Originally Posted by
leftWNYbecauseofBS
I would be one of those people who would want to block some funding.
I understand that addiction is an illness. That said, unlike many illnesses, people do have a choice on if they want risk the high probability of becoming addicted to hard drugs.
Because of this I don't think people who use (hard) drugs are immoral. I just think many are just selfish morons. I am not talking about the person who becomes addicted to heroin because they had a stupid doctor prescribe them pain killers and then cut them off. I am talking about a relatively healthy person deciding one day it would be fun to do just a little bit of meth before they head out to the club. That is a choice and choices have repercussions. Unlike the person who tries to live a healthy life and winds up with a brain tumor or leukemia.
I have a friend who is a very strong libertarian and this is where our conversation always forks. He thinks people should be able to do whatever they want, like hard drugs, and on this we agree. However, when I say that personal freedom should not create a community responsibility like providing rehab for morons who make bad life choices, he does not have much of a counter.
Also, I don't think it's fair or right to lump people with an alcohol addiction in with someone who has a drug addiction. Over 87% of Americans have drank at some point in their lifetime and almost 60% have drank within the last month. Of this group only 7% would qualify to have an Alcohol Use Disorder, which is not even an addiction. Addiction is much less.
On the other hand, 93% of meth or heroin users are not able to just casually try these drugs from time to time like alcohol. Going into it, the odds are obvious that you will have a high probability of addiction. So why should I spend resources on these people when we don't have enough money being spent on other medical issues? We shouldn't.