Reply #78: It needs to be recognized as ILLNESS......

[LetsThink]

...Addiction is an illness. It needs to be diagnosed and treated as such. There is a mixture of genetic and environmental triggers for some people that predispose them to various forms of addiction (like alcoholism, for instance) just as other people are predisposed to high cholesterol, etc.

Decriminalize, diagnose and treat this group of illnesses. Think what a savings that could produce in terms of lives saved, crime reduction, etc.