Sunday Musings – January 14, 2024
There are very few who have been untouched by addiction. CDC reports here were 111,355 overdose deaths in the United States in the 12-month period ending April 2022. In 2022, 73,654 people died from a fentanyl overdose[1] in the US, more than double the amount of deaths from three years prior in 2019. (usafacts.org) I could find no consistent estimates for the number of overdose deaths in the United States for 2023. Alcohol is equally lethal for many. The lowest estimate of alcohol related deaths I could locate for 2022 was 100,000.00. The highest estimated was 140,000. These figures might not include all alcohol related deaths; some may be recorded as liver failure or other illnesses. Some deaths by guns, knives or head trauma are, we know, related to if not caused by excessive alcohol or other addicted/mind altering drugs.
The cause of drug deaths, other than alcohol, is often attributed to those manufacturing and selling of illegal drugs. Lawmakers in many states in the United States want to increase penalties for dealers and often those who use illegal drugs. I worry few legislators will have the courage to oppose such proposals. In the United States and other countries there is a strong belief that punishment in jails and prisons will deter behavior which adversely affects others. This includes those who use, manufacture and/or sell addictive recreational drugs. Alcoholism, if it results in the death of someone is also treated as a criminal offense. Our jails and prisons are filled with such individuals, few of whom will maximize their human potential because of incarceration.
Worldjusticeproject.org reports that around 70% of those leaving prisons in the US will return within 5 years. This means that 30% might change their behavior, die or else get better at avoiding incarceration. There are those with whom I have personally talked who are able to use the jail/prison time to gain or reclaim a life which is not ruled by addiction. This may be because they had a solid set of core values prior to their addiction or someone or some experience in prison empowered their ability to envision a recovery/healing life. Often these are individuals strong enough to avoid accepting the invitation to the violent survival mentality of the jail/prison system. They would have done well in some other protected, safe, healthy environment away from access to additive substances or behavior.
Every day scientific and medical journals report new knowledge about how we humans experience reality and make decisions. We are reminded that the electrical system which is controlled by various chemicals and other biologicals factors enable or prohibit the ability to consider the needs of others. Currently there is considerable research on the use of psychedelics to treat various so called mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, and addiction. Neuroscientists Gul Dolen is studying “the brain’s capacity to learn and retain new information and how MDMA and other psychedelics can be used to induce these moments and unlock the brain’s potential.” (Podcast. The Gray Area with Sean Illing -January 8, 2014). I am particularly intrigued with the results of the experiments with Octopus’ s and how the use of these drugs induced friendly social behavior. I have been following the exciting research with the use of psychedelics in a controlled setting to treat depression and other conditions which have previously been unresponsive to treatment.
Other scientists such as Ashai J D Parsons are also challenging one’s thinking about the functioning of the human body. I highly recommend her book Electrical Systems in the Human Body.
Addiction is not a moral failing. Whether the addiction is to alcohol, other recreational drugs, power, money, sex, things, food, or something else, addiction overrides one’s ability to consider long term consequences or the rights and needs of others – to function as an equal member of the community; the body politic. The addict is powerless to stop it without interventions which open the ability of the brain to envision and experience a reality which is consistent with a healthy, loving social organization.
If prison worked to effectively treat addiction we could, as a community, order a significant percentage of elected politicians to prison until their primary motivation and behavior was the common good and not the compulsive need to be important, retain power, and prove their way of thinking is the right way. Perhaps the same prisons would work well for religious leaders to consider the possibility their religious framework is but one of many possibilities; to the reality that we must either learn to work together as equals or die together as enemies.
It is paradoxical that the same electrical mechanisms – the human brain – is capable of amazing compassion, soul enhancing art and music which opens creative possibility and thinking and can comprehend the magic of complex physics and mathematics. This same brain is also used to plan and justify wars which kill millions and create killers, including addictions, which inhibit the ability to embrace a shared humanity.
If we are truly concerned with creating a more just and loving society, we must embrace what scientists are learning and quit relying on fear based, reactionary approaches which only feed an addictive, economic system which temporarily benefits a few at the expense of many. The so-called judicial system including the prison system is often seduced into being part of such an economic system.
