I was researching addiction and looking through some government studies and came across a paperthat expounded this theory. This paper got me mad. While searching for copyright info (it is in the public domain) I found that it was written in 1980. Ah, That makes sense now.
“The most important precipitating factor in narcotic addiction is degree of access to narcotic drugs.”
Quote continued “This factor, for example, explains in part why narcotic addiction rates are higher in the urban slums than in middle-class suburbs and why the incidence of narcotic addiction approached the zero level during World War II when normal commercial channels in the illicit narcotics trade were disrupted.
Thus, no matter how great the cultural attitudinal tolerance for addictive practices is, or how strong individual personality predispositions are, nobody can become addicted to narcotic drugs without access to them. Hence the logic of a law enforcement component in prevention. ” End Quote.
On one hand it makes a crazy kind of twisted sense. If you put me on a desert island with no one there I might not use drugs. But any good addict will find the opium and cannibus plants…I think to say that the major reason people become addicted to drugs is simply because it is there is ludicrous.
This is the sort of reasoning that led to an enforcement mentality rather than a prevention mentality. Law enforcement to curb drug use did not work then and it does not work now. Please hear me, I am not bashing those working in law enforcement. There is just too much money in drugs to ever halt the supply. Why not reduce the demand?
There are tons of studies that show prevention programs in schools work. Where are they? They just do not have the same support as the law enforcement mentality. We have the ability to dramatically decrease the number of people who become addicted.