Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Drug addiction a disease, not a moral failing, White House says
latimes.com ^ | June 11, 2012 | Morgan Little

Posted on 06/11/2012 12:36:15 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY

Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the National Drug Control Policy, has announced a new focus on treating drug addiction as a disease, not a moral failing, and emphasizes removing the stigma placed on drug abusers.

Speaking at the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, Calif., on Monday, Kerlikowske declared “this country hasn’t looked at recovery in a way that makes sense,” and that he intended to “use the bully pulpit of the White House in a way that brings it out into the open.”

Previous federal drug policies were a three-legged stool, Kerlikowske said, with criminalization, prevention and treatment serving as the foundation for national policies. Now, there will be a fourth leg – recovery.

Forming the administration’s new attitude toward drug problems “meant moving beyond talking in the beltway … it meant talking to real people dealing with addiction,” Kerlikowske said.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: disabilitiesact; drugs; drugwar; obamacare; obamalegacy; warondrugs; wod; wodlist; wosd
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121 next last
To: Free ThinkerNY

Yep—Destruction of Responsibility and Ethics.

Replace religion (particularly the superior Christian Ethics) with moral relativism and psychiatry which makes everyone dependent and drugged.

HA HA. This is the Marxist camel which kills God-—to destroy Virtue. It destroys the concepts of Right and Wrong which destroys individualism and responsibility for actions. This destroys all relationships so that government has to care for everyone since the Natural Family connections will no longer exist or care. Nanny State is ruler and controller of all action and they can drug the populace into a drone, happy state where they won’t notice their own slavery.


21 posted on 06/11/2012 12:49:34 PM PDT by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY
I can't decide whether drug criminalization is a disease or a moral failing. (Maybe it's both.)
22 posted on 06/11/2012 12:49:47 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

What about all the good people who became addicted to oxycotin or are we talking about illegal drugs here such as pot or crack?


23 posted on 06/11/2012 12:52:17 PM PDT by trailhkr1 (All you need to know about Zimmerman, innocent = riots, manslaughter = riots, guilty = riots)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

Obama can’t accept his moral failings. He is diseased.


24 posted on 06/11/2012 12:52:36 PM PDT by pallis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

Things like this usually have a purpose. What news might we be about to hear?


25 posted on 06/11/2012 12:52:47 PM PDT by John W (Viva Cristo Rey!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cementjungle

Now we get to coddle alcoholics and drug addicts, in addition to taking care of every whim of the folks who prefer not to work, as well as those who capitalize on a minor disability, turning it into the equivalent of winning the lottery.

Here I sit at work, grateful to God that I have work and the health to do it. Forget retirement; I guess I’ll be right here when the hearse scoops me up on the way to the cemetery.

How many people am I supporting now?

How long before the Republic Party has the guts to call this Marxism?


26 posted on 06/11/2012 12:55:11 PM PDT by July4 (Remember the price paid for your freedom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: savagesusie
Nanny State is ruler and controller of all action

So you're opposed to the nanny-state War On Drugs?

27 posted on 06/11/2012 12:56:53 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: saleman
This will help...

28 posted on 06/11/2012 12:57:11 PM PDT by TSgt (The only reason I have one in the chamber at all times, is because it is impossible to have two in.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: July4

Republic Party = Republican Party...sorry.


29 posted on 06/11/2012 12:57:14 PM PDT by July4 (Remember the price paid for your freedom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY
Don't step in their either/or trap. It's neither.

30 posted on 06/11/2012 12:57:33 PM PDT by I see my hands (It's time to.. KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHER FREEPERS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

The White House is to morals what east is to west.


31 posted on 06/11/2012 12:57:44 PM PDT by crosshairs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: saleman
Dang. Really? Do they have shots for that or some kinda pill? It’s not fatal or serious or anything like that is it?

Pill for it? Try new "Cialis For One". For those times when you don't have two bathtubs.


32 posted on 06/11/2012 12:58:56 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (You only have three billion heartbeats in a lifetime.How many does the government claim as its own?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

I suggest the problem here is that we’re trying to force a complex phenomenon into one of two boxes: disease or moral failing.

Pretty obviously, to me anyway, addiction in its advanced stages becomes something resembling a disease. But most people have to work at getting the disease. And making the choice to work at it is a moral failing.

In the Lord of the Rings, the desire for the Ring was an addiction that could not be resisted once it had gained power over a person. But numerous people in the story made the choice to refuse to start the process that would lead to this addiction. Numerous others chose, as a moral failing, to walk down that road.


33 posted on 06/11/2012 12:58:59 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: John W
What news might we be about to hear?

Moochelle is planning a vacation to Jamaica?

34 posted on 06/11/2012 1:00:04 PM PDT by no-to-illegals (Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Dang. Really? Do they have shots for that or some kinda pill?

You may need glasses.


And you may have to start using Nair as hand lotion.
35 posted on 06/11/2012 1:03:13 PM PDT by crosshairs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

It may be a disease but it can be controlled by strength of character


36 posted on 06/11/2012 1:03:49 PM PDT by uncbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

So Obama is seriously diseased...


37 posted on 06/11/2012 1:05:55 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: trailhkr1
What about all the good people who became addicted to oxycotin or are we talking about illegal drugs here such as pot or crack?

Is addiction a moral failing if it was come by in a "bad" way, but not if it was come by in a "good" way?

38 posted on 06/11/2012 1:06:16 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

Some (not all) addiction is best characterized as a disease. The hold of the drugs is stronger than the will. Addiction can occur on a first use with some drugs, such as crack. The real problem is how to separate the true addicts from the wastrels.


39 posted on 06/11/2012 1:06:33 PM PDT by Smedley (It's a sad day for American capitalism when a man can't fly a midget on a kite over Central Park)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Free ThinkerNY

If we assume it IS a disease, it is one that a person without moral failings can avoid falling pray to, and which a person without moral failings can keep in remission.

The rest is hogwash - especially when government types want me to pay for the “treatment,” or for the drugs, or for the stupid WOD that has been a total failure due to corruption and misuse.


40 posted on 06/11/2012 1:07:05 PM PDT by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson