Every once in a while, someone like Judge Michael Schipper decides to open their mouth and declare: “Addiction isn’t a real disease.”
And every time, they out themselves as willfully ignorant.
Let’s be real: anyone who says addiction isn’t a disease, whether they went to law school or not, is stupid.
Science Doesn’t Care About Your Opinions
Addiction fundamentally rewires the brain.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) defines it as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that alters circuits related to reward, decision-making, stress, and self-control. This isn’t about “weakness” or “bad morals.” It’s about dopamine pathways, genetic predispositions, and trauma histories colliding in a way that traps people in a cycle they can’t just “snap out of.”
Telling someone to “just stop” is like telling someone with Parkinson’s to “just stop shaking.”
That level of ignorance is not only cruel; it’s dangerous, callous, and shows a distinct and chilling lack of compassion. Things that are dangerous to have as an elected official in a county plagued by drug use and woefully ill-equipped to properly address it.
The Stigma is Killing People
People who cling to the idea that addiction is a choice are often the same ones who shame people for seeking help, advocate for punishment instead of treatment, and scoff at harm reduction.
That horrific mindset fuels policies that pack prisons instead of funding recovery centers. It drives families to turn their backs on loved ones who are sick, not “bad.”
Every death from an overdose isn’t just about drugs, it’s about stigma, silence, and a society that would rather moralize than medicalize.
Treatment Works—But Only If We Treat Addiction as The Illness It Is.
When we treat addiction like the disease it is, recovery is possible. Medication-assisted treatment, therapy, community support, and harm reduction save lives every single day. The numbers don’t lie. But when we let myths dictate policy, we guarantee more body bags and broken families.
And definitely not by locking people up and let them “dry out” as Judge Schipper readily admits to doing; perhaps a cruel policy of allowing people to go through withdrawals.
The Solution? Stop Being Stupid.
If you’re still clinging to the “it’s a choice” narrative, congratulations, you are officially part of the problem because addiction is most assuredly, a disease.
Pick up a book. Read a research journal. Talk to someone who has actually suffered through addiction. Learn more about Peer Recovery Support and Alternative Courts and their incredible rates of success in lowering recidivism.
All of these sources will point you to a fundamental, true north: people deserve treatment, dignity, and a fighting chance at recovery. The science says it. The survivors say it. The families shattered by loss say it. Incarceration does not and will never make it better.
The only people still denying it are the ones too stubborn or too downright stupid to see reality, and by failing to act, blood is on their hands.
A judge like Schipper saying that addiction isn’t a real disease, is like taking legal advice from a chiropractor.
I wouldn’t advise listening.
Your Move, Policymakers.
Your move, policymakers, rural prosecutors, and judges: stop criminalizing illness. Stop using medical conditions to fund your careers. Start funding treatment.
And to everyone still spreading the “choice” myth: kindly step aside.
The grown-ups are talking.
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