Opinion

Society’s issue with addiction goes beyond the substance

As someone from a working-class community in Dublin, I’m well aware of the dangers of addiction and my heart goes out to the family of Tracy Guy in Omagh, having succumbed to alcohol addiction, the biggest killer in Ireland in terms of substance abuse. Her unfortunate passing has created a much-needed conversation on what we can do for those suffering from addiction. What I feel though when we call for more services to deal with addiction issues is a misunderstanding from wider society on the cause of why so many in today’s world are seeking solace within from outside sources. Alcohol by itself is not addictive, and neither are the many recreational drugs out there, including heroin. Many across Ireland and Britain today having suffered major accidents will be given high doses of diamorphine – medically pure heroin – far better than the stuff addicts receive on the streets, yet the vast majority of those in hospital receiving, what is essentially, heroin, to help with their pain will not become addicted on leaving hospital.

The issue with addiction goes beyond the substance. The endorphin circuits in our brain, that allow us to feel love and bonding, develop through childhood and your environment, and not through genetics. A study done on children following them to adulthood (Adverse Childhood Study) found those who suffered physical and/or sexual abuse as children or those who had an aggressive parent(s) who were neglected and deprived as children of love and affection etc were four times more likely to become addicts into adulthood as the receptors in their brain that allow them to feel love and bonding develops differently in childhood making them more susceptible to addiction into adulthood. It’s important to understand the issue in society isn’t so much the substances, but more the disconnection within it, that is causing so many to connect with outside substances. A survey done in the 1980s found when asked what number of people they had in their lives that they classed as a real friend. The common answer given was five. A similar survey was done recently with the most common answer given being zero. This is a damning indictment on ourselves as a society and this answer is the genesis on where we need to begin in really tackling addiction, not to mention the ever-increasing depression and suicide in our communities.

Gabor Maté a leading voice on addiction says the question must not be “why the addiction, but why the pain”. All of these drugs are pain killers. So instead of continuing to ostracise and marginalise those seeking pain relief from their own lives, we need to be looking closer within in seeking the reason for and thus the remedy to our addiction crisis. The issue isn’t with individual failings, but is societal.

PATRICK DONOHOE


Clondalkin, Dublin 22

Latest example of media’s skewed view on abortion

On February 27, Nolan Live made a disgraceful propaganda push for abortion on demand in the six counties. This attack on the human rights of Irish children and British children was made possible by the Free State repealing the Eighth Amendment to the 1937 Free State constitution. On March 2 The Times reported that Leo Varadkar called for abortion services in the six counties. The double standard is off the Richter scale. Almost a century ago his political movement fought a civil war to not set policy in the six counties yet Varadkar wants to set policy in the six counties in order to commit atrocious abuses of human rights. The media has hardly been blameless in these wretched affairs. CNS News reported that Planned Parenthood has carried out 6,802,782 abortions in the US. Marie Stopes annual reports show that they aborted more than 2,800,000 children in 2013 and more than 3,400,000 in 2015. The Abortion Worldwide Reports on Johnston’s Archive show that 5,437,500 abortions occurred in America between 1975 and 1979 and that there were 5,957,220 abortions during the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Ben Kiernan’s The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia states that 1,871,000 were killed in Democratic Cambodia while Patrick Heuveline’s The Demographic Analysis of Mortality in Cambodia states that 3,420,000 were killed in Democratic Cambodia. Even if the higher estimate is accepted, it is still clear that the abortion industry are far bigger mass murderers than Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge ever were. If we had a media that was hostile and partisan to the establishment then people would already be conscious of the aforementioned fact.

ÉAMONN MacGRIANNA


Belfast BT11 

Interesting times ahead

With the Brexit debacle and the changing demographics reigniting the debate around national reunification the obvious questions arise as to how the unionist/loyalist political and paramilitary constituency will react. The inevitability of Irish reunification is now plain for all to see except for the nay sayers.

The most interesting question to my mind is once the reason d’être of unionism (the maintenance of the Union) is cast aside in the new Ireland, where will unionism and loyalism go? 

Will unionism morph into an Irish Conservative party representing the sectional business interests of the Protestant/loyalist community? Will it contest seats in areas such as Donegal or Dublin looking to grow its influence outside of its traditional Ulster heartland?

Will loyalism simply wither and die or fade into the west Brit mentality?

Will we see the DUP-UUP merge with other Irish Conservative parties?

These are interesting days.

Personally, I await reunification as a means to have real politics emerge on the island of Ireland which will come to the fore once the sectarian nature of the northern state is dismantled. With the national question finally settled we can push for a socialist alternative to all the neo-liberal austerity which has crushed society here over the last decade.

FRA HUGHES


Belfast BT14

Fighting knife crime

Like everyone else I am appalled by the recent spate of knife crimes in England and the tragic loss of life. I would support those who view it as a national emergency. In the US last year 50,000 people died from drug abuse – 90 per cent of which come across the southern border. President Trump declares a national emergency on the border and is laughed at. The Obama administration stated that Isis was a problem that would not be solved in one generation.  

Fortunately he forgot to tell Putin and Trump who destroyed Isis in one year.

Sadiq Khan also declared knife crime in London as a problem that would span generations. It is unfortunately true that the law is on the side of the knife wielding maniac, rather than the law-abiding citizen. We even call it the criminal justice system rather than the victims’ justice system. The first duty of the government is to protect its citizens. If the don’t they have failed and need to be replaced. We need a government with a can-do attitude, fighting crime rather than those that think they can face down vicious criminals by simply using harsh language.

BRIAN GIBSON


Comber, Co Down

Lack of rights for unborn

It was interesting reading the full-page advocacy for a new ethical national republic of equality and its defence of a wish list of rights that will be defended (February 2), however, the lack of rights protection for the unborn shoots these equality constructs to pieces. 

Will these trade unionists defend Catholic doctors’ consciences or peaceful pro-life prayer vigils? Their rights will be metaphorically thrown under the bus to protect this new state intolerance, so don’t hold your breath.

JDP McALLION


Clone, Co Tyrone