OK here we go

Focus on the actual issue

Counter the addiction and eliminate it

The dangers are the big reason most recovery groups advocate the safer path! The success rate for those who try this is about 60%. (The founders of AA claimed that, with rigorous honesty, a campaign of non-addiction, and following a solid program of recovery, you shouldn't be able to fail at all. This was changed to "rarely...fail", to sound a bit more realistic.)

The reason we have millions of addicts, but maybe only single-figure or double-figure "heros", in any given generation, is that utilizing our addictive natures is hard. Worse, we are taught to hate that side of ourselves. Those who learn too quickly at school are often treated harshly by their teachers as "disruptive". These are also the first people companies will fire, as they don't play the game of "work ethics". They're too busy doing stuff that's real.

Society without drug laws, without these particular ethics-based rules, would be a disaster. With no limits to push against, the adventurer will fall apart, and non-addicts (because they really -are- addicts underneath) will become addicted to brain-destroying chemicals.

This kind of society will also rapidly become extinct. Society requires pressure. Pressure requires defined, finite boundaries. Simple physics.

So, what do we need? We need better education, at an early age. Not a "just say no" campaign, but an education in the mechanisms involved; how to use them productively, and the risks involved if they get out of control.

We need a society in which exploration is encouraged, where the intelligent don't have to hide in fear of persecution, and where those who would have become drug addicts are instead inspired to use that craving on something them - and possibly others - some good.

The craving will always be there, in everyone, to some degree or other. Drugs are an irrelevent part of the equation - only of consequence because that's the only way most people can handle those cravings. They're not taught any other way.

The answer is not to change the law, but to make the law irrelevent. Work not on legalizing the harmful. There's no point. Put your efforts into learning about the mechanisms involved. Research how to use them profitably. Understand how to turn the mechanism's focus from self-harm to self-gain. Work on getting this useful information into schools, into rehab centers, into anywhere that people might gain from turning their troubles into something they can use.

As those of us from the North of England know, all too well at times, "Where there's muck, there's brass".

Here, you can turn the muck into brass, and possibly into solid gold.

If Rush is sincere about recovery, that's what he must do. That is true of all other addicts, whatever their addiction. It's potential profit, all you have to do is turn it the right way.