The Open Question April 29: What's a society to do with addiction?

Hey y'all,

Last week RFK Jr. (himself in recovery from heroin addiction) was grilled in a Senate hearing about his proposal to build "wellness farms" across the US, modeled on an italian community called San Patrignano.

People you'd expect to agree end up on opposite sides. Libertarian v. social good. harm reduction v. abstinence. Medication v. community. Secular v. spiritual.

This week's open question: what's a society to do with addiction?

• What's your personal experience?

• Can you force someone well? Where's the line between care and coercion when someone's choices are killing them?

• What is wellness and who gets to decide?

• How do we determine addiction? There's drugs, but also TV, phones, social media, porn, food, pursuit of money, power, fame, etc?

• What do families owe addicts? What do addicts owe their families? What does the state owe either, or either owe the state?

• If a model works for some and harms others, how should we choose? 

Last week we asked who decides what's good for the planet. This week, same question pointed at a body. The answers don't get easier when they get closer.

Lots of love, and see (some of) you at 4p central.

Jordan
(UpTrust CEO)

More spicy details: Sen. Angela Alsobrooks asked RFK Jr. about a quote where he reportedly said "every black kid can be reparented on a wellness farm." He didn't remember saying it, then said if he did, he apologized.

San Patrignano works without traditional therapy or medications (hard work, peer mentorship, abstinence, and community). Critics, including Yale researchers, point out that medication-assisted treatment (methadone, buprenorphine) is the evidence-backed gold standard for opioid recovery, and that abstinence-only programs fail often and fast. Supporters (including residents who say it saved their lives) say something happens in that kind of community that medication can't touch.