Lawsuits: Hindrance or Helpful to Recovery

A recent court ruling in the Province of Quebec awarded $15 billion to Quebec smokers who contracted diseases due to their tobacco use. I don’t begrudge anyone money that would help them and/or their families deal with a devastating disease. However, I would question the merits such lawsuits have on helping someone recover from an addiction.

A huge part of addiction recovery has to do with taking responsibility for treating one’s disease and for the actions one carried out in the midst of the addiction. I’m not saying we are responsible for contracting the disease of addiction but we are responsible for dealing with the affliction no matter how we contracted it.

Denial was a huge part in keeping me active in my alcohol and drug addictions. Part of that denial was blaming others for my use. I would blame my work, my family, my intimate relationships (or lack of them), etc. This blame allowed me to stay in the role of victim. By remaining a victim I was able to run roughshod over anyone or anything that got in the way of my self-medicating without any concern for recourse. It was always someone or something else’s fault. It wasn’t until I suffered grave emotional and spiritual pain that I was able to lift the veil of denial and realize that I was the common denominator in all of my problems whether related to my addiction or otherwise.

Every time I hear about lawsuits against tobacco companies, liquor/beer companies or casinos I cringe as I know the people involved are not going to recover from their disease via this route. Suing someone is another form of blaming and it will not work. The beer/liquor companies did not pour the booze down my mouth – I did. Sure they advertised but 90 per cent of the population who saw those ads did not become alcoholics.

If someone has diabetes and continues to eat chocolate bars regardless of his condition is it fair to blame the chocolate bar manufacturer? When it comes to addictions 99 per cent of us who suffer from one were seeing negative consequences (warning signs) long before our lives became unmanageable. Hell, I was being told by family and friends that I had an issue long before I surrendered to recovery.

I sobered up from drugs and alcohol on January 7, 2015 but it was not until a little over two years ago that I quit cigarettes. I’m a pretty smart guy and knew that smoking was bad for me. I knew smoking was unhealthy when I was a little kid yet I chose to pick up that first cigarette and continued to smoke knowing that there was help out to stop. I chose to smoke. I chose to ignore help when it was offered. After finding out there was help for me to end my drinking/drugging I chose to continue on until the pain became too great and I hit my own rock bottom. If I had decided to blame someone and sue them rather than get help I might have gotten a lot of money but my addiction would be still be there and I would have ended up losing the money in maintaining that addiction anyways.

Dave the Dude