Drug myths and realities

About the year ago, World magazine interviewed Theodore Dalrymple, who wrote a book called Romancing Opiates based on his experience as a prison doctor and hospital psychiatrist. He tossed everything I thought I knew about heroin upside-down. I saw heroine as highly addictive, difficult to withdraw from without medical assistance, and a huge cause of criminal behavior.

Dalrymple, instead, says that the addict has actively worked hard to become hooked on the drug. This is no sudden, one-time event that grabs the poor victim. It takes months of drug use before becoming addicted to heroin. These people are not victims; they actively create their problems.

He also says that withdrawal from opiates is far easier than we are led to believe. Heroin addiction is a simple medical condition, much easier than withdrawal from alcohol. The reason we believe it is so difficult to kick comes from constant misrepresentations in books and films.

Dalrymple sees great value in religious conversion for these people. This internal change is an important way to alter behavior. He states that many leading textbooks dealing with addiction medicine agree that religious conversion effects changes.

I was also misled when it came to the connection between crime and addiction. I had always heard that the victim of heroin was forced to turn to crime because he or she needed the money to continue buying the drug. However, he flatly states that most heroin addicts have long criminal records before they ever take heroin. The criminal behavior exists before the addiction.

Dalrymple is not a fan of legalization. For one thing, criminal behavior already exists, so legalizing the drug will not change the criminal behavior. In addition, he says dealers will not become respectable members of society when the drugs are legalized. A third reason he opposes legalization is that some drugs will continue to be restricted, thus continuing a black market. He points to the Netherlands, a very liberal country with regard to drugs, saying it is crime-ridden.

The interview concluded with his number one solution. We must stop telling addicts that they are suffering due to events beyond their control. This is the message given to them by professionals who have a vested interest in being in control of the addicts’ lives. The users themselves buy into this so they can avoid responsibility. Instead, they must see they are creators of the problem, not victims.