So Many Failures In Life Can Be Linked To Drug Use. Yet So Many Dive Right In Fully Knowing The Harm They Could Be Inflicting.
An article came out recently about a young 21 year old girl who gouged her own eyes out while on meth. The sad thing is this most likely saved her life. Blind now from her actions but she has since quit using drugs. I’m not so certain this positive outcome would have came through less drastic measures. She was just days away from heading to treatment. A treatment she most likely would have left with all the promise of hope that she would be avoiding the perils of drug use in the future. But all to often the drug’s irresistible siren song comes calling and you’re right back where you left off. Actually more often then not, you try to jump in where you left off and this is where over doses happen. You try to smoke, shoot or snort the amounts your custom to and you body hasn’t acclimated to the large doses yet, then bad thing are in store. You don’t go from sea level to the peak of Everest on the same day, it’s a gradual process that got you too the peak before. When racing to the top your body is going to have averse reactions. Sometimes leading to death.
Yet what is this powerful allure that keeps people coming back? Even full well knowing it could be their last time. What makes the mother of 3 shoot up heroin when she knows she may abandon her children through her actions. Either through death or the state. Why would you ever try meth knowing it could make you gouge your own eyes out. The answer lies in the fact that it’s simply a part of human nature that we need to counteract from time to time. Most creatures of earth seek altered states. From the forest dwellers that eat hallucinogenic mushrooms, to elephants that eat fermented fruit to get drunk, cats eating catnip. Heck even children at play will spin themselves in circles chasing that short lived high. One animal will bash itself in the head with a rock to reach altered state. If that last one isn’t a metaphor for drug use I can’t think of one much better. All across the animal kingdom we see these experiences. Creatures just want to feel something out of the ordinary especially when your ordinary seems hopeless or mundane.
I’m all for people doing whatever they so choose to do with they’re own bodies. To steal a line from Ben Harper in a song about smoking weed. Your choice is who you choose to be and if you’re causing no harm then you’re alright with me. The problem with most major drug use, is you’re not causing no harm. The heroin and meth users usually are a major burden to those closest to them and society as a whole. They don’t always carry jobs and when they do they can tend to be short lived. So often times many users need to steal from others or do other illegal activities just to get the money needed to get to their next fix. Right now their is a massive opioid epidemic across the entire U.S. with no end (other then the morgue) in sight. It’s often just a slow suicide once it gets started. It takes tremendous strength and will of the highest character just to get clean and stay clean. There is hope but you’re going have to give all of yourself. Many are not willing or ready to do such extreme measures. They would rather risk death or blindness then to get and stay clean. So why even start at all?
How do we stop the scourge that is plaguing society? I really don’t have the answer. The best option I think would be to stop it before it ever starts. And not just by telling people don’t do drugs, clearly that doesn’t work. I think it might help deter more people if we use an honest education based system. Instead of saying don’t do drugs we should ask ourselves instead, “what if we like them?” When you ask yourself what if I like these drugs, you come up with a double negative answer. If you like them great, how will you fund this new found habit you’re, so fond of? What does it look like when all your teeth are missing, your face is scabbed up from the incessant picking at it, and eyes gouged out. What does it look like when you’re the town pariah. What does it look like when your parents are crying themselves to sleep at night wondering if you’ll ever come home again. Or your kids are in foster homes. Think of the outcomes prior to use, walk that path in your mind first, and maybe you’ll second guess the decision. Now this is a very extreme version of this thinking. But I use a modified version of it all the time. I ask myself, “what if I like smoking weed?” weed is really no big deal in my eyes, I wouldn’t even classify marijuana as a drug. It has a very low impact on society, as a matter of fact you could argue that it’s a boon for the economy in states that have legalized it. Now, the question is, what if I like it? Then I have the pleasure of wasting money on a new unnecessary habit, that I didn’t have before. It’s not like food or water you don’t need it to survive, so you’re literally burning money to feel good. Some might ask that question and think the benefits outweigh the cost. I can definitely see benefits outweighing cost in this scenario. Which is fine too but it’s still not for me.
Now the flip side to the question of major drug use would be, “what if I don’t like it?” Great, you are one of the lucky few and you can move on with your life knowing you tried something new, that has ruined the lives of many others before you, and you luckily made it out alright. If that’s the case and you don’t like it, wouldn’t it just be best not to roll the dice in the first place?
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