do you drink cofee? or beer? or smoke? or take advil when you have a headache? how do you feel about prescription medication?
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Mandantory Drug Tests
- Thread starter sandmangeck
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do you drink cofee? or beer? or smoke? or take advil when you have a headache? how do you feel about prescription medication?
Whatever doesn't kill you, will make you stronger, as blunt as this seems, you will overcome, I wish you well man ; )
alcohol is a slippery slope i choose not to tread on. most people dont know where to draw the line. the "buzz" concept people talk of slurs the lines way too much. the guy that says 1-2 is fine MAY have a point. but that guy often argues that 3 isnt such a far jump. 10 later, that guy is running over children. obviously thats steeped in hyperbole, but it happens. the outcome may be different every time. he may grab a couple beers after work. come home and have a couple more. then beat the hell out of his children.
very rarely you find the guy that can draw a steadfast line, and i have an ounce of respect for that guy.
for the rest of the drunkards, they are the on the other side of my line. the 1 or 2 and quit guy is standing on it slowly falling backwards.
We used to tell the clients something along those lines.
I get what you're saying on this, but the problem is addiction is primarily a psychological issue. As I said earlier, the brain rewires itself. You don't choose to become an addict, but you do choose to continue to use the drugs & alcohol.
I know it sounds like a paradox, but what the addict doesn't know how to do is change their thought process to live a life without drugs & alcohol. What the counselors do, is provide them with the tools they need to help them stay off those things.
Technically speaking, addiction is incureable. This is why once you're an addict, you're always an addict. . You could be in recovery for a decade or more, but if you have that one drug or drink, you could and more than likely will go into relapse. All too often people think "I've got this crap beat" and have a drink/drug and they're right back to square one again. Including the old behaviors to obtain the drug.
I'm not sure if I'm fully understanding what you're getting at in the later part of your paragraph. Those in treatment do have to pay a bill. They don't get a free ride. Granted in some places insurance will help cover some of the costs of a residential treatment program, but most outpatient facilities I know of don't take insurance. Part of the logic behind that is it helps teach them financial responsibility. Personally, if they ever mandated drug testing for welfare, they should also implement mandatory, low cost/subsidized counseling as a stipulation for obtaining it or at least to remaining on it.
I agree with you 100% on this.
Fortunately, more and more counties are implementing drug courts for the very reasons you mentioned. IIRC, the idea behind it is, if you weren't on drugs or addicted to them, then you more than likely wouldn't have done what you did to put yourself in that situation.
The only problem per say with incarceration is, they don't provide you with treatment. It's just a place to detox and punish. Without the aid of treatment, the addict will come right back out of jail and repeat their old behaviors. Unless they implement treatment programs in the jails/prisons the problem is not really getting fixed. Remember, with addiction you will still seek out and engage the substance/behaviors regardless of any negative consequences they have.
Not saying this is how you think, but many people have the misconception that detoxification is treatment and because someone detoxed they will kick the habit. It doesn't work that way.
i occasionally will have a sugary starbucks. i am straight edge, so i dont drink, smoke, partake in any drug use or engage in promiscuous sexual activity.
i will take ibuprofen if i cant stand up. and i never take pain meds or anything that will alter my mental state. z-pak for a sinus infection isnt going to make me loopy.
i half agree. what doesnt kill you will either make you stronger or cripple you for life.
I usually grab a couple after work, then have a couple more at home, then roll over and fall asleep on the couch
Your posts in this thread imply otherwise. Seeing the world in such black and white terms reeks of naivety.
I can have my, "happy-go-lucky denial ridden gray area", you can keep your, "unrealistic and impractical black and white area." I know which one works in the real world. So keep standing your ground.
If the world is all black and white, the guy who has one beer is just as bad as the guy who has ten beers, whos just as bad as the guy who has ten beers and mows a child down driving home drunk. I tend to see a difference between all three. I guess thats just being, "happy-go-lucky" though.
Edit- Sonic Assassin, what makes your mind altering drink of choice (yes, that sugar and caffeine laden coffee is mind altering
) different from another mans mind-altering chemical of choice? With my shades of grey, I can see the difference. How does it sit with your black and white view on things?i agree with this. my room mate is a recovered alcoholic. shes slowly coming to grips with the idea that she is an addict.
you cant say drugs made a person do this, therefore they should only be punished for the drug use. you're taking the consequence out of it. they learn absolutely nothing from their mistakes.
id say detoxing from hard drugs is a decent punishment. they got themselves into it, they should have to forcibly fall out of it. they get to feel the pain that they have imparted on everyone around them.
anyone who goes through that sort of agony and then gets BACK on the hooch is not fit for the earth. that person needs to be sent to the moon. you touch the stove, you get burnt. it hurts, you heal. you never touch it again. anyone who goes back for the stove needs to be put in a padded room.
