Amy Winehouse dead...

[BoredBloke]

I am merely a simple agent.

At last an agent who speaks the truth!

[fullyautomatix]

Old people PPR. Old people.

:

[NickFitz]

It's still not a 'disease' in the true sense of the word, any more that other birth defects are.

Which is presumably why the OP used the word "illness".

[xoggoth]

If the left could embrace capitalism and concentrate on reigning back the excesses of capitalism then they would have little political opposition

Indeed. The only sensible society is a free market economy with proper government regulation. Socialism is the worst option as that removes any independent sanctions on those with power but allowing huge companies free reign is nearly as bad. Wealth is fine but privilege, when the wealthy can rig the laws and rules to ensure wealth and power stays in their hands, is something different.

[PinkPoshRat]

Wow! From Amy Winehouse to Capitalism

[Incognito]

Left wing claptrap. Addiction is not an illness despite the liberal whingers introducing the word into their terminology. Making the concious choice to shovel large amounts of drugs into your body until you finally die is not a disease.

Diptheria, typhoid, cholera, pneumonia are diseases. No one has ever had their GP say "Sorry, Mr Jones. I'm afraid that smack-addled junkie that sneezed on you last week has given you their addiction".

Calling addiction an illness is everything that's wrong with society. It immediatly absolves the smack heads and addicts of responsability and turns them into a victim. They're not victims, they're fools.

All those examples you give are examples of pathogens that attack the body in some way or other. Not all 'illnesses' are caused by such circumstances. You only have to look at something like Motor Neurone Disease to realise that human 'wiring' does and can go wrong. Opiates activate the opiate receptors within the brain and trigger the brain's 'reward system', this releases dopamine into the brain. To an addict living in a slum hell hole, this is the only euphoric sensation they'll be likely to achieve. They don't have the pleasure of sunny beach holidays or watching their team win the league or experiencing their child grow up.

Addiction is an illness, however, as your rough analogy attempted to demonstrate it is an entirely subjective illness that cannot be transmitted as it affects the addict personally through the abuse of a substance. You can sit and scoff and call it as liberal or leftist as you want. It is widely recognised though.

Pharmacogenetics and Human Molecular Genetics of Opiate and Cocaine Addictions and Their Treatments

[DodgyAgent]

Indeed. The only sensible society is a free market economy with proper government regulation. Socialism is the worst option as that removes any independent sanctions on those with power but allowing huge companies free reign is nearly as bad. Wealth is fine but privilege, when the wealthy can rig the laws and rules to ensure wealth and power stays in their hands, is something different.

So the challenge to the left should be to enable capitalism to flourish for everyone and to prevent it from benefitting only the few.
Fat chance of that happening.

[DodgyAgent]

At last an agent who speaks the truth!

[minestrone]

The Sun's tribute to her was laughable, they chased the poor girl around the world for years and took great delight everytime she went off the rails.

She is the chav Diana now.

[gingerjedi]

I buy CD's as the music is uncompressed, they are often cheaper and I have a hard copy.

What advantage does an MP3 have other than the original convenience?