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Addiction Is a Choice
by Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D.

Addiction Is a Choice is the Freedom Book of the Month

To argue that an individual has control over whether he/she takes drugs, as Schaler demonstrates, is viewed by many as heretical. And, if it were to become conventional wisdom, this new perspective would have significant consequences for drug policy in the United States. . . . Schaler emphasizes studies which indicate the rhetorical phenomenon of 'self-fulfilling prophecy' contributes to the perception of 'loss-of-control' . . . Schaler views 'addiction treatments' as rhetoric masquerading as medicine. . . .[b:3d073e4278] the book relies on empirical evidence and consistent logic to place responsibility for excessive drug-taking where it is usually absent in public discourse: on the individual drug-user.[/b:3d073e4278]"--Journal of Health Communication (2003)

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The Washington State "Drug Medicalization and Prevention Act of 1997" asserts that "we need to...recognize that drug abuse and addiction are public health problems that should be treated as diseases." [b:3d073e4278]The merits of this claim cannot be intelligently debated without agreeing on the use of the terms drug abuse, addiction, treatment, and disease,and on the kinds of personal conduct that justify coercive state control by means of public health measures.
[/b:3d073e4278]
Public health measures play a crucial, but neglected, role in modern political philosophy. Interventions justified in the name of health --defined as therapeutic, not punitive-- fall outside the scope of the criminal law and are therefore exempt from constitutional restraints on state coercion. [b:3d073e4278]On the contrary, such measures --promoted as protecting the best interests of "sick patients"-- are viewed as valuable "services" provided by the Therapeutic State [/b:3d073e4278](the polity uniting medicine and state, much as church and state formerly were united). Presciently, John Stuart Mill anticipated this insidious tactic:[b:3d073e4278] "The preventive function of government," he warned, "is far more liable to be abused, to the prejudice of liberty, than the punitory function;[/b:3d073e4278] for there is hardly any part of the legitimate freedom of action of a human being which would not admit of being represented, and fairly too, as increasing the facilities for some form or other of delinquency."

[b:3d073e4278]The die is now cast: Misbehaviors of all sorts are (defined as) medical problems. Unwanted behavior, exemplified by the use of illegal drugs, is, by fiat, a disease. The concepts of disease and treatment have thus become politicized.[/b:3d073e4278] The World Health Organization's definition of drug abuse as the "use of a drug that is not approved by a society or a group within that society" is illustrative. Thus, doctors, judges, journalists, civil libertarians, everyone accepts--or pretends to accept--that self-administering heroin is a disease and that a state agent administering methadone to an "addict" is a treatment.

[b:3d073e4278]Some see the Therapeutic State as an instrument of compassion and science in the service of "moral progress"and accordingly support "medicalization" in all its many guises. [/b:3d073e4278] Others see the Therapeutic State as an instrument of cruelty and pseudoscience in the service of a new form of statism and accordingly oppose "medicalization."

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Consider the contrast between Freedom of Religion and Unfreedom from Psychiatry. Religion as false belief -- religious relations between consenting adults (regardless of the actors' beliefs) -- harms no one, except possibly the believer, who "deserves" to be helped or harmed by the exercise of his free choice of self-regarding religious conduct. [b:3d073e4278]Only Religion as political power -- as violence against others masquerading as help (and the use of tax money to support Religion) -- is dangerous to others.[/b:3d073e4278] We have no Religious Health Laws; hence Religion is not a danger to anyone.

Mutatis mutandis, Psychiatry as false belief-- psychiatric relations between consenting adults (regardless of the actors' beliefs) -- harms no one, except possibly the believer, who "deserves" to be helped or harmed by the exercise of his free choice of self-regarding psychiatric conduct. Only Psychiatry as political power -- as violence against others masquerading as help ((and the use of tax money to support Psychiatry) -- is a danger to others. However stubbornly true believers in Psychiatry insist that "mental illness is like any other illness," the truth is that we have no Physical Health Laws, but we do have Mental Health Laws. Hence, Psychiatry is a danger to everyone.

Organized religion qua religion is separated from the American State by the Constitution as well as by custom. Organized psychiatry is not: Religion qua Psychiatry is the danger that now faces us.[b:3d073e4278] It is Psychiatry -- not Christianity -- that is lavishly supported by the State and is empowered to use its coercive apparatus.[/b:3d073e4278] It is Psychiatry -- not Christianity -- that is the grand deception of our age. It is Psychiatry -- not Christianity -- that Skeptics ought to unmask, ridicule, condemn, and combat.

