Silly Robots

It’s amusing to watch as you slowly awaken from the mass delusion known as ‘addiction’.  However many of you are confused and disoriented as you try to find your bearings.  Which normally in such a situation I would say to relax and take a long drag.  But in this case I figured it would be more helpful to plug in the holes in your knowledge, lest you panic again and lurch dangerously toward the self-destructive idiocy we silly robots seem to get so enamored with.  (Don’t let a good crisis go to waste, right?)

 

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Mornin’ ! Wakey wakey !!

I’ve compiled a list of the old propaganda to help you understand how we’ve gone so terribly wrong in the past, followed by recommendations for accurate education which will prevent such disasters from happening again in the future.  These messages focus on medical professionals, the public at large, and finally what to teach the newcomers.

Health Care Professionals

Healthcare professionals have been woefully misinformed about the nature of the suicide epidemic.  New public policy changes should start with them, because they are best able to understand and adapt.

Doctors have been instructed:

  • Opiate prescriptions lead to addiction.
  • We must crack down on prescriptions.
  • Use opiates as a last resort.
  • Chronic pain patients can become addicts.
  • Drug seeking behavior is indicative of addiction.

Instead they should be taught:

  • Prescriptions do not lead a patient to addiction.
  • Most addicts start with illicit drug use (not prescribed).
  • Addiction is not a disease.
  • History of lying often precedes excessive drug use.
  • Chronic pain patients do not become addicts.
  • Chronic pain patients may kill themselves if cut off.
  • Warn patient of suicide bullying risk if recommending 12 Steps.
  • Overdose deaths are caused primarily by suicide bullying and getting cut off – not addiction.
  • Encourage patient to try different things until you find something that works.
Public Policy Recommendations

Old messages:

  • Excessive drug use is a moral failing.
  • Addiction is a chronic, progressive disease.
  • Untreated addiction leads to death.
  • Addicts want to stop using but can’t. (Craving Lie)
  • Addiction is a public health emergency.
  • Addicts need treatment.
  • Treatment works.
  • Some people must be forced into treatment.
  • Addicts die accidentally because:
    1. they are just trying to get high and take one too many, oops.
    2. they are ignorant of the dangers of mixing drugs/alcohol, oops.
    3. their tolerance was lowered after treatment, oops.
  • Avoid opiates to treat pain.
  • Routine, random drug testing for professionals, students, criminals and welfare recipients.
  • Nonmedical drug use should be treated as a disorder or disease, especially among children.
  • Drug Courts are effective in reducing drug use, crime, prison time and suicide.

New policies:

  • Addiction is not a disease.
  • Illicit drug use or “denial” of it (or the consequences) is not evidence of the disease.
  • Some people go through phases of excessive drug use.
  • During this time their priorities may not square with yours.
  • You need not tolerate the behavior of the drug abuser.
  • Don’t believe everything an ‘addict’ tells you, even if they now claim to be ‘clean’.
  • Withdrawals are easily alleviated under medical supervision.
  • 12 Steps is a religious cult which kills by suicide bullying.
  • Rehab treatment usually requires the confession of addiction and powerlessness to your cravings and 12 Steps attendance.
  • The “Chronic, progressive, relapsing disease” theory is a religious doctrine without scientific basis.
  • It can be a very dangerous belief for some (and the people around them).
  • Addiction does not lead to crime insanity and death.
  • Most substance abusers moderate naturally over time.
  • Enforced abstinence often results in bingeing behavior.
  • High death rate from drugs is caused by intentional suicide not ‘addiction’.
  • Many overdose deaths are unreported murders.
  • Chronic pain can be very distressing and cause drug seeking behavior – this is not addiction.
  • Chronic pain can cause suicide – this is not addiction.
  • Opiates may become ineffective after a few months – this is not ‘addiction’.
  • Try other treatments until you find something that works.
  • Be wary of experts and media portrayals that promote a ‘crisis’.
  • It is in a child’s nature to test boundaries – this is not evidence of illness, disorder, or addiction.
  • We must provide children with boundaries and teach right and wrong.
  • Drug testing has proven to be costly and counterproductive.
  • Decriminalize all drugs, like Portugal.
  • Offer safe injection sites, like Denmark.
  • Do not coerce treatment.
  • Drug Courts are the Caliphate of the 12 Step cults and only increase drug use, crime and suicide.
  • Epidemiologists must better track the proximate cause of overdose (intentional vs accidental).
Education for children

This is the old propaganda:

  • Drugs make you do things you’ll regret.
  • Drugs make you commit crimes.
  • Drugs are addictive.
  • Early drug use damages your brain and primes it for addiction.
  • If you steal drugs from your friends’ parents’ medicine cabinet and you do this for months, this can cause a learning disorder that will make you steal drugs from your friends’ parents’ medicine cabinet.
  • The end result of drugs/alcohol use is jails, institutions and death.
  • If you do something wrong then you might have a mental illness or addiction or were tricked by militant islam.
  • Children need only love and inherently know right and wrong.