I usually grab a couple after work, then have a couple more at home, then roll over and fall asleep on the couch
thats completely fine and legal, so long as you know that you are walking a fine line and could potentially become dangerous.
if you go your entire life and not harm anyone with your alcohol use, then great. you dodged a bullet. thats what the american system wants. people buying and using alcohol to their enjoyment and luckily never causing problems. money is still made, people are in some state of happy.
but i ask you this, have you ever gone a week or so without a drink? you may just realize you dont need it. walking a mile, if you will.
and before you retort that i should try your situation, i remind you again that i was an object of alcohol abuse. ive already been there.
I'm in the same boat. Actually currently am. But that doesn't make me think I'm the greatest purest person, and everyone else is just crazy people that don't know what they're doing and should be eliminated.
Childhood ended at around 12 until recently, I'd say your no worse off than anyone else, now or in the past.
Sonic Assassin, what makes your mind altering drink of choice (yes, that sugar and caffeine laden coffee is mind altering
the amount of sugar and caffeine it would require for me to cause harm to myself or another, or impede on anyone else's rights as an american is astounding. the people who claim to be addicted to caffeine must run it intravenous in their sleep.
and i dont drink coffee all that often. soda is my personal cross to bare.
I'm actually a home brewer - I enjoy the flavour and texture of a well crafted beer rather than the effect of too much alcohol. Getting drunk hasn't appealed to me for maybe ten years or more. (I also roast my own coffee and have a fair whisky collection as well, it's not just beer).
I would never suggest that anyone live their life in a certain way. Drink beer, don't drink beer, completely up to you. As long as your choices don't affect me it's none of my business.
LOLWAT?
my superiority complex doesnt stem from my parents sucking, its from the realization that they did those things and it was perfectly normal. society has gotten to a point where thats all ok, and that makes me sick.
purity? thats my personal decision.
If it doesn't stem from your parents, stop bringing them up. I don't think anyone would say Alcohol abuse, and leaving your child is ok so I don't know where you got that from.
*Yawn*
I'm just gonna be blunt because I'm pressed for time and quiet tired. I'm about a semester away from a Masters degree with an emphasis on addictions and have also worked in the field for a few years. I get paid to talk about this stuff with people and am quite good at what I do. So, I'll tell you what, when you get an education in this stuff and work in the field, then you can tell me all about the scientific facts behind what addiction is and isn't and how it effects the behavior of those addicted. Oh that's right, you "were on the victim end" of addiction. Living with and around addicts, and being victimized by them is still vastly different than actually being an addict. Oh and the reason I'm in the field I'm in is because I am an addict and have also been on both ends of the spectrum. Until you can back up your opinion with some scientific fact about addiction, do me and others here a favor and zip it. Because you know very little about it.
I also said, its the users fault they did the drugs, it's not their fault they became an addict. There's a huge difference. They became addicted because of a poor choice they made to initially do the drugs, but after that, their brain changed. They did not voluntarily choose to be an addict. Get it now or do I have to break it down even further for you?
You say things like these people should be wiped off the face of the Earth. I have to ask you, what type of human being are you that would wish things like this on other human beings. It sounds to me like you have a massive inferiority complex.
Your logic about "only the strong survive" is extremely faulty and selfish. It may work in the animal kingdom, but we're human beings. We are supposed to be the most intelligent species of animal on the planet. Perhaps, just perhaps, "the strongest" in our species case is at an intellectual level rather than a physical one?
Either way, I'm done talking to you on this topic, because there is no rationalizing with people that don't have open minds. Yours is IMO clearly closed because you refuse to think any rationale other than yours is correct. Have a good day and I hope karma bitch slaps you right in the face.
You'd be surprised at how little it can take to impede on someone elses life.
Say you have your coffee, do whatever it is you're doing, as the caffeine is starting to wear off, you go for a drive, due to the after effects of that caffeine, your reactions are a fraction slower.....you hit a child that you would've otherwise avoided?
Obviously a very intentionally improbable scenario, but not impossible.
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