Re-Post From Other Board.On Addiction And Legalization

[boofin]

Evening RIU community, I posted this elsewhere before i remembered to keep looking around... Anyway, sorry for the double posting, hope you can forgive....

Anyway;

Ive been paying attention to the rising debate over legalization of medical and recreational marijuana and i have seen something lacking. There is this a basic misunderstanding on what addiction actually is. Addiction and chemical dependency are totally separate issues.

For professional reasons I want to keep some anonymity but I work in the medical field in an autonomous role. I have done this job for 12 years and during my career I spent 8 months living and working with inpatient addicts in a recovery program.

The most commonly accepted view of addiction is that it is a symptom. A symptom of something more troubling, the addiction serves as a distraction. Take away the distraction, address the issues and the "addiction" will be contained. I say contained as I dont want to give the impression that the addict cant relapse, which Ill try to explain...Addiction can take many shapes, from illicit and prescription drugs to food and exercise. Its a compulsive behavior in defense of stress, anger or pain as a means of escapism.

Chemical dependance is what many people assume with the term addiction. Several medications (vicoden, percoset, valium) and illicit drugs (heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine) can create a strong physical dependance on a substance. In the medical field the doctor increases the dose, on the street people become desperate and rob, cheat and steal. They are both chemically dependent on the (lets say) opiate. One is an addict with a painful past, the other is a patient. Physiologically they are the same, psychologically they are different.

I can further back any of this up if someone wants empirical data etc, I just hope that this can in some way help bring some clarity to the topic

OK I have rambled on away for a bit now... I could keep on going for hours

Do some good in the world everybody

 

[RIXUK]

Have you worked with methadone users?
Pease pm me if you have,will talk more about it in pm.
From my point of view cannabis is a want but I cant argue with the facts that it does more good then bad and the reief it brings to most peoples lives,stress reief,pain relief and so on.I would rather be subscribed to cannabis then diazepan,zopliclone,anti depresents and them sorts of sleeping tablets.
From what ive read,every part of the cannabis plant has been put to good use over the milions of years its been around and the government are trying to make it extinct.
Its funny how alcahol and cigarretes do more harm but are perfectly legal.
The word has some messed up people in it,its just a shame that they think it is us who are messed up threw wanting to smoke cannabis,in my opinion,if I want to abuse my body that is up to me and I should not have my freedom took from me for doing so unless I am doing what most people who go out drinking on the weekend do (cause trouble),then I should be getting in to trouble with the law.
Cannabis should be treated like ciggaretes,proble is is,we will all grow it and governments wouldnt make money off taxing it.
Its not a physical drug that you would get desperate for (unless it was reieving a pain of some sort),from my experience I can easiy do with out but I dont smoke it for pain,I smoke for stress relief and try to forget that I have a shitty life,always have done and may aways do so..

 

[boofin]

I have not worked with methadone users, from a clinical standpoint... Our program did not allow clients to be taking any controlled medications (Benzos, opiates etc)

If you have something specific that you dont want to discuss on the board, I would be more than happy to discuss it in PM...