Supporting drug-free rehabilitation and education
New Series on Drug Abuse More Propaganda than Documentary
Jointly-funded 'Addiction' pushes unproven brain disease
theory, pharmaceuticals
ATLANTA, Ga. - The much-hyped premiere of
the new HBO 14-part documentary series called "Addiction" aired Thursday night,
and what was disguised as a positive look into helping people understand and
overcome alcohol and other drug addiction was actually a propaganda campaign to
convince people that it is an incurable brain disease and should be treated
with pharmaceuticals.
At times it was almost a question of who had
funded the show, like when an opiate addict claimed there just wasn't enough
money to continue paying for his opioid replacement drugs after treatment. Much
of it almost looked like a direct lobby to Congress to mandate insurance
coverage and to provide more appropriations to drug makers. You don't have to
dig that deep to find the connection to pharmaceutical
companies.
Probably the worst part about it is when some of the people
in the
addiction treatment field were interviewed, including the
director of the National Institute of Drug
Abuse (NIDA), was the continued repetitive drone that addiction is a
life-long disease and that relapse is expected. Such a statement is not only
blatantly false, but it should be prosecutable as a crime against humanity.
People permanently recover every single day with no further signs, symptoms or
relapses - direct observable proof that it is not an incurable brain
disease.
The best possible ploy they've come up with is to replace fact with
conjecture when comparing the colors that appear brain scans. There is no basis
for "this part of your brain is the 'go' part, and this part of the brain is
the 'stop' part," especially when it is the mind, not the brain that makes
those decisions. As mentioned in an earlier article from the Drug-Free
Alliance, the brain is just the center of the nervous system, not that which
controls our thoughts and decisions.
There are millions of people who
are caught up in the trap of addiction and don't know how to get out. Telling
them that they are diseased for the rest of there life provides no hope.
In a statement give to the Alliance for this review, Dr. Stanton Peele,
author of "7 Tools to Beat Addiction" wrote, "Promulgating the idea of
addiction as an inescapable disease is not a new or scientifically based idea.
It is an old Harry Anslinger and Temperance tactic, and the NIDA, NIAAA, and
their perhaps unwitting HBO filmmaking accomplices are serving up a moralistic,
anti-drug menu. But what's worse is that the series eventually undercuts
people's ability to overcome addiction and alcoholism - since a large majority
of people do so on their own (think about smokers) - primarily addicts who
reject the disease concept."
There is also the term "in recovery" that is used a lot,
especially among traditional treatment groups and settings. This implies that
they are still battling the addiction, for some decades later, one day at a
time. Well, there are millions of people, as mentioned by Dr. Peele, that don't
buy the brain disease theory who are now leading very healthy and happy lives
free from drugs and alcohol and who never look back. 
Most psychiatry-based treatment
providers use "in recovery" to suggest that relapse is a part of the life-long
recovery process from the disease, meaning they expect the user to go in and
out of treatment several times in life and fight the temptation to use drugs
again for the rest of their life. This was suggested in the series as well,
which continues to make me sick. Of course people will relapse if you tell them
it's expected, it gives them an excuse to go out and get high again and it
gives the provider an excuse to bill the insurance company again and the
pharmaceutical companies again to create more drugs.
The aim here is not
to upset those who have bought the lies over the years and believe them to be
true. I say to them congratulations for doing well despite the false
information you've been given. The intent is to get the masses to speak up and
policy makers to not give in to this. Do not continue funding programs and
ideas that only work ten percent of the time.
At last national survey by
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the
majority of the country still believes that addiction can be overcome
permanently. Where do you stand?
© 2011 Drug-Free Alliance