Addiction Beat

Remember those so-called “crack babies” in the '80s and '90s? They were, in fact, poverty babies paraded around by conservative ideologues out to blame every conceivable problem on drugs rather than social injustice. The point is not that it is OK for women to get high while they are pregnant, but that many try to pin the products of mean-spirited policies on the victims.

Reality Check (1): Most substance addicts change their behavior without rehab of any kind.

Reality Check (2): No matter how addictive crack can be, it is nothing like the demonized substance the media has portrayed it to be—none of the popular drugs of potential abuse really are, because we live in the real world and not in a B Grade film.

Being out of control is anathema to a civilization that expects people to be “free" and to control themselves. The cultural specificity of our attitudes towards self-control becomes keenly apparent when western addiction experts hit upon a linguistic and conceptual snag in their dealings with other societies... And this single issue is marked murderous war.

Many have been critical of the new DSM. Psychiatric nosology has long been more controversial, and less amenable to consensus, than its biological counterpart.

What causes addiction? I do offer a hint at the end of the last article: “Products of broken homes, children of rape, the wretched, the forgotten – we represent what we carry: every mistake, every injustice, and every horror conceivable.” There is some truth to this generalization, though not all addicts come from such dire circumstances.

Given recent inroads into marijuana legalization, we should expect the emergence of support groups for persons who use marijuana while recovering from the use of alcohol and other drugs. This development is long overdue, and should be encouraged.