[cf498]

The equivalent of an allergy test is not optional if you consume street drugs of an unknown composition. Its like never sharing anything that goes into your veins. Getting HIV or Hep-C isnt an unfortunate side effect either, its people making a stupid mistake despite knowing better. You dont have to get HIV or even HEP-C as an addict just as you dont have to OD. Make the effort and follow the appropriate precautions or you are playing Russian roulette.

As unfortunate as it is, but normally people who OD are those that no longer care if they do. There are freak exceptions of course, like tainted or mixed up batches where even a allergy test can kill you, but those arent happening regularly to individual users.

People are just risking it, and its a very human thing to do. You can see the same behavior with the failure to use protection during sex. People should know better, but some people still risk it and are then faced with the unfortunate consequences.

edit: Dont get me wrong this isnt about victim blaming, but not promoting the myth that these things are just out of peoples control like the weather. You can be a heroin addict without catching HIV or Hep-C and with a reasonable level of care you are not going to end up needing Narcan regularly. You already fucked up by becoming an addict, there is no reason to also OD or catch something. Telling people that these are just inherent side effects to being an addict just makes it easier on people to excuse themselves for forgoing basic safety precautions. ODing regularly is not something normal, even for an addict. Its the result of being reckless.

[mikeash]

Eating healthy food and exercising regularly isn’t optional in this sense either, and yet people avoid it. Sunscreen isn’t optional if you’re light skinned and go out in the sun, but people often skip it. More examples abound.

You can talk about what people should do all you want, it doesn’t change anything.

My main point is that, as a health problem, drug addiction doesn’t look that much different from a lot of other health problems. Personal choices greatly influence your chances of acquiring it, your ability to beat it, and your odds of dying from it. This applies to many other medical conditions as well, but attitudes toward addicts are vastly different.

[cf498]

>Eating healthy food and exercising regularly isn’t optional in this sense either, and yet people avoid it. Sunscreen isn’t optional if you’re light skinned and go out in the sun, but people often skip it. More examples abound.

And if you are an adult chances are you know better and those arent unfortunate sideffects either. Its precautions you have to take or risk the consequences. If you get a sunburn you are not a poor victim of the sun but an idiot who skipped the necessary step of using sunscreen. As a result you are risking skin cancer. If you dont brush your teeth you get caries. It is similarly absurd to say that caries are the unfortunate sideeffects of eating. They are the reaction to your behavior of not brushing your teeth as you should. Wearing your belt in a car isnt optional either just because you have airbags. The human race, and with them you, know of what precautions you have to take to avoid certain fates. The higher the risk, the less optional they become. You might spend a day in the sun without sunscreen, the increased risk of skincancer might however be minimal if its not a regular occurrence. The risk of sharing a needle or the same watercup during cooking however is just to grave for being stupid.

Your point seems to be, that people make mistakes. I agree, but they dont have to make mistakes where they know better. There is a difference between an "ups" mistake and just a stupidly destructive choice. Unless there is a severe lack of information they chose to do something stupid for little to none benefit. Thats no mistake, thats action and reaction where you decided to no longer care for the reaction. It is people making the unfortunate decision to go from seeing themselves as addicts to seeing themselves as junkies where the tomorrow doesnt matter anymore. Sure, you can argue that there are clean people with a similar disregard for their future. Just pick people who actually live after the motto "live fast and die young". Or who are eating or drinking themselves to death. They however are making a problematic choice too.

>My main point is that, as a health problem, drug addiction doesn’t look that much different from a lot of other health problems.

I kind of agree. However different to being an addict, being a junkie is a separate kind of problem stemming from deeply destructive choices you make consciously or unconsciously. You can become an addict, there arent however good reasons and rarely good excuses for becoming a junkie. I think a vastly different approach has to be taken to help addicts then ro help people who see themselves as junkies. If you are ODing regularly, changes are you should be treated as a suicide risk who lost your will of self preservation. I dont disagree that there are other people who dont use illegal drugs where the same applies, but thats why we as a society run mental health emergency wards. Differently put, if you are ODing regularly or no longer care that you share syringes you are having a second much more dangerous problem next to your deeply unhealthy habit of injecting unknown illegal drugcocktails to escape whatever. You are having a death wish.