Barry Artiste Op/Ed
So Doctors seem to be so unclear on the concept of the meaning of disease. I have so many problems with this Crap! The term "Disease" is either Infectious or Non Infectious. That is the medical term for Disease and no other.
No where is addiction, which is behavioural a disease. MDs trying to change the term Disease to encompass every little ailment will open up a legal can of worms in the courts, resulting in everyone and their dog, pleading in front of a judge that their criminal actions was caused by a disease! Of course MDs want lots and lots of taxpayers money to further this new Catchword of the Millenia, guaranting lots and lots of Research Grants and Pharmaceutical companies making oodles of money for themselves!
Can you imagine Rapists and Child Molesters pleading they have "Uncontrollable Urges and Addicted to Little Girls and Horny Disease"!
Murderers pleading they have an "Addiction to Blood Lust" disease in that they need to kill people!
Can you imagine Criminals pleading they have "Money Disease" and "We want your Stuff Addictions"!
I say leave disease terminology in it's present form. Gambling is not a Disease nor is Drug Addiction, it never came naturally or all of a sudden on people. They chose it! They knew the Risks! To think they didn't know the difference otherwise leads me to believe perhaps they are Brain dead!
There is mental illness and behavioural issues brought on by accidents, disease or genetics. But when Normal healthy people with even a semblance of intelligence of a insect willingly put poison into their arms or body, or insaitable Greed drives them to gamble, after all Gamblers would not gamble if it were not for Paper Money! I know of no Gamblers who would risk their life savings or kneecaps for a chance to score some Charmin Toilet Paper!
I say screw em, leave Disease as a term in its intention Infectious and Non Infectious, otherwise we open ourselves up to a legal mess of excuses our Nancy Courts and Laws are ill prepared to deal with!
One can be sure if this Disease Excuse was used in courts, Al qaeda's addiction to Box Cutters and Flying planes into Office towers killing thousands would be an attributed to being driven to have "Sex addiction" and "Martyr Syndrome" in order to get to some of them Virgins in Paradise.
Time to stop all this Fu*king "World Nancyism" and call a "Spade a Spade"!
Treat Addiction as a Disease. MDs tell Victoria
B.C. doctors are calling for the provincial government to formally recognize addiction as a chronic disease — and provide public funding to deal with it.
The call comes in a report being released today by the B.C. Medical Association that says more than 400,000 British Columbians suffer from some form of addiction.
These people are struggling to get help when they need it, the report says, because of a lack of resources or the high cost of treatment. This in turn puts strains on emergency departments, workplaces and families.
“For many years, addiction was seen as a personal failure rather than an illness,” said Dr. Shao-Hua Lu, an addictions psychiatrist. “One tends to focus on the terrible losses in the Downtown Eastside, but in terms of overall cost, alcohol, gambling and tobacco probably costs society much more.”
The BCMA says alcohol, gambling and drug addictions, which are often linked to some form of mental illness, are akin to heart disease and diabetes and the province should treat them the same way. While treating a gambling addict the same as a cancer patient would add new costs to the system, the BCMA argues it would ultimately save money by preventing the costly results of untreated addictions.
In 2002, the estimated cost of treating substance abuse in B.C. was more than $6 billion, or $1,500 per person per year, with alcohol, gambling and tobacco taking the biggest toll on society, said Lu, who is clinical practice director for the new Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.
According to the report, one in 10 visits to Vancouver General Hospital’s emergency room is for substance abuse, while B.C. uses enough hospital beds for substance abuse care to fill Kelowna General Hospital every day for a year.
The report suggests 120,000 British Columbians have a high probability of alcohol dependence, with 33,000 addicted to illicit drugs and 31,000 with a severe gambling problem.
Tags: Canada | Europe | British Columbia | Vancouver | Victoria | Crime | Disease | United States | World | addiction | loopholes
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