We love our addictions

Addictive behavior is any behavior that becomes a major focus of one's life, usually with an adverse outcome. Common addictions include drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, and gambling. One can become addicted to hobbies such as exercise, or to eating. All of them can be destructive, but the ones with the greatest tragic tolls on our society are drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex and gambling because they destroy lives. In my community there is a lot of discussion on the merits of legalizing drugs. Certainly this subject draws public interest. More recently the discussion focuses on the war in raging Mexico between law enforcement, the Mexican military, and feuding drug gangs. Even one of our city councilmen called for a public debate on the issue. While he at no time advocated for the legalization of drugs, he was labeled nonetheless with references to Cheech and Chong. Simultaneously, our state legislators are in Austin, TX fighting for the legalization of gambling on Indian tribal lands because gaming brings in tax revenue. You see, we had an illegal casino in town that was closed down by the state attorney general, and most folks want it opened again, legally. Two addictive behaviors, gambling and drugs abuse, are openly discussed with the intent of feeding another governmental addiction, tax revenue. We have plenty of governmentally sanctioned addictive behaviors already; pornography is protected by the constitution as free speech, tobacco used to be federally subsidized until that became politically untenable, and alcohol continues to be the sacred cow of all addictive behaviors. What is it about Americans that we rush to promote destructive behavior? We have a casino nearby in a race track across the state line in New Mexico. My wife likes the slot machines so I, not so reluctantly, accompany her on occasion. I see a disproportionate number of disabled and elderly patrons sitting at the slot machines and I see people that, well, look poor. One day, while at the casino's conference room for a meeting of the local chamber of commerce (yeah, really, no kidding) I ran into an unemployed high school chum who was entering the casino to see if he could win some money to pay the bills. If ever there was someone who should not go into a casino it was he. Local politicians say that the casino in my town used to generate $60 million a year, I say that it sucked in $60 million from some of the folks who could afford it the least. Now we want to legalize drugs to help put an end to the drug war, a war that America has been waging since my high school days in the 70s, remember That Seventies Show? The rationale is that we can't win the war on drugs, that it costs too much to fight the war on drugs, that it costs too much to treat drug users, it costs too much to punish drug users; therefore we may as well just legalize it, and tax it. Sounds just like the rationale for the 21st Amendment, eh? Well my friends, I am a social worker and I have seen the effects of drug and alchohol abuse. I have seen abused women and children. I have seen crack babies and children with alcohol fetal syndrome. I have seen young men and women permanently crippled by drunk drivers. And of course, I have seen the multiple news stories about drunk drivers killing innocent people. In recent years we had two separate couples of drunk pedestrians killed by drunk drivers at an intersection close to the university and the collection of bars that everyone wants to see developed into an entertainment district. City folks talked about traffic engineering to prevent such accidents. One young lady was leading a petition to build a skywalk over the busy street, that is until she wrapped herself around telephone pole, drunk. Certainly, prohibition caused its share of crime, but it is no worse than the violence we see today. It gets better. In my town, beer is sold at most corner convenience stores, where drunk drivers can buy gasoline. Is that not the most absurd thing you ever heard, buying beer and gasoling at the same cash register. Beer is on sale into the late hours. Who buys beer at midnight? Drunks, thats who, and they don't need more beer. Inevitably, they kill someone on the way home. Here's another cute one, beer runs. You see, some of these drunks don't have money, cause they're stupid, so they steal the beer. We, are so stupid that we sell beer at the gasoline store and we are so stupid that we keep selling beer into the late hours of the night to encourage beer runs. We hear all the lip service about the sexual exploitation of women, but women want the right to choose to be sluts. They want the right engage in the oldest profession in the world. We guys deemed it protected speech so that we wouldn't have to give up their delights. We all know that it's bad. But we defend it, knowing that full well that loose sexual mores tear families apart. You defended Slick Willy, remember him, when he was doing the intern in the oval office. Come on dads and moms, do you really think that this young intern was not smitten by his power, so much so that resistance was futile. Sex is addictive. And when old men prey on little girls, it is deplorable, even moreso if it is the President of the United States. But nooooo, you have to defend pornography and adult entertainment. What about tobacco? Can you name one redeeming value of cigarettes? Yet, until 12 years ago, or so, tobacco companies received some of the largest federal subsidies in history. And the industry received the complicit conspiratorial support of the government. Today, we know that cigarettes are an addictive drug, yet we refuse to let the Food and Drug Administration regulate the industry and the product. Yes, we are a curious bunch in this country. Let me go on the record and say that these addictive behaviors should be banned. I want the government to protect me from myself. Don't let me buy beer at the corner. Don't let me throw my money down the slot machine drain. Public education campaigns are nice, so are toll free help lines, but they are a lame response to serious social ills. In the 70s, car makers started installing seat belts, but we didn't use them until it became the law in 1986. Today, seat belts save lives. Public education campaigns didn't make you use seat belts, the threat of traffic ticket and higher insurance premiums made you use seat belts. It the same with addictive behaviors. People will not spend so much money on alcohol, tobacco, pussy, drugs or slot machines. They will have more money to spend on college tuition to make a smarter generation. What say you?