What's Changed?

 When I was a teenager, around 16, I started using heroin for the first time.  Once I started, I didn't want to stop. And didn't until I was arrested about a year later.

The reason I bring this up today, is that I celebrated 32 years sober last week.  And during this period I went to a couple of meetings, was presented a chip by my sponsor, was given a birthday cake at work, and received an abundance of congratulations from friends, family, and co-workers.

But when I was a teenage addict there wasn't near as much in our culture that celebrated or recognized recovery.  Or if there was, I never was aware of it.  If you were an addict in those days the only thing available resembling treatment was the county jail.

If one were caught with syringes or spoons - collectively know as "paraphernalia," the sentence was a year in jail.  And there was nothing, no medication or anything resembling treatment.  Addicts just sweated it out until their system was clean.

The public attitude toward addicts is that they were evil or dangerous - or both.  Today, all of that attitude has pretty much changed.  Today one is considered to have a disease if they suffer from alcoholism or addiction to anything.  But in the 50s and 60s it was a moral issue.  If you were an addict you were a sinner, an untrustworthy evil person who deserved nothing better than a stretch behind bars.

Politicians got into the act in 1971 when Richard Nixon declared and funded a "war on drugs."  For some reason it doesn't seem like we're making much progress though because now there're are more drugs than ever.

What has changed?  To me it seems like that in our national subconsciousness we've come to the realization that we've lost the war on drugs after a years long and costly battle.  Fewer people seem to look at it as a moral issue and look upon it as the sickness that it is.  Today, something like 15% of the population is addicted to something for which they need treatment.

And a good thing is that our society is starting to accept addictions as a disease and is trying to do something about it.

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