A few weeks ago I celebrated my eighth year clean and sober. That means I haven't taken a drink of alcohol or had a mind altering substance since January 7, 2005. It was struggle to get to that first day of sobriety with few ups and many, many downs. Hard lessons had to be learned and a low bottom had to be reached. For me that low or rock bottom had to be a combined emotional and spiritual bottom rather than a financial one (although the financial one was there but if that was the only factor it wouldn't have stopped me as I had proven many times before). My journey to that date ended in my engaging in controlled drinking or what the governments of today like to refer to as harm reduction. For me harm reduction was a means to an end and not a lifestyle. If it had turned into a lifestyle I can guarantee you that I would not be writing this blog today. I would most likely be dead.
For some reason governments and many clinicians think that harm reduction is the best way to treat addictions. Harm reduction means letting people continue to drink and/or use drugs in the least harmful measure possible. To me this policy boils down to just allowing people to kill themselves very slowly.
I am a recovered alcoholic/addict. Recovered meaning - "a personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from [addiction]" (Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book 1939). Recovery to me means freedom. I have the freedom to go out anywhere in the world without the fear of succumbing to my addiction. Harm reduction does not provide this freedom to people. Let's take the person who has stopped using heroine or other opiates by going on the harm reduction methadone program. Methadone doesn't physically hurt people on it. But it doesn't provide freedom either. In Ontario a person on Methadone has to go to their methadone provider on a daily basis to receive their dose. Some may earn the right to take some doses home but it is under strict guidelines. To me this is not freedom. They can't go anywhere because they have to stay around to get that dose. The methadone user is also not dealing with the issues of why they have to self medicate in the first place.
If one takes a look at the 12 Steps they will see that the only step that mentions one's addiction is the first step. The rest are a guide on how to live one's life. This is because people suffering from addictions cannot face life, cannot manage their emotions and thus must self-medicate to survive. On top of that who is paying for this methadone? Us the taxpayers. Part of recovery is taking responsibility for your actions. Society is taking responsibility for this person's actions.
I remember when I was taking my Addictions Diploma at school. We watched this video from a US media show about harm reduction. It showed alcoholics who were allowed one to two drinks a day. One of the people featured saved up all her drinks so she could get wasted at a Saturday party. To me this is not preventing harm it's just allowing someone to deny their problem, self-medicate and injure their bodily organs. I argued this in class to no avail.
Vancouver has a harm reduction program where it hands out clean needles to addicts and gives them safe places to shoot up. How is one to find their rock bottom, which in most cases is needed to finally become willing to get help, if the government (paid for by the taxpayer) is stopping this from occurring?
Toronto hands out crack kits to people. I don't see the crack problem stopping because of this. Next thing you know the government will be handing out free crack. The City of Toronto already has a program where they hand out free liquor to alcoholics. Following this logic why aren't they handing out free cigarettes to cancer patients?
Let's take a look at detox centres. There are some burdens of society who just use detox centres as a place to crash on the weekends after they've spent all of their welfare money and./or stolen money. These people just show up again and again and again. Taking beds away from people who truly want to get better. There should be a system put in place to ban these abusers of the system for up to a year. Since detoxes are considered an emergency service the government does not allow them to say no to anyone or kick anyone out. This brilliant rule allows drug dealers to enter the facility, under false pretenses, and sell their wares to the above mentioned burdens. Surely logic can prevail and something can be done to prevent this from occurring. Detoxes are the first step for many people wanting to get help. Let's not make things harder.
Another term that is bandied about in the addictions industry is client centred treatment. It's supposed to mean tailor the type of treatment to the person you are helping. Meaning not everyone is the same so different types of approaches are needed. A sound concept. Unfortunately this has turned into something completely different. What many addictions services are doing is letting the client tell them how their treatment program should be run. If the person knew how their treatment program should be run then why the hell did they come to the organization for help in the first place? It makes no sense. The last time I went to treatment (actually the first two times as well) I didn't tell the counsellors, doctors, etc. what I needed because I didn't know what I needed. If I made a suggestion that was ridiculous they didn't say, "well it's client centred so go ahead and do it". In fact if, at my final treatment centre, I tried to tell the counsellors what I thought I needed they would tell me to shut up, take the tissue out of my ears and put it in my mouth. I didn't know anything about staying sober. The proof was the fact that I had failed miserably in my quest for sobriety for five years, the pancreatitis I suffered from and the fact that my family and friends wanted nothing to do with me. Luckily I was desperate enough not to do this at the facility and listen to what those who were wiser than me said to do.
A smart person learns from their own mistakes a wise person from others' mistakes. Let's stop screwing with people's lives and killing them slowly.
Dave the Dude
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