It appears a fair number of DUers are unaware of an opioid crisis,

[haele]

92. Actually, it is. What about the childern? is the base of a prohabition argument with addictions.

I know of two families where at least one of the parents are addicted to religion, and in that family, the neglect and abuse those children went through was terrible, as the higher being that is being worshiped was above the health and needs of the family to the parent that ran the family.
In both families, it was pretty much constant neglect -the parent at home let "God" raise the kids, then abused them when those kids (or their friends) didn't live up to the life. In both cases, the parents were recovering physical addicts; they no longer drank, or smoked, or did drugs, but boy oh boy, were they ever addicted to the "high" that worship gave them.

My son-in-law's father isn't "officially addicted", but he's a man-child who neglected (and still neglects) his son (whom he had custody of) far worse than the tweeker I used to work with, who, when she was sober, tried to be the best mom possible for her two children and made arrangements for her mother to take care of them when she couldn't help it and went on a bender.

The 18th Amendment was a single minded attempt to "save the American family" from alcohol addiction by making it almost impossible for adults to get alcohol. And while it did reduce some of the public drunkenness and the amount of public sale, the increase in crime and the criminalization of personal use and consumption of alcohol was not worth the whitewashing of the underlying issues that caused the substance abuse in the first place.

Prohibition, not regulation, legal standards, and rehabilitation was the goal. All in a relatively painless (to the prohibitionists, at least) way to pretend one was doing something about the social scourge of alcoholism without actually addressing alcoholism. Treating the symptom is so much easier.

So, taking your comment seriously instead of talking around it - how do we, by policy, "save the children from neglect" when it comes to dealing with parent who is self-medicating themselves into an addiction, for whatever reason?

Make it harder for the .5% of the population who actually need strong pain relief to function because .02% of the population are in such emotional pain or have issues with the reality they live in and illegally acquire prescription drugs?
Or rather we should embark on a multi-pronged approach that provides safety net (how I hate that term) or rather, builds a safe, nurturing environment, while giving them (the addict and their families) time and support to be able to deal with the underlying issues. Or to identify someone who is just not right with society enough and will never be able to function without altering their own realities?

I've helped and supported too many of my step-daughter's friends, and had to deal with too many addicts and former addicts on the job over the years not to know that simply sighing over the neglected children is not (added on edit) sufficient to solving the problem with addictions.
Those kids usually love their pill-addicted parents even though they're hurting, and I've seen where those parents usually love their kids, even though they (the parents) are not emotionally strong enough to be parents and just can't seem to stop hurting themselves. The sad thing is that most substance addicts know they are weak, and losing out to whatever substance they are addicted to.

Haele