Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Regarding addiction medication

Rate this topic


Limelight

Recommended Posts

What is the objectivists' stance on medicinal treatment for addiction. For example, I am a recovering heroin addict and have been taking Suboxone for over 2.5 years prescribed for opioid addiction maintenance- the same thing drugs like methadone and LAAM are used for, except not as abusable. Suboxone is a tablet, taken once a day sublingually. It contains two drugs: nalaxone, an opioid antagonist and buprenorphine, an opioid agonist and partial antagonist. The drug simply alleviates cravings to use other opioids and blocks the effects of other opioids if I were to use. Suboxone also doesn't give me any euphoric or other intoxicant effects, as my tolerance is stable. I'm just curious as to what people here think of addiction medications such as Suboxone as I know many people, especially those in the whole 12-step cult, tend to be opposed to it and claim that people on it are still getting high and/or they aren't really sober.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Judged by what you said about it, I don't see how it would be immoral to take it. Especially given how hard it is to stay away from these kinds of drugs, this has to make your life better because you don't have to worry about the addiction as much. If something furthers your life, it's moral, and that's what I would say this is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

many people, especially those in the whole 12-step cult, tend to be opposed to it and claim that people on it are still getting high and/or they aren't really sober

12 step programs have their own agendas. And I agree.. they are very cult-like.

Congratulations on improving your life, and good luck in sticking to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well what about other maintenance programs for addiction such as methadone or LAAM? Unlike Suboxone, methadone (and LAAM) are full opioid agonists and their programs are run by the state, giving the addict a free fix when they can't pay for the real thing, of which they also swipe at clinics and sell on the street. Not to say Suboxone isn't sold on the street for non-medical use as well, but their mechanism of action on the brain greatly differs, only supplying the opioid naive person with possible euphoric effects. I take Suboxone for a cost, I don't see why it shouldn't be any different for these other (more recreational) substances.

Also, what about publicly funded harm-reduction programs such as needle-exchanges which also supply citric acid sachets to dissolve certain types of heroin, steri-cups, filters, alcohol pre-injection swabs, sterile water ampules and tourniquets, safe injection sites in European countries like Germany where medical professionals supervise addicts injecting themselves with any said drug(s), and the recent pass of legislation in the Netherlands where addicts who don't comply with the methadone program are supplied with pharmaceutical grade heroin? To me, most of this sounds like extreme pampering and enabling by the government. An addict will never learn to get better if they are receiving free works for their habit, especially through people's tax dollars. Sure, it is more sanitary with these harm-reduction programs in place, but the addict is receiving no initiative to better himself as he/she is not seeing any consequences. I think all of these services should still be available but through the cost of the addict and/or private funding. I don't know how it would work exactly without it crossing over the lines into altruism- it's more of the libertarian within me talking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The government has no business dolling out drugs, nor does it have any business criminalizing persons who use drugs. The government's only purpose is to protect individual rights.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...