heroin "addiction"

Excerpts from a fascinating interview by Marvin Olasky in World with Theodore Dalrymple on his new book, Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy...

Olasky calls Dalrymple's book, "an extraordinary look at heroin addiction...based on [his] experience as a prison doctor and hospital psychiatrist".

He explains that heroin is not highly addictive, withdrawal from it does not require medical assistance, addicts do not become criminals to feed their habits, and heroin addiction is often a spiritual problem. His observations concur with the experience of some Christian anti-addiction programs such as Teen Challenge. Dalrymple argues that many addicts have learned to game the medical system, and many doctors make things worse by medicalizing a moral issue.

WORLD: What is the standard, orthodox view of heroin addition?

DALRYMPLE: I think it is this. The man who becomes the addict stumbles across heroin somehow or other, takes a few doses, is "hooked," has to continue to avoid the dreadful symptoms consequent upon stopping. He finds himself unable to pay for the heroin he needs so he commits crimes, and then, if he is lucky, finds medical assistance for his condition which consists largely of a substitute drug. Without assistance, he is doomed; with it he is saved. All this is nonsense....

Dalrymple has some interesting comments on withdrawal from heroin and some good but somewhat confused discussion of drug legalization. (He sees it as a mixed bag in terms of practical consequences, but also talks about a black market still existing even if drugs were legal.)

Click here to read the rest of the interview...