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Many alcoholics who apply for treatment find the conventional health services too busy to mollycoddle sots like them, when there are patients with real illnesses to treat: broken bones, cancer, acne. Sitting for two hours after appointment time in the waiting room at the Maudsley (Bedlam, as it once was), with a splitting hangover, in the company of the stark staring mad, is the drunken Rake's foretaste of hell.

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AA literature may overwhelm you with reading as well but should you ever look into it you will see that AA relies on [b:8f9aabb926]attraction not promotion[/b:8f9aabb926].

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Cooperation With the
Professional Community/
Treatment Facilities
Trustees’ report:
C.P.C.—The committee assists local C.P.C.
committees to provide A.A. information to
professionals who, through their work, may
come in contact with the still-suffering alco-
holic. The committee reviewed the contents of
the C.P.C. Kit, including the C.P.C. Workbook,
and oversaw the inclusion of shared experience
in the C.P.C. Workbook on ways local commit-
tees approach professionals in addition to
writing letters. The committee reviewed requests
to reprint the chapter “To Employers” in pam-
phlet form and took no action. The sense of
the committee was that taken out of context,
the chapter contains dated practices.
Treatment Facilities—[b:8f9aabb926]In response to a
request from the 2005 Conference Committee
on Public Information to update the video Hope:
Alcoholics Anonymous,[/b:8f9aabb926] the committee viewed
the video and decided that it was not sufficient-
ly outdated to warrant the expense of an
update at this time. The 2005 Conference
Committee on Treatment Facilities, staff, and
the trustee’s Committee on Treatment Facilities
reviewed text changes which will be incorporat-
ed into the Treatment Facilities Workbook at
the next printing. The committee agreed to dis-
cuss a possible revision of its Composition,
torical sights, sounds, and valuable informa-
tion contained within the films in our care.
Two issues of the Archives newsletter were
published.[b:8f9aabb926] A subcommittee was appointed to
explore the feasibility of expanding distribution
of Marking[/b:8f9aabb926]sin response to increased interest
in the newsletter.

Treatment Facilities—[b:8f9aabb926]The purpose of the
Treatment Facilities assignment is to share
experience and information with committees
that carry the A.A. message into a variety of
treatment settings.[/b:8f9aabb926] G.S.O. currently lists 85
Area Treatment Facilities committee chairper-
sons, plus 398 district and other T.F. chairper-
sons, as well as 22 Area Bridging the Gap and
21 Area Hospitals and Institutions committee
chairpersons; 142 BTG and H&I district and
other chairpersons are also listed. We share
highlights from the trustees’ meetings and
activities from the T.F. staff assignment with
area, district and other T.F. chairs, for the
benefit of the committees they chair.


Corrections
Trustees’ report: The purpose of the trustees’
Committee on Corrections is to recommend to
the General Service Board actions that support
carrying the A.A. message to alcoholics con-
fined in a variety of correctional settings. Since
the 2005 General Service Conference, the
trustees’ Committee on Corrections has met
three times. The committee reviewed the
revised draft manuscript of A.A. in Prison:
Inmate to Inmateand recommended that it be
forwarded to the 2006 Conference Committee
on Corrections. [b:8f9aabb926]The committee also forwarded
to the Conference a progress report on the
development of an informational media pre-
sentation introducing A.A. to corrections train-
ing academies and to corrections personnel.
[/b:8f9aabb926]The committee agreed that the service piece
“How to Conduct a Sharing Session,” which is
referenced in the guidelines, be included in the
Corrections Workbook. The committee agreed
that the Corrections Correspondence Service
serve both the U.S. and Canada, taking into
consideration geography and language.

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barabara
[b:e1c65b3bff]colter[/b:e1c65b3bff]:

It's all wordplay.

If you promote an organization, you promote an organization. Call it whatever you want; we can see what is really going on by doing the research.
You can ignore our research, refute our research, and deny our research as much as you like, and you have, repeatedly.

[b:e1c65b3bff]It's ridiculous to even suggest that there are professionals in these areas who have not already been aquainted with AA.[/b:e1c65b3bff]

AA promotes itself to the medical community and the correctional institutions, [b:e1c65b3bff]period[/b:e1c65b3bff].

Maybe it's time for the organization to practice the same "rigourous honesty" that is supposedly required of its participants.

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barabara
...but I assure you that the lawmakers are at present and will be in the future concerned with the issues we have been discussing.

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If you like, we can start using the word, "Intelligent design" or "Matrix".