Written January 14, 2024
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
There are very few who have been untouched by addiction. CDC reports here were 111,355 overdose deaths in the United States in the 12-month period ending April 2022. In 2022, 73,654 people died from a fentanyl overdose[1] in the US, more than double the amount of deaths from three years prior in 2019. (usafacts.org) I could find no consistent estimates for the number of overdose deaths in the United States for 2023. Alcohol is equally lethal for many. The lowest estimate of alcohol related deaths I could locate for 2022 was 100,000.00. The highest estimated was 140,000. These figures might not include all alcohol related deaths; some may be recorded as liver failure or other illnesses. Some deaths by guns, knives or head trauma are, we know, related to if not caused by excessive alcohol or other addicted/mind altering drugs.
The cause of drug deaths, other than alcohol, is often attributed to those manufacturing and selling of illegal drugs. Lawmakers in many states in the United States want to increase penalties for dealers and often those who use illegal drugs. I worry few legislators will have the courage to oppose such proposals. In the United States and other countries there is a strong belief that punishment in jails and prisons will deter behavior which adversely affects others. This includes those who use, manufacture and/or sell addictive recreational drugs. Alcoholism, if it results in the death of someone is also treated as a criminal offense. Our jails and prisons are filled with such individuals, few of whom will maximize their human potential because of incarceration.
Worldjusticeproject.org reports that around 70% of those leaving prisons in the US will return within 5 years. This means that 30% might change their behavior, die or else get better at avoiding incarceration. There are those with whom I have personally talked who are able to use the jail/prison time to gain or reclaim a life which is not ruled by addiction. This may be because they had a solid set of core values prior to their addiction or someone or some experience in prison empowered their ability to envision a recovery/healing life. Often these are individuals strong enough to avoid accepting the invitation to the violent survival mentality of the jail/prison system. They would have done well in some other protected, safe, healthy environment away from access to additive substances or behavior.
Every day scientific and medical journals report new knowledge about how we humans experience reality and make decisions. We are reminded that the electrical system which is controlled by various chemicals and other biologicals factors enable or prohibit the ability to consider the needs of others. Currently there is considerable research on the use of psychedelics to treat various so called mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, and addiction. Neuroscientists Gul Dolen is studying “the brain’s capacity to learn and retain new information and how MDMA and other psychedelics can be used to induce these moments and unlock the brain’s potential.” (Podcast. The Gray Area with Sean Illing -January 8, 2014). I am particularly intrigued with the results of the experiments with Octopus’ s and how the use of these drugs induced friendly social behavior. I have been following the exciting research with the use of psychedelics in a controlled setting to treat depression and other conditions which have previously been unresponsive to treatment.
Other scientists such as Ashai J D Parsons are also challenging one’s thinking about the functioning of the human body. I highly recommend her book Electrical Systems in the Human Body.
Addiction is not a moral failing. Whether the addiction is to alcohol, other recreational drugs, power, money, sex, things, food, or something else, addiction overrides one’s ability to consider long term consequences or the rights and needs of others – to function as an equal member of the community; the body politic. The addict is powerless to stop it without interventions which open the ability of the brain to envision and experience a reality which is consistent with a healthy, loving social organization.
If prison worked to effectively treat addiction we could, as a community, order a significant percentage of elected politicians to prison until their primary motivation and behavior was the common good and not the compulsive need to be important, retain power, and prove their way of thinking is the right way. Perhaps the same prisons would work well for religious leaders to consider the possibility their religious framework is but one of many possibilities; to the reality that we must either learn to work together as equals or die together as enemies.
It is paradoxical that the same electrical mechanisms – the human brain – is capable of amazing compassion, soul enhancing art and music which opens creative possibility and thinking and can comprehend the magic of complex physics and mathematics. This same brain is also used to plan and justify wars which kill millions and create killers, including addictions, which inhibit the ability to embrace a shared humanity.
If we are truly concerned with creating a more just and loving society, we must embrace what scientists are learning and quit relying on fear based, reactionary approaches which only feed an addictive, economic system which temporarily benefits a few at the expense of many. The so-called judicial system including the prison system is often seduced into being part of such an economic system.
Written January 14, 2024
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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