What is the answer to this?

[daisya]

With the tragic death of Amy Winehouse and people saying she was a victim with many more like her out there involved addicted to drugs and drink, what IS the answer to preventing it, how can it be stopped and how can people take charge of their lives?

Many years ago there were the stresses of life - perhaps even more so with all that went on, but youngsters didn't turn to drugs in numbers like they do now. I'm pretty sure there weren't the huge problems then with addiction as in today's society, it wasn't so prolific so why do people turn to drugs and drink now which we are led to believe by some isn't their fault? Whose fault is it? No one forces them into taking substances or are pushing things into their mouths, why are the people who succumb rarely to blame but are just "vulnerable people" to be pitied?

What is the answer, who has to take responsibility?

[ELVIS68]

They don`t want help, you try to make them go to rehab they say no no no

[sandyRoe]

In the 18th Century Hogarth drew the wretchedness of Gin Lane. Drunk for a penny, blind drunk for 2p. Nothing much changes.

[johnny.5]

drink ?

[johnny.5]

violence?

[Maydup]

If only there were a simple answer eh?

"Who's fault is it?, who's to blame?" ... Like most addictions, the root to drug dependency lies very deep in a person. Have you ever been addicted to anything daisy?

I have. I think if I were tested I'd appear on the positive side of the addictive spectrum. I was a smoker and chose to quit but it wasn't easy. I failed to quit for many years because I refused to be told to do so. Now I struggle with a sugar addiction, and promise myself everyday that tomorrow will be different. Can you see where this is leading to? No I'm not a druggie and never will be, but if I wasn't middle aged and middle class I suppose I might be different.

There but for the grace of hope go I.

I haven't heard anyone suggest that Amy's condition was anyone's fault but her own but many of us can empathise with her.........RIP Amy.

[daisya]

I've never smoked maidup, I like a drink or six but not addicted. I understand what you are saying but often people say "it's not their fault", but we all choose or not to do whatever, don't they realise it comes through choice and with drugs surely people know what they can do or end up doing? How is this all going to end, are people ever going to stop being addicted to drink and drugs or is it just going to continue until most of the population in a few years time are drugged up to their eyeballs? It's a sad world and yes I realise there's no easy answer. Does it take legislation, draconian measures or what? I am at a loss as to see how to stop it aren't you?

[Maydup]

At a loss I agree but perhaps a little less pesimistic in thinking that it'll affect most of the population in the end. :-)

Most addicts are very troubled for one reason or another and are still in the minority thankfully.

[daisya]

Certainly does blondie, but would they take it? When you see the destructiveness of drugs and drink it's so terrible to know what some of them will end up like - the lost youth I guess, if only they knew...

[pastafreak]

> don't they realise it comes through choice and with drugs surely people know what they can do or end up doing<

Do you really think the average 20 year-old thinks that way? I certainly doubt they would. That's the age that believes they will never die...or it will never happen to them....whatever 'it' may be. Drugs are far more widely available,and,more significantly-there is more income to spend on them.
By the time the drugs have taken hold-it's too late. It's both physical and mental...and must be so difficult to shake.
Of course many try drugs...and then move on. They are they lucky ones who,for whatever reason,are not prone to addictions.

[NOX]

Sometimes people take drugs to blot out terrible pain and awful repetition of things that go around and around in their heads which they can make no sense of and can't deal with and most importantly feel they can't alter. I certainly took drugs for that reason, and at the time I considered it very much like taking a painkiller for a headache- it numbed my pain so I welcomed it. It does however make you often a terrible people to live with. What I think would make the greatest difference is if we could eradicate the other social demons that we have of abuse, poverty, lack of educaiton- all of which frequently go hand in hand. We would hopefully then achieve a situaiton where kids felt valued, had something constructive to do, earned a wage of which they could be proud etc and were nurtured in a family that wasnt already placed under huges stresses because of the aforesaid problems.
Certainly I would not have been able to quit drink and drugs had I not had monumental support, which was utterly lacking in my own hometown environment. This is a social problem which cuts to the very heart of our society, the drug abuse is just a symptom of peole unable to deal with their pain or find a worthwhile place within it.

[Maydup]

^ Best answer NOX - respect.