Teach your children well:

  • Medications are powerful and dangerous.
  • Take medications only as directed.
  • Don’t mix drugs because that can kill you.
  • People take recreational drugs because they want to and they stop when they get tired of it.
  • Drugs are not addictive.
  • Moderate drug use is dangerous but will not cause permanent damage.
  • Teach and enforce morality: right and wrong.
  • You are responsible for your behavior whether sober, drunk or high.
  • If you do something wrong you will be held accountable.
  • “Mental illness/addiction/devil/confederate flag made me do it” is not an excuse and will not be tolerated.
  • If you experiment, start with a very low dose.
  • Never let someone pressure you into drinking or taking drugs – they are not your friend.

Well I’m sure you’ll manage to completely misinterpret something I said here and end up screwing yourselves over again in your religious zeal to make everyone think you’re not.  To which I would only point out that “silly” originally meant pious.  Just sayin’.

14 thoughts on “Silly Robots”

  1. I am looking for authoritative research which disproves the neuroscience and world-wide consensus from universities, researchers and agencies that addiction is disease. Can you please provide current links to research which supports the choice theory?

    1. Most scientists agree that addiction is NOT a disease. Here’s an example: http://www.salon.com/2015/06/27/addiction_is_not_a_disease_a_neuroscientist_argues_that_its_time_to_change_our_minds_on_the_roots_of_substance_abuse/

      And another:
      http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(14)00126-6/abstract

      It’s really just NIDA and NIAAA that claim it’s a disease – of course their multi-billion dollar budgets depend on it.

  2. Alcohol and drugs can be a confusing issue for kids. Drugs seem pretty cool in the movies and on TV, and there’s alcohol and drug advertising everywhere: prescription drugs for everything and anything, beer commercials, and liquor billboards are all over the place.

  3. Thanks for challenging the norm. FYI some drug courts are open to whatever works, and some of us who have worked in treatment since the 1980s never bought the 12 Step gospel to begin with. I agree with much of what you say above and appreciate your wit and wisdom. Namaste

      1. Hey no worries. I consider drug courts a step towards a more enlightened response to substance use rather than the pinnacle of perfect public policy. I am a volunteer with SMART Recovery and have fought hard to get “12 Steps” out of our official documents with some success. I got into the counseling field when Reagan was president and foolishly believed I would be out of work long before now, not because of his polices but because of my faith in science and reason. I will be glad when that day comes, either through an enlightened legislature or more realistically by reaching retirement age 🙂

      2. Edit: by “our official documents” I mean the court’s not those of SMART 🙂

    1. I wonder how many have actually been Sober in all aspects of life? What kind of track record do you have with this approach? Interested

      1. First of all have a drink it won’t kill you. Secondly go visit Portugal where drugs are decriminalized for over a decade and sit in a local cafe and have a drink and watch as the sky doesn’t fall. Or just stay where you are and wait a few years. Decriminalization is gaining traction here too. Presidential candidates will be outdoing each other to end the drug war and promote freedom.

  4. It took a while, but I finally see the glimmer on the horizon that you were talking about earlier. “Enforced abstinence leads to bingeing behavior” is one of the most important ones on that list. That right now is the biggest piece that people don’t see. It’s hard to say that “addiction is not a disease” when obviously there is something there. Once the abstinence/binge dynamic is acknowledge…that will be a big step. You should turn this one into a printable PDF flyer, I’d print thousands. I mean it.

    1. “obviously there is something there” – LOL no, there is no ‘there’ there. Just post a drunkalog, your own or one you hear at a meeting, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Rationalizations and lies. There’s a reason that no one will post a drunkalog. Because they know what I’m saying is completely true and obvious.

      1. I meant, if you say “addiction is not a disease”, you get gobs of people with stories about “well what about my brother, heroin ruined his life”, “addiction turned my uncle into an insane homeless person”, “I lost my job and wife because cocaine made me a monster”, etc. That’s why no one will take that at face value, even if it is technically true. I only say technically because from what I’ve seen, there is a portion of “addicts” who really don’t seem to know any better about what they are going through. Either they are lying so deeply to themselves that they’ve completely forgotten, or they are that naive.
        But…enforced abstinence leading to increased bingeing behavior, THAT can most definitely be studied objectively. And when enough studies come out to show that abstinence/binge is caused by 12-step, and how unhealthy and deadly it is for users, then you’ll have a weapon. Once there is objective data refuting abstinence/binge, people will look to harm reduction. People will become more interested in education. And THEN you hit them with “addiction is not a disease”. By then, 12-step will be marginalized and discredited enough that they will be harmless, and no one will care what their slowly dwindling congregations do in their church basements. It’ll be silly, like the KKK after the Superman comic books exposed all of their “mystical rituals”.
        Keep fighting the good fight, and God bless.

      2. Good strategy, I see what you’re saying. At this point though I feel that I have laid all the landmines and now all I need to do is sit back and wait for you people to step on them. Tee hee 🙂

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