Treat Addiction as a Disease, MDs tell Victoria BC Government.

by Barry Artiste | March 27, 2009 at 05:39 am

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Barry Artiste Op/Ed

Wow! It appears some Doctors seem to be so unclear on the concept of the meaning of the term "Disease"! I have so many problems with this Leftard Crap by these Medical Wonks! The term "Disease" is either Infectious or Non Infectious. That is the medical term for Disease and no other.

No where is addiction, which is behavioral a disease. MDs trying to change the term Disease to encompass every little ailment will open up a legal can of worms in the courts, resulting in everyone and their dog, pleading in front of a judge that their criminal actions was caused by a disease?

Of course MD's want lots and lots of taxpayers money to further this new Catchword of the Millennium, guaranteeing lots and lots of Research Grants and Pharmaceutical companies making oodles of money for themselves!

Can you imagine Rapists and Child Molesters pleading they have "Uncontrollable Urges and Addicted to Little Girls and Horny Disease"?

Murderers pleading they have an "Addiction to Blood Lust" disease in that they need to kill people?

Can you imagine Criminals pleading they have "Money Disease" and "We want your Stuff Addictions"?

I say leave disease terminology in it's present form. Gambling is not a Disease nor is Drug Addiction, it never came naturally or all of a sudden on people. They chose it! They knew the Risks! To think they didn't know the difference otherwise leads me to believe perhaps they are either Left Tard Liberals, Brain dead or both!

There is mental illness and behavioral issues brought on by accidents, disease or genetics. But when Normal healthy people with even a semblance of intelligence of a insect willingly put poison into their arms or body, or insatiable Greed drives them to gamble, after all Gamblers would not gamble if it were not for Paper Money! I know of no Gamblers who would risk their life savings or kneecaps for a chance to score some Charmin Toilet Paper!

I say screw em, leave Disease as a term in its intention Infectious and Non Infectious, otherwise we open ourselves up to a legal mess of excuses our Nancy Courts and Laws are ill prepared to deal with!

One can be sure if this Disease Excuse was used in courts, Al qaeda's addiction to Box Cutters and Flying planes into Office towers killing thousands would be an attributed to being driven to have "Sex addiction" and "Martyr Syndrome" in order to get to some of them Virgins in Paradise.

Time to stop all this Fu*king "World Nancyism" and call a "Spade a Spade"!

As I do not have time to explain Disease Terminology, here is a link which is close. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease

Treat Addiction as a Disease. MDs tell Victoria
B.C. doctors are calling for the provincial government to formally recognize addiction as a chronic disease — and provide public funding to deal with it.

The call comes in a report being released today by the B.C. Medical Association that says more than 400,000 British Columbians suffer from some form of addiction.

These people are struggling to get help when they need it, the report says, because of a lack of resources or the high cost of treatment. This in turn puts strains on emergency departments, workplaces and families.

“For many years, addiction was seen as a personal failure rather than an illness,” said Dr. Shao-Hua Lu, an addictions psychiatrist. “One tends to focus on the terrible losses in the Downtown Eastside, but in terms of overall cost, alcohol, gambling and tobacco probably costs society much more.”

The BCMA says alcohol, gambling and drug addictions, which are often linked to some form of mental illness, are akin to heart disease and diabetes and the province should treat them the same way. While treating a gambling addict the same as a cancer patient would add new costs to the system, the BCMA argues it would ultimately save money by preventing the costly results of untreated addictions.

In 2002, the estimated cost of treating substance abuse in B.C. was more than $6 billion, or $1,500 per person per year, with alcohol, gambling and tobacco taking the biggest toll on society, said Lu, who is clinical practice director for the new Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.

According to the report, one in 10 visits to Vancouver General Hospital’s emergency room is for substance abuse, while B.C. uses enough hospital beds for substance abuse care to fill Kelowna General Hospital every day for a year.

The report suggests 120,000 British Columbians have a high probability of alcohol dependence, with 33,000 addicted to illicit drugs and 31,000 with a severe gambling problem.

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Joe Hayes (not verified)

at 05:59 on March 27th, 2009

Does everything have to be a disease? At what point do we hold people responsibile for the choices they make?

Barry Artiste

at 06:04 on March 27th, 2009

If we let the World Nancy Leftards Rule, we won't!

Thanks for your comments.

Andy Ingham (not verified)

at 12:03 on March 27th, 2009

I think that you need to be aware of something called "mental illness." Not everyone has a perfectly functioning brain like yourself. The content of this article was nothing but a baseless rant. You can either treat everyone like a criminal, or you can treat everyone like a human being.

Does a child rapist or a serial killer have a mental disorder? Yes. Should they be given medication and counseling and be let back on the street? No. There is a difference between working with objective data to reform healthcare and letting every criminal in the world off the hook. Perhaps you have a mental disorder (paranoid delusions) and could greatly benefit from a session with a psychiatrist.

Barry Artiste

at 17:27 on March 27th, 2009

Ah perhaps but calling it a disease? You said it yourself an Illness, there is a difference, and when some refuse treatment, well using an excuse like a Disease, I have a problem with!

Even a junkie and a gambler knows the difference between right and wrong!

Someone born into mental illness are most likely the most sane people around as they toe the line for the most part.

People who take their medication to cure their ills, certainly know what it is like and would give tooth and nail to get back to normal and I am sure would be disgusted by the criminal actions of those who willingly put themselves into a state of mental illness with illicit drugs, Drug Addicts should live a year in the shoes of a parapalegic and see what it is like, as a disabled person, and speak to a true mentally ill or disabled person and see how lucky they are that they could turn their lives around but don't. Where there are some people in mental anguish, spinal cord damage or blind or a wheelchair would love to be an addict, cause at least they could be cured.

Roy C

at 17:26 on March 27th, 2009

Addiction is a state of possession that is mostly physiological, and somewhat psychological, but a pure involuntary disease such as influenza or polio, it is not.

Saul Alinsky once said that the "ex-junkie" was often cited as someone that kids in Harlem saw as a role model, someone to grow up and be like.

Even the kids get that in the moral-self-HigherPower-resurrected state, which an ex-addict represents, there is something beyond "recovery from a disease".