What is wrong with addiction?

Published May 20, 2010

I obviously need to give you a little more context about a question like that. What im asking is what is so wrong with being addicted to something? We are addicted to water, oxygen, nitrogen, sodium, and so many other things in life that if we stopped maintaining our addictions to we would die very quickly.

Why then is it that so many people get so upset and bent out of shape when someone has an addiction to a drug? If you take away all of the negative problems like stealing for the drugs, gang violence, drug lords, etc by legalizing the drug, what is left that is so terrible about say Morphine? People with cancer take morphine regularly , day after day after day in large doses, sometimes for decades, or longer. They are not feeling any negative effects from that drug besides they are out of pain, possibly even having some euphoria, and get to live their lives as normally as possible until their cancer is cured or they die. People prescribed oxycontin for similar chronic pain are doing the same. There is little to no physical harm in taking these opiates but if you are labeled an addict people look at you differently, they think you’re going to beat them up for $5 and corrupt their kids or something.

And then on the other hand you have people addicted to cigarettes that drink heavily but look down on someone that does heroin, even though alcohol and cigarette addiction kills many many times that which heroin kills. There are also the people that drink 6 cans of caffeinated soda, coffee, or energy drinks every day and think they are not drug addicts by definition and look down on other types of drug addicts like they’re lepers or something. See what happens what those people stop getting their caffeine fix and they get massive headaches and body aches from the withdrawal.

I’d like to hear some opinions about this question, but again, let me make it clear that i am asking solely about the addiction, NOT ABOUT ANYTHING RELATED to addiction like violence resulting from stealing to get the substance, because that can be avoided by making the drug cheap and easily obtained, that type of violence is a result of its illegality, not the drug itself.

I am also NOT talking about an addiction to anything that causes GREAT PHYSICAL HARM to a person like meth, alcohol, etc. I personally am ok with someone drinking themselves to death as long as they don’t hurt anyone else, but i can easily understand why others would not be ok with this type of addiction. Non-harmful addictions like morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and psychological addictions to drugs like marijuana, MDMA(ecstasy), and others.

I am also not concerned with things like hitting someone because you were on meth or drinking alcohol. Just as the courts do not believe being drunk is an excuse for doing those acts, neither do i. The alcohol does not make you hit your wife, you chose to do that. The meth may have made you paranoid and delusional, but you chose to attack that person. Opiates of course have no history of abusing people under their influence so again id like to focus on opiates and similar drugs and avoid alcohol and meth and that type of drug.
Summary – What is wrong with being addicted to substances that do not make you violent if they are free and easily obtained and do not cause physical harm to the user? Drugs or substances like opiates that can be taken long term with little to no negative effects on the health of the user and do not cause them to attack others.

I understand laws like DUI laws, etc that prohibit people from driving or operating machines while under the influence. I am solely talking about what is wrong with addiction to the above type of drug, when used responsibly and safely in your own home, just as people drink alcohol “responsibly” or smoke cigarettes today.
Couple more points to the people answering:

Overdosing – Not a serious problem with proper education, quality production of the substance, and responsible use.

People that overdose fall into certain categories:

1) Accidental overdose – avoidable with education, responsible use, doctor supervision of dosage increase.

2)Suicide – has nothing to do with the drug or should we start illegalizing rope as well because people hang themselves?

3) Product was much stronger than they were use to – again, avoidable with quality control of production through legalization.

We allow people to obtain alcohol legally even though you can potentially overdose. The government allows people to be responsible with certain very dangerous chemicals on their own, but not with others.
Also – if you don’t like the use of water as an addicted substance example, use firefighters rescuing children, or the high doctors get from saving patients, or cops fighting “bad guys” or love of hobbies. all of these things create a dopamine or serotonin reaction in your brain that is easy to become addicted to yet is perfectly ok in society. Morphine gives the dopamine response without doing the action. Ecstasy gives the serotonin response without the action.

As the first answerer said, everyone is addicted to something, and that was what i was trying to bring across.
Definition – “addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence. When this substance is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms”

this fits the bill for water, sodium, and the other substances we need to live and if taken away will cause withdrawal and death just as with a heavy addiction to certain drugs.
I would rather email you daisy, but here it is:
drugs causing unhealthy coping mechanisms? in fact the drugs i am talking about (opiates) use the bodies natural dopamine receptors to create a sensation that is the same released when doing a good deed. firefighters use this to get past the horror of the job. people are fine with this type of usage but are completely against it when its gotten through an outside substance. firefighters and other similar rescue workers can easily become addicted to this rush but are looked up to.

you also claim i am trivializing oxycontin addiction when i did no such thing. instead you are taking your own personal feelings and throwing them at me for a perceived wrong. my own mother uses oxycontin to control her chronic pain, but i also feel if someone choose to use oxycodone to control mental anguish why are they not allowed? we let people destroy their lives with alcohol and even advertise for it, but illegal drugs are wrong?

What is wrong with addiction?

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