Drug Addict 5

Introduction

The following is a piece on ethics and morality. Many of my works tend to be in the area of Applied Ethics, such as on matters of Vegetarianism, Peace, Sexuality, and Abortion. However, these are issues in the realm of Applied Ethics. That is to say, they are the application of an ethical base — how an idea of “right” and “wrong” applies to the real world and the issues that confront us. For example, one ethic might be “Any action that causes suffering is immoral,” and the Applied Ethics of this would be that to oppose Euthanasia is immoral, that the abortion of an unconscious fetus is not immoral, that to eat meat

and promote agribusiness’s murder of animals is immoral, among other things. This essay differs from my other essays in this one aspect: I am not dealing with Ethics as it is applied to our real world, but rather with Ethics as it exists in its “primal form.” However, like my other essays, I can only hope that it is informative and not a drag to read.

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Spendthrift trusts are rapidly becoming a key estate planning tool for families with one member who’s been de-railed by the drug or alcohol culture. Look out your window, look down the street or think of the many persons in your card and contact files. How many families show at least one member who’s been impacted by drug or alcohol addiction? Answer? Almost every family has that X-factor.

Primary Purpose And Benefit Of A Spendthrift Trust.

When a family includes a member who has lost some degree of free will and volition due to drug or alcohol addiction, or debilitating disease and accidents, and would not be considered “rational”, then a spendthrift trust creates the

perfect sort of “control”. A disabled or mentally unfit “beneficiary” is known as the “spendthrift” and will be unable to access the family estate or assets, unless approved by the Trustee to the spendthrift trust. It is the Trustee, on behalf of the “spendthrift” who legally “controls the purse strings”.

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With the end of the Cold War, the threat of a world nuclear war has diminished considerably. It may be hard to imagine that in the end, comedians may be exploiting the humor in the fact that it wasn t nuclear warheads, but French fries that annihilated the human race, when considering that food addictions and their related diseases now afflict more people globally than malnutrition. The behavioral addiction disorders (e.g., food addictions, pathological gambling, and other obsessively-compulsive behavioral-patterns to religion, and/ or sex / pornography, etc.) are just as damaging, psychologically and socially as alcohol and drug abuse.

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What Happens in Vegas (losing) Stays in Vegas (your money)

Recently, I visited Atlantic City for a family reunion and while driving on the Atlantic City Express Way I noticed a flashing neon road sign that read, You drive you speed you lose. After spending a week there, I told my relatives that the sign should read, You drive - to Atlantic City You lose, as speeding is optional. Whether it is in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or even at home on your own computer with some online gambling website, what eventually happens is that approximately 20 million Americans develop gambling

problems wagering and eventually losing approximately $0.5 trillion dollars annually (Feigelman, 1998). Someone has to pay those 24-hour electric bills. Approximately 2 million Americans are pathologic gamblers, 3 million adults can be considered problem gamblers and an additional 15 million are considered at-risk for problem gambling (NGISC, 1999). But who are the real losers? Findings from the 1999 Gambling Impact and Behavior Study reported that direct and indirect costs to American society from problem and pathologic gambling (e.g., health care, bankruptcy, criminal costs, etc.) are approximately $5 billion per year. That means that we the taxpayers are the real losers. The only Winners, are the Casino owners, stockholders, and others invested in the Gaming industry.

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Introduction

The following is a piece on ethics and morality. Many of my works tend to be in the area of Applied Ethics, such as on matters of Vegetarianism, Peace, Sexuality, and Abortion. However, these are issues in the realm of Applied Ethics. That is to say, they are the application of an ethical base — how an idea of “right” and “wrong” applies to the real world and the issues that confront us. For example, one ethic might be “Any action that causes suffering is immoral,” and the Applied Ethics of this would be that to oppose Euthanasia is immoral, that the abortion of an unconscious fetus is not immoral, that to eat meat

and promote agribusiness’s murder of animals is immoral, among other things. This essay differs from my other essays in this one aspect: I am not dealing with Ethics as it is applied to our real world, but rather with Ethics as it exists in its “primal form.” However, like my other essays, I can only hope that it is informative and not a drag to read.

Continue Reading »