TEMPTATION IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF ADDICTION

To the editor:

Re: Abstinence Approach Is 'Not Effective' Feb. 12 Capital News.

It would be easier to swallow "harm reduction treatments" if the
proponents did not try so hard to snow the public. Listening to the
nonsense that addicts were ill and somehow struck by a disease was
laughable and an insult to anybody who had a disease that they could
not just quit. For whatever reason, the press completely self-censored
and anybody challenging the medical model got no press for 15 years in
our so-called enlightened times.

But that was yesterday and now even the cheerleaders of the medical
model admit they were wrong. Behaviours cannot be diseased except in a
metaphorical sense. Most newspaper editors, professional wordsmiths
that they are, are still not clever enough to tell the difference
between metaphorical language and the literal disease. Heart break and
heart attack are two completely different categories. One is a
metaphor and one is literal. Addiction is "like a" disease and that
nuance has been exploited by medicine and the state for the last 15
years, to absolutely no avail because it was a "noble lie."

Jennifer Smith's report is great in that she makes it crystal clear
the goal is to turn disapproved of behaviours around. No phony baloney
about curing disease there.

Thank the powers that be that a skeptic like me might finally be
heard. What society is dealing with in the so-called addict is our
age-old friend lust, coupled with its favourite companion gluttony.

Lust and gluttony are two of the Seven Deadly Sins that engaging in
was said to lead to spiritual death in the theological state. Humanity
has a 2000 year history of dealing with the spiritually dead.

The medical doctor has no role in any of this because addicts need a
soul doctor and they are avoiding the confession booth for whatever
reasons. The gluttons must either have their fill or die trying as
history has shown us: Hitting bottom was the medicalized version of
this "loss of control" which is actually a "demonic drug possessed"
theory which always finds receptive ears in theologic-based society.
The so-called mentally ill will turn out to be troubled and troubling
persons with problems in living that have plagued humanity since time
began too. There have always been those who reject society's dominant
values. It all has to do with personal responsibility which is the
flip side of the liberty coin.

Temptation-yielding to it and resisting it-is what addiction is all
about. Where temptation fits into all this "therapeutic state"
nonsense about addiction has never been asked. Why is that?

Chris Buors

Winnipeg