Cheaper Is Not The Answer For Addicts

I spend every Wednesday evening from 7 to 8 at a meeting for parents of young adults with substance abuse problems. The stories are emotional and it is literally a safety net for parents who have felt isolated during the struggle to 1) keep their children alive and 2) teach them how to live without the drugs and/or alcohol that runs their lives.

I am luckily not in the group whose children switched to heroin from oxycontin because it was cheaper. Being unable to purchase the drugs needed to keep the addiction going may have forced these kids to seek treatment before putting needles in their arms. Plus it is estimated that addicts spend 90% of their day thinking about their next fix.

Listening to Al Gore on Meet the Press yesterday it occurred to me that his radical goal of becoming oil free in ten years is similar to the radical goals addicts must make. In order to break addiction you have to give it up. No alcoholic can have champagne for New Year's. No pot head can simply reduce his bong use to mornings only. Getting cheaper drugs doesn't work. It just extends the agony.

It's the same with using oil for energy. We spend too much time figuring out how much gasoline to buy or what thermostat setting is best, where to find the cheapest energy, how to afford it based on the number of hours worked/miles driven/number of drivers.

The best way to become an ex-addict is the radical way: Give It Up. It's painful in the beginning. Relapses occur. Some don't make it. But for those who do the outcome is joyous and without fail the addict says s/he never wants to feel like that again.

If we can expect this from 15 to 25 year olds we ought to expect it from ourselves.