“No civilization has found life tolerable without narcotics or stimulants.” -Will Durant
The recent death of actor Philip Hoffman has pulled the issue of heroin addiction into the forefront of our collective attention. To look at the photo of Philip and his son having fun at a recent Knicks game, in light of this horrific tragedy, is truly gut-wrenching.
Looking through the comments and opinions that have been posted across social networks, I see two general positions: first, there are those who frame the issue of drug addiction in a moral context by maintaining that addiction is purely a choice made by the individual, and little sympathy is issued to the victim of overdose. Drug addiction, so they chatter, is simply the free choice made by an extremely weak-willed and narcissistic person.
On the other side of the aisle, there are those who maintain that addiction is no fault of the individual, but rather, addiction is caused by biological preconditions and exterior societal pressures outside the control of the individual.
In my opinion, addiction is a combination of biological, psychological, and societal factors. All that I know for sure, is that addiction is crushingly sad. I weep for all the broken children, both young and old…
When clouds get in the way…
