Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2016
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2016 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Suzanne Wills
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n172/a02.html

TOUGH LOVE CAN ADD TO SUFFERING

Re: "Straight talk about heroin - We've got the epidemic all wrong, 
Maia Szalavitz says," March 20 Points.

All of the dangerous myths about heroin that Szalavitz points out are 
important. The drug war is built on lies and misconceptions. It is 
most important to discredit the myth that "Tough love is the only 
thing that works. Programs that distribute clean needles and 
overdose-reversal drugs prolong addiction."

Addition is most often an adaption to overwhelming trauma. The 
majority of injection drug users were abused as children. This can 
cause lifelong self-hatred. Even the man who started drug 
prohibition, Harry Anslinger, admitted it: Addicts often "grow up in 
homes that are not homes, with parents that are not parents, [so] 
they seek escape. Girl or boy, this is a familiar pattern."

Exposure to combat, a life-changing accident, sudden loss of loved 
ones and mental illness are also traumatizing and make a person 
vulnerable to addiction.

Subjecting traumatized people to further hardship and stress almost 
guarantees that they will not stop using drugs.

Suzanne Wills, Dallas

Treasurer, Drug Policy Forum of Texas 
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