Why Worry About the Drug War’s Junkies?

The United States body count for drug overdoses in 2014 was 47,000 people. Gosh, folks, that’s almost as high as the KIA from the Vietnam War and that took about ten years to rack up! Gee, now do ya think we really live in “the greatest nation on Earth” when so many people are seeking to escape it using drugs that result in the ultimate check-out time? Have a peek at this article.

The safe-injection site argument has been going on for over two decades now that I am personally aware of. Let’s say that the debate has been going on twenty years and use the death toll in 2014 as our control group. Thus, we can hypothesize that around 940,000 people have probably died while the politicians have sat there wrangling over how many addicts can dance on the head of a hypodermic needle. In other words, almost a million people have died from overdoses within the last twenty years. Is this an epidemic? Yes, without a doubt. If this were a contagious disease, the CDC would have gone into maximum cover-up speed to hide it. Is this all the fault of not having safe injection sites. Obviously, no. However, we can say that a number of these overdose victims might have been saved if safe injection sites were available.

The government says safe injection sites would only lead to more people using dangerous drugs. Um, excuse me, but they already are. That’s why we’re discussing a way to provide a safe space to do so in order to not only halt deaths that might be prevented but try and control the spread of highly contagious diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis-C by providing clean needles. One thing that needs to be said before the government brings up the cost factor. It is mostly non-governmental organizations and social outreach charities that are seeking to do this on their own dime, but it is the government telling them they can’t. Because the War on (Some) Drugs says this is a no-no.

Ok, if people want to provide this service and pay for it themselves, why is this the business of the government? The government continually repeats the false notion that these things will increase drug use. However, I not only beg to differ, I demand to differ. Drug abuse is not created by the easy availability of drugs. Drug abuse is a social problem caused by despair and hopelessness. In other words, I daresay that drug abuse is in part caused by the government itself. These are the jokers running around telling people in ghettoes and slums that they live in the “greatest nation on Earth” which is a paradoxical hypocrisy more laughable than the darkest farce ever imagined.

Unlike the politicians, I’ve lived in a neighborhood full of addicts. People addicted to heroin and others addicted to meth. I will not minimize the impact these drugs cause. I have seen the worst of humanity and what drug abuse and hopelessness can do. People selling their bodies to feed their addiction and others who prey upon them and basically enslave them the same as the addiction has. It is a horror and in case anyone doubts this, I lived in Hollywood, right off Hollywood Boulevard. It isn’t all glitz and glam, folks. It’s a hellhole. And back then, in the early 1990s, there were groups that wanted to do clean needle exchanges on their own dime and they were always afraid of police or government interference. How many died elsewhere while this farcical debate went on?

Why should we be concerned about junkies? Because they’re human beings, the same as we are. Made in the image of God, as we are. God challenges us to see this and, in so doing, recognize our own very real fallibility. What, we’re not addicts? We’re addicted to war, are we not? We’re addicted to senseless consumerism, are we not? I’m not saying the government ought to provide safe injection sites or clean needle exchanges. But I am saying the government needs to get out of the way of private organizations that wish to do so. The government needs to bring this futile and ridiculous “War On Drugs” to an end. Enough have died to prove it an abysmal failure.

What have we gained from the War On Drugs? The justification to militarize the police to the point they are not distinguishable from military special operations personnel except the uniform insignia. It was not 9/11 that caused that. They were already militarized because they were already at war with the War On Drugs. The police have armored personnel carriers and tanks. The “no knock raid” is now common. Kids can watch cop shows from the 1970s where the police announced their presence with a knock at the door and asking the door to be opened with a mixture of denial and the same sense of viewing ancient history. It might as well be two Roman centurions at the door on the old cop shows, as much as kids today cannot understand the concept. Cash can be seized from people and confiscated without a trial. Cars can be stopped, impounded, and even taken to a police garage where it is disassembled down to the frame. Yet, 47,000 Americans died in 2014 from overdoses. And we’re all dying from the “cure” the government has foisted upon us to remedy this.

What does compassion look like? Anyone know? Well, I think one face of it is knowing that these people are enslaved to an addiction horrifying in nature. They might even die anyway even if safe injection sites are provided. Or they might not. We don’t know. But we won’t know unless the government stays out of the way and lets others try. We might save some lives. I know it’s against government policy to save lives, but whatever. Those lives might be someone we know. These are not faceless people. These are peoples’ kids that mothers held and loved. I know the government has a hard time understanding that because they’re used to looking at humanity through the targeting radar of a fighter-bomber. But at some point, we’ve got to understand there is a law that is quite above that of the United States government. And that law says: Love one another.

As for all those who have died because of the insane policies of the United States government, I say these people have died for lost causes. These wars in the Middle East are and always have been lost causes. By the way, the U.S. government has given Bashar al-Assad until August 1st to step down. Or what? Let me guess. Another war. More mothers burying their children on both sides as we go off to shoot other human beings over who their leader is. And for what? The same tragedies as are enacted on our own streets, yet we worry about who runs Syria while lunatics run our own country. We are living in a burning house, yet we phone the neighbors to demand they rake up the leaves in their yard. Amazing.

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