Addiction or Self Medication?

By Roger L. Simon


"Let me start this little essay on the uses of marijuana with an idea. A very simple idea. An idea that strikes at the very heart of the drug war and it's moralistic foundation. The very idea that those who use unapproved drugs are the lawful subjects of religiously motivated government persecution.

What we call addiction is in fact self treatment of undiagnosed pain.

This is a truly revolutionary idea. If it is in fact true then the whole notion of a drug war to save the children is a lie from beginning to end. Those of you who have read my article on heroin have a window into this new idea. What I tried to show in that article was that medical research shows that victims of sexual abuse and severe physical abuse ( PTSD ) are many times more likely to get addicted to heroin than the general public."