"I can't help but detect a degree of contempt here, in describing the "case worker" as "nothing other than an ex-alcoholic." Great: that means that anyone who's gone through AA is "nothing other than an ex-alcoholic." The struggle with one's impulses, the work involved with establishing new social patterns, the periods of self-loathing when one faces one's inability to control oneself in certain behaviors, and _then_ trying to help others through the same struggle... all that amounts to being "nothing other than an ex-alcoholic." Great choice of words, Joanne."
My name is Joanna. I meant to inject no note of contempt and I almost appended a parenthetical note to say that,then I didn't. My sense was that the only "authority" a case worker in AA has is a shared experience with new members and the case worker's successful struggle with alcoholism.
I was very precise about being clueless as to whether my roommates were "using." It's true that if they had started stealing stuff to feed the habit, I would have noticed; but one of them was working and making good money while they lived with me, so they could have used without any obvious material effect.
So far, in the "war on drugs" I have seen a lot of war and little or no treatment. The surveillance programs you describe seem like the thin end of the wedge to me for justifying an unacceptable level of government interference in a person's life and liberty. So far as I am concerned the problem is not drugs. The problem is a world where the only way people can feel good is by intoxicating themselves.
Joanna