RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I feel for his family and thier loss. I will never understand how a person can fall into such a pattern while watching themselves waste away. Some people were just born too weak in character to survive...so be it.

Unfortunately compassion didn't help them and won't bring them back. The worst part is that there was always some leach who continued to take their money and give them drugs right up until the end.

I agree with edt4. It is a disease, and should be treated as such. When someone dies of a blood sugar overdose, everyone mourns. When someone dies of arteriarschlerosis, people don't sit around saying, "it's his fault. He shouldn't have eaten all those fatty foods." I do feel more sympathy for those who remain, but, the fact is, at death of the flesh, all return to The Father. Let Him have a talk with them.

I understand the sentiments expressed by some of the people below. I've had friends/family in my life who were/are addicts, and those who "were" are not still among the living. Understandably, one feels more compassion for the innocent stricken by cancer or some such disease (particularly the blameless child) than for the maladjusted who deliberately puts a needle in their arm or smokes that first cigarette. Dealing with addicts you care about can be a frustrating exercise in futility that fills you with despair and anger (particularly if you have some addiction problems of your own). Over the years, though, I've come to the same conclusion as the majority of medical professionals...namely, that addiction is a disease, a sickness. Luckily, some can find the inner strength or resources to pull themselves out of that quagmire, but a lot can't. There's always been a "moral", punitive quality to our much-vaunted, largely-unsuccessful "War on Drugs." The idea that some are weaker than others and seek the comfort of a self-destructive "escape" suddenly qualifies as a moral failing or "sin." Society judges it a crime, and we imprison the addict, thus eliminating a superfluous, unemployable class of people and creating a need for more prisons, more prison guards, etc. etc. Obviously, it's a complex problem and there are no easy, glib answers. The only aspect of this issue that I feel righteously indignant about is the issue of imprisonment. The idea of imprisoning someone who is sick, and nobody is sicker in body and mind than the drug addict, is absurd and barbaric.

This is the same thing as smoking. Why would you start taking drugs in the first place when you know all the dangers?

Unfortunately, Ridgewalker, by using your method of calculating sympathy points, substance abusers are commonly in the red. I'm rating one star because 0 stars is not available. If a person is genuinely unhappy to the extent that he or she is taking conttrolled substances that are endangering his life, said individual should A) get medical assistance and clean up, or B) put a pistol in his mouth and get it over with. Of course the proper thing to do or the welfare of others rarely crosses the mind of a junkie as addiction is a completely self-absorbed state of being. Most people who become major users are relatively self-indulgent and self-absorbed to begin with.