Good Advice About ALL Addictions
Came across this recently from the Billings, Montana Gazette on the Helena Independent Record website:

Expert warns against demonizing meth addiction
By DIANE COCHRAN - The Billings Gazette - 10/13/06
Demonizing methamphetamine addiction does little to prevent people from trying the drug and can discourage users from quitting, an expert said Thursday during a family violence conference in Billings.

“To portray methamphetamine as hopeless is truly an evil act,” said Dennis Embry, a Tucson, Ariz., child psychologist. “We categorically know how to treat it pretty well without a lot of money.

“People can make a lot of money making a problem so big nothing can be done,” Embry said.

Embry is president of the PAXIS Institute, a consulting firm that seeks to improve the quality of life through social and biological science.

Simple, cost-effective interventions exist to curb the effects of methamphetamine, thought by many to be the most destructive drug available, Embry said.

Contrary to what mainstream media consumers might think, addiction to the drug is not a hopeless situation, he said.

Amen. The whole meth issue got out of hand somewhere along the line when someone somewhere decided that it's an impossible addiction. Awful. Unbelievably evil. Impossible to treat.

Wrong!

But any chemical addiction can be seen as impossible to treat if it is seen as a moral issue or an issue of willpower or deserving punishment instead of help. (Yes, yes- the illegal actions of using a substance or done while using should have consequences. Treatment, as I have said before, is positive, helpful actions to get people to live better lives.)

So, let's not get hysterical about addictions. Let's find ways to help people get the treatment they need.