have responsibility for making good choices. To say that the addiction decided everything FOR them is just not true. Most of what I currently read takes zero responsibility for the initial interaction with the drug. Zero. Why not write something along the lines of, wish I could have chosen not to take X or Y that first time.
I went to a Jazz show in Paris once, people were smoking pot and it was laced with something. Many smoked it and became very ill. I didn’t smoke it and just listened to the music. Life is all about choices. The choices we make and the choices we don’t make.
I come from a mostly Irish background and have a huge extended family. We have lots of folks who have struggled with alcoholism. We only have a couple who have ever had a drug problem.
Now, I’m sure you can argue that this is in part because drinking is more socially acceptable. But, frankly, despite reading a lot of articles which claim that “addiction is addiction,” I’m not so sure it is.
I had an aunt (by marriage) who had no Irish ancestry. She married young. She drank socially. She never had a problem with alcohol. But when she hurt her back in her 60s, she was prescribed an opiate and within weeks she was addicted. She invented various pains and aches and went to a different doctor for each, racking up lots of prescriptions. Her granddaughter, a nurse, figured out what was going on and got her into a treatment program. She went kicking and screaming that she was “hurt!” She was “in pain!” She looked down at all the all people in the treatment program. Eventually, she was “cured.” It took a few years. Despite what she was told to do, she went back to drinking socially…and never had a problem. She probably went to an event where she had a drink…or two, but never more than two…twice a month.
A good friend’s daughter was a cocaine addict. The addiction ruined her life. She’s now a social drinker–which scares my friend. However, I’ve never seen her drunk and she seems to have no problem stopping.
So…I guess I’m less convinced than any others that the things that cause people to become addicted to alcohol are the same things which cause them to become addicted to opiates or other drugs.
Obviously, not everyone who gets a DUI is an alcoholic. Using the disease analogy, having one symptom does not always imply you have the disease. However, data, on both the number of repeat offenders and how often most people convicted of a DUI have driven drunk without getting caught, suggests most people who get a DUI have an alcohol use disorder. Regularly drinking to the point of being above 0.08 and regularly putting yourself in potential legal jeopardy due to alcohol would both be signs of an alcohol use disorder.
Yes
One thing I haven’t seen addressed here is how the drug is being ingested.
Crushing and snorting it supposedly delivers a high that just taking a pill does not. When she first had it, at a party, it is perfectly possible that the pills were being crushed and snorted, the way cocaine could be available at a party back in the day. That’s a very different experience from taking a painkiller for a few days after surgery, for example. And it is why drug manufacturers have tried to come up with formulations that cannot be crushed into snortable powder.
I remember the first time I ever had an opioid, back in the 70s when I had my wisdom teeth out. It was a very difficult extraction, and the dentist gave me a small prescription of Percodan that would last just a few days. It upset my stomach enough that I would throw up after taking it, but I didn’t care. It made me feel warm and happy. It’s a good thing he didn’t give me much.
What’s the conflict? Being profoundly stupid is not a moral failing. It’s just stupid.
I disagree. There are lots of crimes where someone has no malice or intent to harm the victim, but can nonetheless be charged and sent to prison for what is in essence “being profoundly stupid.”