On Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:25:32 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:

>> But when someone starts engaging in that kind of behaviour, they then
>> have the choice to either listen to what others say ("dude, that's
>> messed up, you need to get some help") or decide on their own that
>> that's destructive and dangerous behaviour, or they can be taken into
>> custody at that time for their illegal activity.  Saying "the drugs
>> made me do it" is an excuse.
>>
> The former pretty much *never* happens. 

Depends on the drug and the individual.

> You have to decide that its
> something worth stopping, and then, like a lot of things, a certain
> percentage will find that they simply *can't*, no matter how much help
> they get, because their brain chemistry just doesn't work that way, and
> so they have a harder, or impossible, time stopping. That is why, if you
> want to cure everyone, and break the whole drug abuse cycle at all, you
> need to find something that corrects the problem, not just hope people
> give it up, then stay that way. This is true for everything from crack,
> to anabolic steroids, to race car driving. If you are prone to "needing"
> the fix, more than average, even deciding that you need to stop may not
> be enough to stop, once started. Something like crack just amplifies the
> problem.

I've already stated that crack and other drugs are not drugs I'd be for 
the legalization of - so using those extreme examples doesn't work in 
this discussion.

Some percentage of people can't resist alcohol - they *need* their fix.  
They're called "alcoholics".  So because some people can't resist the 
addiction, should all of us have to go through prohibition?

Jim

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