LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS! –
Mar. 18, 2019 – The number one cause of addiction stigma is the fact that drugs are criminalized. Criminalization is a huge problem. We don’t lock people up with diabetes when they eat a donut, or lock depressed people up when they are sad, therefore we cannot criminalize people for having an addiction.
Other barriers include people being afraid of addiction. Why do I think people are afraid of addiction? Because people are afraid of losing control. This is the same reason why there is a stigma against obese people, because we stigmatize what we fear. We fear that we could become a slave to drinking or drugs. We all have a natural human tendency to stigmatize people that are different. It’s not as easy to stigmatize people when we are not criminalizing them.
