Addiction is enslavement. In the depths of addiction, a person will disregard their typical morality and do anything to pay for their next fix.
I think we should do whatever we can to free them from their bond; no need to further criminalize/punish them just for being addicts.
But as long as they're choosing to remain enslaved by their drug, especially if treatment is offered and not taken, I think they deserve the stigma of an inferior segment of society.
Decriminalize, don't normalize...
The addiction topic is foundationally about shared values.
I want to live in a community of people that share my non-drug-induced values.
It's like how there's nothing inherently wrong with foxes being foxes amongst their own kind. But put a fox amongst a community of hens and it's a bloody mess.
Most all the great scientists, engineers, authors, and philosophers throughout human history consumed recreational drugs that were illegal at the time fellow citizen Artisan Recycler.
ST
"If recreational drugs had been illegal, perfectly detectable, and punished by death throughout history then we would have little of the art, culture, and science we have today."
SearingTruth
What @searingtruth is the connection you're making between recreational drug use & being a junkie?
Experimenting with entheogens in college is not the same conversation as prostituting one's self for heroin. Being willing to do anything for a fix means it's not recreational.
It's quite easy to turn one's self into an addict-psychopath with some of the drugs BC just decriminalized. Psychopaths do nothing good for society, unlike engineers, scientist, artist, etc.
"prostituting one's self for heroin." ?
Yikes!
That kind of generalization is why so many recreational drug users have been imprisoned and executed throughout history fellow citizen @Artisan_recycler.
No matter the human being they actually were.
Or contributions to humanity they made before they were killed.
ST
"Treasures of humanity are the most precious."
SearingTruth
I'm not following your logic @searingtruth.
My original point was, being addicted to hard drugs is like being a slave. Doing lite-drugs for fun is very different from being a junkie.
Junkies need help, not criminalization. And because junkies need help, there should be a strong stigma against anyone in our society becoming a junkie.
Artisan♻️Recycler
SearingTruth