Google brain chemistry and addiction. The problem is more biology than psychology, but both are important. Bringing the criminal justice system into it costs a lot more and only makes matters worse.
My neighbors have just one daughter, and she married a firefighter station chief. For them life was great, they had a child, lived in a nice home, drove nice cars.
Then he has a serious injury on the job, gets pain meds, gets addicted to same, loses job and wife, and commits suicide by jumping off a bridge onto a busy freeway.
One day a pillar of the community, the next a fellow human driven insane by a dangerous addictive drug.
Like alcoholics, drug addicts span the spectrum. Some are nicely dressed, seeming to function in jobs and careers. Others are down and out and even homeless.
But as we say in 12 Step settings, they all have the same thing in common; namely addiction to a substance.
Addiction is physical, mental and spiritual.
Condemning addicts and alcoholics as "immoral," "weak," etc. does not generally work.
I decided to try life without alcohol for "one day," as the result of a family intervention.
"One day" has become 23 yrs. 8 months and 22 days, now. There are many saying in AA (and they apply equally to close cousin, drug addiction).
"you aren't ready, until you are ready"......meaning one must reach a point of desperation, a bottom, bad enough to at least admit he needs to change
"once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic"....meaning you can never go back to being a normal drinker
"my drug of choice was more"....meaning it wasn't the particular substance, but the inability to use it with moderation
Alcoholics Anonymous gets NO MONEY or support from government, period. Individuals put a dollar or two into a basket, to pay for a meeting room. AA started in 1939 by individuals. (NA started in 1953 and has grown recently)
Government programs, in contrast, employ salaried "experts" and if not constrained will go on without boundaries.
President Donald Trump's brother died from alcoholism.
