#addiction

"what if that homeless person you gave money to spends it on alcohol ???😱" first of all alcohol withdrawal kills people and if theyre not in a safe place to detox (unlikely if they dont have a fucking home) this is literally harm reduction. second of all if they are not in danger of withdrawal thats fine too because im not a little baby bitch who thinks people have to earn the right to have a fucking drink by passing the "must be this tall housed to ride" test. third of all i would have spent it on alcohol also. so now what.

the problem with addiction is not that it's pleasurable. it's not "having too much fun" disease. it's not even a requirement for addiction that you have fun at any point in the process at all and to be honest it is incredibly common that no pleasure is gained from substance use. imagining that addiction is about pleasure does two things: 1) demonises feeling good (there is nothing wrong with wanting to be happy/comfortable/etc), and 2) frames addicts as people who Like Having Fun Too Much. it's simply not useful to frame things this way as well as just fundamentally not being true

the fact that AA/NA, an abstinence-only, deeply religious, non evidence supported model based off writings from the 1930s, is seen as the first, only, and mandatory form of treatment for problematic/dangerous drug use is insane and ridiculous and i hate it and i hate how normalized and institutionalized AA is. people have to choose between AA or jail, AA or not having custody of their kids, AA or not getting welfare it's embarassing that the war on drugs and drug use has gone on this long with so much evidence against it