Quoted Text

Drug addiction an illness, not a crime

By ANTHONY PAPA
First published: Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Tatum O'Neal, the Oscar-winning actress, took a plea deal last week stemming from her June 1 arrest while supposedly trying to score some crack cocaine on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She was initially charged with possession of a controlled substance and faced a year in prison if convicted. The court allowed her to plead out to a disorderly conduct charge and ordered her to attend two half-day drug treatment sessions. If she follows the court's orders, the cocaine possession charges will be dismissed.
     
O'Neal has been open about her history of heroin addiction as outlined in her memoir, "A Paper Life." When she was arrested by undercover officers, they searched her and found two bags of cocaine along with an unused crack pipe. She had initially told police she was doing research for an acting role. Then she changed her story and told them that the death of her 16-year-old dog nearly triggered her into relapse.

Some say O'Neal was treated with a slap on the wrist. Others say she did not deserve to do any jail time because of her addiction. This raises a critical question that we as a society need to address. Should we treat drug addiction as a criminal matter, or as a medical problem?

For most people, treatment is a much more effective approach than imprisonment for successfully breaking their addictions, yet our prisons are full of individuals whose only crime is their drug addiction.

According to Justice Department statistics, the United States has more prisoners than any country in the world, 2.5 million and rising. In 2006, the Justice Department recorded the largest increase since 2000 in the number of people in prisons and jails. Criminal justice experts attribute the exploding prison population to harsh sentencing laws and record numbers of drug law violators entering the system, many of whom have substance abuse problems.

Nonviolent drug offenders like Tatum O'Neal should be given an opportunity to receive treatment, not jail time, for their drug use. This would be a more effective (not to mention much more affordable) solution for both the individual and the community. Prosecutors in many states, most notably New York, have leeway to recommend a defendant to treatment instead of incarceration. More than likely, however, they will not do it. This is because it would not be considered a victory for them. The system does not reward prosecutors for doing the compassionate thing.

O'Neal can be an example for millions of young people. One can only hope that her experiences with addiction and the realities of the drug war will encourage her to join the movement to reform U.S. drug policy. If she decides to take up the cause of treatment, she could help change laws across the country. After all, if treatment instead of jail is good enough for her as she struggles with her addiction, surely it is good enough for the thousands of others just like her who struggle with their own substance abuse problems.

Like depression, addiction affects tens of millions of Americans. How best to treat it is a serious a question we need to explore. Rich or poor, young or old, addiction has no boundaries. But the drug war does. Our long war on drugs has stifled the open debate society should be having about the nature of addiction and how best to deal with it. It is time to treat addiction for what it is -- a medical problem, not a criminal one.

Anthony Papa is a communications specialist for the Drug Policy Alliance, http://www.drugpolicy.org.

Quoted from Sombody

Smoking cigarettes- a crime ?

Quoted from Sombody

Addiction is a Neurological Disorder

Addiction is a neurologically based disease. For many years recovery specialists have compared alcoholism or addictions to a physical disease: like diabetes. In reality addictions are more closely related to a neurological disorder like Tourette's Syndrome* than they are to diabetes.

Quoted from Sombody

Cigarettes are not a good example- up until  2001 they actually didnt even meet the legal or medical definition for addiction- sort of like saying your addicted to rocky road ice cream.  

Quoted from Sombody

Im not an expert- and apparently no one here has anyone in their family that has any of these cravings or addictions and if they do they are probably  not invited to Thanksgiving dinner- or whatever

Quoted from bumblethru

The government/medical society and every bleeding heart liberal would like nothing more than to make us all feel like victims of society. This allows them the luxury of dipping into our pockets in the name of taxes to fund programs for 'people who make bad choices'. There is clearly more information available through the internet, magazines, tv, media, library etc....on the positive and negative effects of just about everything out there. Ya don't need to be an expert...just literate!!

Quoted from Sombody

Addiction to being lazy is very powerful-   or wait its really a personal choice-

Quoted Text

Main Entry: 1con·ser·va·tive  
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsər-və-tiv\
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1: preservative
2 a: of or relating to a philosophy of conservatism bcapitalized : of or constituting a political party professing the principles of conservatism: as (1): of or constituting a party of the United Kingdom advocating support of established institutions (2): progressive conservative
3 a: tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional b: marked by moderation or caution > c: marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners
4: of, relating to, or practicing Conservative Judaism
— con·ser·va·tive·ly adverb
— con·ser·va·tive·ness noun

Quoted from JoAnn

Personal choice and personal responsibility just don't seem to be in our vocabulary anymore. Like I stated in another post, "I made the personal choice to smoke".

I have three adult children and "they made the personal choice not to smoke". Two of them did smoke at one time but, "they made the personal choice to quit" years ago.

Quoted from Sombody

but of course I see this view does not go over well with the " Captain of my ship- master of my fate " crowd-

Quoted from CICERO

I choose the captain of my ship crowd.  I don't know about master of my fate, there are too many thing out of my control to make that claim.  But the things I put into my body, I choose.

Quoted from Sombody

I dont think we are really talking about you or me- sitting here on a nice Sunday morning drinking coffee- reading the paper and typing away- We are talking about addiction-

'Feelings' involved in drug or alcohol ADDICTION are based in neurology. Addiction is based in physical dependency created by neurotransmitter balances that have gotten screwed up , and are then driven by millions  of new living, functioning active neurological pathways which have been established to sustain the condition in the addicts brain.

The new neurological pathways are permanently established, and they will not just disappear.  It is not simply mind over matter-  a crime?

Quoted from CICERO

I think we are confusing chemical dependancy with addiction.  When ingesting an intoxicating chemical, whether alcohol, or heroin. Prior to taking them, most people in America are well aware of the risks and potential consequences of doing so.  There's where the choice lies.  If I choose to start using heroin, and I form a chemical dependancy to it.  Not knowing how my body and mind are going to act under the control of this addiction, and I start robbing and stealing to feed my dependancy.  I believe I should be held criminally responsible for the crimes I commit do to the addiction, because the initial choice to use a powerful opiate like heroin was made prior to dependancy.

Don't play with fire, because you just might get burned.

Quoted from JoAnn

Should we then view sex addicts and people addicted to gambling an addiction that is based in physical dependency created by neurotransmitter balances that have gotten screwed up , and are then driven by millions  of new living, functioning active neurological pathways which have been established to sustain the condition in the addicts brain?

Quoted from Shadow

Why is it if the brains of addicted people have neurological pathways formed from drugs some are able to kick the dependency after rehab and some don't.