Posted by jojo on July 20, 2001, at 13:19:35
In reply to Re: Effexor stuff » jojo, posted by Elizabeth on July 19, 2001, at 11:03:54
"RE: "(some authorities, notably Goodman & Gilman, recommend dropping it from the medical
vocabulary altogether)."That seems to imply that they don't know what it "means", i.e., have an acceptable definition, either.
> I don't think that I know what an "addict" is anyway.
"I think I do. And I don't like seeing the word tossed around as an insult."
If it were used more, possibly to apply to everyone who is pharmacologically dependent, such as diabetics or people dependant on anti rejection drugs, it might loose its pejorative power, similar to the
emasculation ; >) of the word "fuck".If you do use the word, what do you understand it to mean?
> If we DO consider these people "drug addicts", maybe our government will be
forced to consider their War on Drugs in a more rational way, especially if someone close to them
suffers from one of these "addictions".That's possible, but I don't think it would be intellectually honest or medically
pragmatic to drop the distinction between drug addiction and pharmacological
dependence -- even though it might be politically beneficial. There are so many good
reasons for dropping the war on [some] drugs, we really don't need to invent reasons.
:-)Certainly there are so many good reasons for dropping it, but as they haven't been effectual for the past
….. what? Certainly before the death of Len Barney, around 1983, when the War was declared. Possibly since prohibition, or the passage of the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914, or the Federal Marijuana Tax Act, in 1937. This is not about being "intellectually honest" or "medically pragmatic", it is about politics, the art of the possible. Part of that art is forcing one's opponents, and I use that word advisedly, into an untenable position, which is what I am suggesting. Anyway, what is the distinction between "drug addiction" and "pharmacological dependence"? Pleasure? Also, do you know anything of the replacement of the word "euphoria", meaning "normal mood", by "euthymic", which I guess means "not abnormal mood"? Could the meaning of "normal" be the problem?
poster:jojo
thread:17065
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010720/msgs/71067.html