The human race is a gigantic team. We meet the most important criterion of a team – we all want the same things.
When one member of the team has a problem, the whole team has a problem.
The Drug Problem is not about the drugs, it’s about the problems that lead people into giving their lives over to them. These problems existed long before the first crack rock was cooked up next to a pot of tasty, beef stew. I’m no rocket historian, but perhaps they’re as old as the industrial revolution. More likely, they’re ancient.
I’m sensitive to the plight of the casualties and their families, but in a sense the modern drug problem has done humanity a favor — it has accelerated and amplified those peoples’ demonstration of just how unhappy and unsatisfied they are and how unjustly treated they have been to the point when the rest of us must look seriously at the root causes.
It’s all too common for one of our neighbors, who made the right choices and prospered, to look down upon poverty, perhaps the addicted, and say, “Screw ’em, they made their own bed.”
What, if anything, we do for those now in crisis is a decision that has long term consequences, such as whether the supply-side economics of aid creates a demand for it, so I’ll hold my tongue here. But, I feel perfectly okay about standing in judgment of all humanity if we don’t start taking steps to address the root causes of all the yelling.
For the record, I believe a person should be able to put whatever chemical into his body he wants, from riboflavin to arsenic. It’s his body and your fingers are in your ears anyway.
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