Treat them like people.
I have empathy for people who got stuck on drugs. I've known a lot of them, and it is very difficult to put your life right after this. As one Heroin addict told me, "I will always be craving that drug."
Again, the best answer is to never let someone get so strung out. Trying to repair damage after the fact is more difficult than preventing it in the first place.
I agree. The goal should be to stop creating new addicts.
But the WOD has proven itself ineffective on that front. We have the same rate of addiction that we had before the WOD was started.
Where are they having success in that area? In places where they’ve legalized heroin, and set up heroin clinics and humane rehab facilities.
See, it seems that if a heroin addict has a 24 hour supply of his drug - but that’s all he has - he’s less likely to share. Dealers are being driven out of business and there’s nobody to introduce naive people to the drug. As addicts receive treatment and fewer new addictions are being created, the problem is now under control. (In one country, they’ve dropped their OD rate to ZERO. Another funny side-effect is that, by treating an addiction as a medical issue and not a criminal one, addicts are able to work and be productive members of society instead of being unable to find work with a criminal record. Legalization and regulation works.)
I’m never going to say that rampant drug use is a good thing. I’m saying that we’re fighting the ‘war’ in an ineffective way and we’ve got to try something different.