Public Shaming Doesn't Help Addicts

[macbill]

The photos of an overdosing couple in Ohio won’t help anyone — especially addicts

On Thursday, the small Appalachian city of East Liverpool, Ohio, posted photographs on Facebook of a man and woman apparently passed out from an opioid overdose. The two adults sit slumped in the front and passenger seats of a car. A small boy looks out from the back. The city warned that the photos might shock and outrage, but that was its goal: "It is time that the non drug using [sic] public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis," the city administration wrote in the post. "We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess."

 

[farscaper]

The photos of an overdosing couple in Ohio won’t help anyone — especially addicts

On Thursday, the small Appalachian city of East Liverpool, Ohio, posted photographs on Facebook of a man and woman apparently passed out from an opioid overdose. The two adults sit slumped in the front and passenger seats of a car. A small boy looks out from the back. The city warned that the photos might shock and outrage, but that was its goal: "It is time that the non drug using [sic] public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis," the city administration wrote in the post. "We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess."

(Both adults survived the overdose after being treated with the opioid antidote Narcan. The man pled guilty to child endangerment and driving while intoxicated, while the woman — the child’s mother — pled not guilty and is awaiting trial. The child has been removed from her custody.)

 

[herbivore21]

Now that kid is going to be treated to the stigma and faux-sympathy (read: Judgement) of everyone in the neighborhood. What could possibly go wrong?

Shaming addicts is cruel, unhelpful and stupid. It destroys critical social capital. It ruins the potential and inclination for these people to find supports in their communities which are important for anyone if they are ever going to stop using.

Subjecting their children to public scrutiny over their parent's addiction is especially unforgivable. What a disgusting display. These people who published the photos and original post weren't a voice for the child in this case. They were a voice for their own warped morality (not to mention zealotry) - obnoxiously shouting through a megaphone at the less-fortunate that 'we are better than you'. The real irony is that foster homes/group homes and lasting community stigma/judgement (that photo isn't going anywhere after all!) do not a happy, well-adjusted child make!

It is heartening that the publication quoted did not republish the photo in their own article. I suggest the same for anyone thinking of sharing this story on social media. Children should be free to grow up without stigma for shit that they can't possibly be blamed for like this.

 

[momofthegoons]

Now that kid is going to be treated to the stigma and faux-sympathy (read: Judgement) of everyone in the neighborhood. What could possibly go wrong?

I'm glad you brought that up. My first thought was, 'What? They're worried about the addicts in this?' What about what the kid has gone through, and will go through, for the rest of his life because of this publicity?

Sigh...

 

[herbivore21]

I'm glad you brought that up. My first thought was, 'What? They're worried about the addicts in this?' What about what the kid has gone through, and will go through, for the rest of his life because of this publicity?

Sigh...

I am also worried about the addicts very much. Nothing's going to push you further into using than this level of shame (not to mention a child being taken away). I hope they are ok. Every junkie has a story and usually, they're unimaginably fraught ones that most of us can't even begin to understand.

However, it is so important to see that this blameless tiny child is already being judged for his parents' problems and proclivities. This is so very tragic as you say. That child deserves privacy and protection from the awful shit people are saying in the comments about him and the hardship he and his mother have experienced already, let alone what awaits him now in the system. sigh indeed.

 

[momofthegoons]

However, it is so important to see that this blameless tiny child is already being judged for his parents' problems and proclivities

Not to mention what he witnessed; sitting in that car. Imagine a child that age, strapped in a car seat, unable to get his parents to respond. We have no idea for how long.

And please don't think I'm dismissing the addicts. You have no way of knowing this unless you've read posts of mine from years back, but I am an ex addict. So I very well understand that mindset. And let me tell you that sometimes... just sometimes... that level of shame is what it takes to get you straight.

 

[farscaper]

I am of the opinion that If cannabis were legal everywhere we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

Cannabis can cure addiction...

Why do we treat people with addiction like criminals and not like patients?