To the editor,
Re: True harm reduction is saying ‘no’, Letters, Oct. 9.
Societally/socially neglecting and therefore failing people struggling with debilitating addiction should not be an acceptable or preferable political, economic or religious/morality option.
But the more callous politics and politicians that are typically involved with lacking addiction funding/services tend to reflect opposition, however irrational, against making proper treatment available to low- and no-income addicts.
Decades ago, I, while sympathetic, also looked down on those who had ‘allowed’ themselves to become heavily addicted to hard drugs. Yet I myself have suffered enough unrelenting PTSD symptoms to have known, enjoyed and appreciated the great release upon consuming alcohol and/or THC.
The unfortunate fact is: the greater the induced euphoria or escape one attains from the self-medicated experience, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their non-self-medicating reality, the more pleasurable that escape will likely be perceived.
In other words: the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while not self-medicating, the greater the need for escape from one’s reality, thus the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.
Especially when the substance abuse is due to past formidable mental trauma, the lasting solitarily suffered turmoil can readily make each day an ordeal unless the traumatized mind is medicated. Not surprising, many chronically addicted people won’t miss this world if they never wake up.
Frank Sterle Jr., White Rock
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