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Humanizing Addiction
It is time to stop fighting citizens and start helping them
"America's public enemy number one in The United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive."
June 17, 1971
President Nixon
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For more than a century, The United States of America has been engaged in an active conflict against it's own citizens: the war on drugs. Across every facet of American life, people suffering from addiction have been punished. Past, present, and future, Americans with addiction have had their plight subject to legal, ethical, and moral discrimination. Our mission is to pull back the narrative around addiction and drug use in The United States of America to combat an uncompassionate narrative and history, one that has resulted in immeasurable pain and suffering in our nation. We hope that through our mission we can humanize addiction, and motivate Americans to help change the country by enacting humanistic and effective drug policy that ends our fight against ourselves.
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_A Tale of Two Nations_
There may not be two nations more diametrically opposed with regards to drug policy - to their treatment of citizens with addiction. America pioneered the hardline War on Drugs approach that became mainstream in the cosmopolitan sphere for much of the 20th century. Portugal may be considered the pioneer of 21st century then.
_Perspectives, Positions, Experiences_
We conducted four interviews to garner first-hand perspectives, positions, and experiences from an array of individuals dealing with drug abuse, drug policy, and addiction. Read and click to learn more.
"Criminalizing drug abuse dehumanizes people and strips them of their dignity, which disarms them from combatting the underlying issues that caused them to turn to drugs in the first place."
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"For these people, the addiction is truly a disease for which they should not be blamed and for which they deserve treatment, just like cancer patients or anyone else."
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"I think that every single individual who struggles with
drug abuse in America would greatly benefit from
society looking at their addiction, or so called abuse,
as an illness."
"Drug addiction and use can affect any social class, the educated and uneducated. It does not discriminate.
A drug user's family may be entirely unaware
of the addiction."
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Additionally, we also created and conducted a survey and received data from over 100 American individuals. This helped present a modern societal perspective on the topics of addiction, drug policy, and drug abuse.
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_Get Active, Get Involved_
Are you upset at these injustices? Do you want to see a more equitable world for those with addiction, for all marginalized individuals? Learn more on the support page.
_Got Questions?_
We understand that there is a lot to learn, chew on, and digest within the realm of addiction. That's why we put together some of the most asked questions.
_Why does this exist?_
A bit existential, no? But, we're a group of students using our agency to hopefully impact the world, and help the humanization of addiction.
What if everything we knew about addiction was wrong?
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