Can we please stop devaluing the lives of addicts and just treat them with proven science?

[antigone382]

57. Well, I think there was also a difference in scale in the 1980's and I don't want to minimize that.

Bigotry against LGBT folks is also a huge factor. While addiction stigma has its own associated bigotries when it comes to class, ethnicity, gender expression, and orientation, I think that aspect of the Reagan AIDS response was still really extreme, painful, and unique. I also acknowledge that talking about the AIDS crisis as if it is a past-tense thing downplays the fact that AIDS is a global scourge that is still terribly out of control in many countries. Making the comparison the way I did was a mistake.

At the same time, I don't know if everyone is really experiencing the on-the-ground reality of opiate addiction the way that I have. I can't say my experience is representative, but personally it feels like I'm seeing a whole generation of a whole social class be consumed with nowhere to turn, and in fact a society that ostracizes them for struggling and even at times rejoices in their deaths. If I could do it again I might just say that there were important lessons to be learned from the past.