But YES, a girl who is victim of abuse at home should have support, professional help. I’m not bashing that person at all.

I would bash that person if she killed innocent people while driving drunk though.

You see the nuance here? One gets the sympathy, the other one doesn’t.

I believe this all started with people in Ontario opening a meth lab, which is wrong.

You obviously came from a good family, who instilled values in you, and I wish everyone was like you. And I wish everyone had your values. But that’s not the real world.

A girl I had in for counseling yesterday was forced to watch her mother have sex with other women and men from the time she was eight until she ran away from home at fifteen. She never knew who her father was, nor did her “mother.”

So if that girl finds relief with drugs, and ends up doing all the stupid things that drugs (and alcohol) make you do, should I judge her based on my upbringing, or yours? Of course not. I have to take into account that not only did this girl never have a responsible care-giver, she never had an opportunity to experience what it’s like to be a child.

Instead of long summer days playing outside, building snowmen in the winter, earning an allowance and having a loving mom and dad, she lived in motel rooms, and was alone 90% of the time. And we, as a society are supposed to cross our arms and say, “Tough, get over it.”

Do you realize that if these issues aren’t addressed, she will likely victimize her children in the same way she was victimized? How does that build a better society. How does that make your world better?

Right now, the U.S. has the highest rate of incareration per capita than any other nation in the world, including China. That is the only thing that’s been achieved with the “lock’em up and throw away the key” mentality of the war on drugs.

And do you know that for less than it costs society to imprison someone for one year, they could send them to Harvard with a full course load?

I think I know where you feelings come from. You are probably fundamentally a good person. You have probably worked hard all your life and followed the rules. And you see that many other people seem to flaunt the system, and get away with murder. (figuratively and sometimes literally)

And that makes you angry, and frankly, in many cases, it should, because these people are ruining what should be a good world. But we didn’t all come to the table equally endowed with instructions about behavior, and values, or even basic life skills. And we must take that into account before judging anyone.

If you’re religious, or even spiritual, I would refer you to Matthew 25, because that part ofthe Bible is the only part I have to follow to be a good person. If everybody simply read that passage and lived by it, we would be living in Utopia.

And I wouldn’t mind living there either.

“We can’t look at everyone else’s experience and measure it solely against our own.”

Yes, yes we can. Actually, it’s called discrimination and if done right, it’s a good thing.

If you hunger for sex with little children, that’s BAD, right?
If your addiction destroys your family and hurts your friends, that’s also BAD, right?

At some point, you have to stop finding excuses and stop the bad behaviour.

If you step on my rights just because you see yourself as a victim, that doesn’t fly with me.

I have values. Our society has laws. Law enforcement apply laws to defend our society. If something is unfair, let’s make it better.

Until then, drug addicts who cheat, steal and drive drunk get no sympathy.

Please consider that next time you have children in the car.

This is my point of view and it’s not about to change. I believe that I am responsable for the dammage I can do in this world, so it’s MY responsability to stop it before it happens.

Perhaps this explains my point of view a little bit better.

But go to an “open” meeting of alcoholics anonymous, cocaine anonymous, or narcotics anonymous. No one complains about not seeing enough public service messages. What they describe is a life that they couldn’t cope with, feelings they couldn’t resolve, memories they couldn’t erase.

In Cocaine Anonymous for example, you’ll see a huge percentage of female addicts experienced sexual abuse as children. The percentage is high for men as well, although they aren’t as likely to admit it.

Here’s the essential difference between a normal person and one that’s predisposed genetically or environmentally toward addiction.

When the average person drinks or uses drugs, they stop when they start feeling really different from who they normally are, because they don’t like that feeling. It feels strange and uncomfortable.

On the contrary, someone predisposed to addiction keeps using the substance until they feel anything OTHER than how they normally feel. And that’s because they hate how they normally feel, because how they normally feel is like hell.

So I can watch someone pick up a worm on the street, put it in their mouth and eat it and conclude that they’re disgusting, they make bad choices, and if they get sick, they deserved it. Right up until I learn that this person was starving, and hadn’t eaten in two weeks. Suddenly, it changes everything, doesn’t it?

Drugs, alcohol, or whatever you take to medicate and make yourself feel better are the “worm.” And whether you’ll keep seeking it out, picking it up and keep eating it, depends on how “hungry” you are.

So we should stop?

Look, the war on drugs isn’t perfect, I know.

If you look at Vancouver, British Columbia, they have facilities available to junkies with counseling. Only 5% of the local junkies use it, so it’s becoming harder and harder to “help” the hardcore junkies. “HELPING THEM” doesn’t work either. Not here in Canada, not in Amsterdam, Holland. I checked.

As for the rest, I’m tempted to mention “personal responsability”.

I’ve managed NOT to murder anyone, I’ve managed NOT to rape anyone.

If my beer drinking problem caused me to miss work, I’d do something about it. But it’s beer, and thus NOT a problem to the outside world. That’s my personal experience.

Not so for Meth. It’s a big friggin problem. It ruins lives, and all those “regular people” who get screwed with that had a part to play in it. I sympathise, but only so far.

I’m all for fighting the “war on drugs” machine, which is costing a fortune.

I’m just NOT excusing those who fall into it with no help from me whatsoever. They did that to themselves more often than not, this blog is NOT about encouraging bad behaviour.

I’m sorry if I’m raining on your parade, but I won’t throw the baby out with the bath water. No way.

YOU decide to dabble in meth? Good for you, I’ll be right here living my life, thank you very much. Best of luck though.

I urge you to take five minutes of your time and check out this link.

http://www.allpositiveoptions.com/APOMeth32.htm

On this page, the first thing you’ll see is a live monitor of what the war on drugs costs the U.S. Lower down on that page, they have a short video of ex-law enforcement people talking honestly about what a charade the war on drugs really is. It includes the ex-Chief of Police for the city of Seattle.

This might give you pause for thought - it sure did for me. And what’s amazing is that in many ways, the current government in Canada is actually mirroring this ridiculous “supply-reduction” policy which hasn’t worked in the 35 years it’s been applied.

I’d be interested in what you thought of the video after you’ve seen it.

Cheers!

Katie

I’ve come to believe that this “war on drugs” is actually the lesser of two evils. At least some people try to deal with it.

NOT a simple issue to resolve. Closing the US/Mexican border might be a simpler task (so you can see just how big I see this problem).

And when I asked them if I could use some of their information, instead of being really uptight about it, they said use anything you want, as long as I didn’t distort the meaning of it for political purposes. Apparently some right-wing freaks in the U.S. grab stuff off their site and then change it to suit their agenda. Erin (at All Positive Options) told me that people don’t realize how politicized the drug issue is. There are a lot of people that have a vested interest in continuing the “war on drugs.”

Best,

Tara

You’re right, it’s not just about junkies, it’s regular people who fall into it and it screws up their lives.

Rotten dot com has had a page concerning meth for a while now. I hasn’t been updated in a while, but it does hand out some no-bullshit information on meth.

Scary stuff that is going around in the US. It’s here now.