Dope, Inc. - Part 1: History of Britain's First Opium War
This is the setting for what follows below: narcotics are pouring in from abroad through a well-organized, efficient group of smugglers. One-fifth of the population abuses drugs, an epidemic surpassing any known since the Great Plagues. Not only the poor, but the wealthy and the children of the wealthy have succumbed. Within the nation, organized crime displays its drug profits without shame, ruling local governments, and threatening the integrity even of national government. None of their opponents is safe from assassins, not even the chief of state. Law enforcement is in shambles. The moral fiber of the nation has deteriorated past the danger point.
And one of the leading dope-traffickers writes to his superiors abroad, "As long as this country maintains its drug traffic, there is not the slightest possibility that it will ever become a military threat, since the habit saps the vitality of the nation." (1)
The description is familiar, but we are not writing of America in 1978, but China in 1838, on the eve of the first Opium War, when Great Britain landed troops to compel China to ingest the poison distributed by British merchants.
While I definitely think the drug thing is horrific and downright wrong, it is the people who CHOOSE to do the drugs that causes the demand. I cannot entirely blame the perpetrator in this respect. The people are weak and clearly tempted to transgress in the worst ways possible. Such is also the case with prostitution and pornography--no customers and no women to pose or offer service, no more problem. The power is and always has been with the people: they need only take control of themselves to assert it.
from drug abuse comes about as a result of drugs being illegal. No one would need to steal to keep up a drug habit if the drugs were cheap. There would be no innocents shot in gang violence because gangs would not be involved in the drug trade. Billions spent in interdiction could be spent on more productive ventures. And millions of people would not spend a life behind bars because of their weakness for a particular drug.
12-step programs focus on individual's coming to grips with their problems. The first step is to admit they have a problem with addiction, but then they seek God's help to overcome it. In this way 12-step takes a flaw and uses it to help an individual become a better person.
Addictions can be to drugs, sex, food, etc... In the big picture, I believe that humans use things to control the way they feel. An addict is unhappy and drinks/smokes/has sex to make himself feel better. A more mature approach might be to change our behavior and avoid the things that make us unhappy. But the addict gets caught up in the cycle of abuse and doesn't come to a more mature understanding. He just continues to satisfy the ever increasing craving, which soon becomes his major source of unhappiness. They might try to give up their addiction, but they find they cannot do it:
"What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate...
"So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
"For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.
"For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.
"Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me...
"Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?"
I believe that addiction, as with all human weakness, can be used to bring one closer to God because when we confront our weaknesses we are forced to see that we cannot make it on our own.
"Blessed are they who are poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs".
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"Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly."