Drugs and Counter-Drugs

    Most people in the United States and the rest of the world ingest drugs regularly. Some are used for medicine, or daily stimulants or sedatives. Pain killers and mind-altering substances. Coffee and tea with copious amounts of caffeine are predominant for many. Alcohol through beverages is a social lubricant or emotional support, a crutch or helper to many, to feel what they need to feel better, or more acclimated to things that they need to fit in, or feel more at ease, or whatever you call that.

    Some smoke different chemicals, historically tobacco but more recently marijuana, or crack cocaine, or vaping all types of chemicals. The reasons are numerous, among them to curb appetite or reach a different mental plane. 

    This weekend with a cold turned into flu, maybe, I have taken acetaphetamin (Tylenol?) or pain relievers, which is what I take as drugs when I feel that I am in need for a rarer health situation.

    Otherwise, I do not drink or ingest caffeine regularly, except for the trace amounts in chocolate, and the occasional caffeinated carbonated drink, like Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, or Coca Cola. Maybe one per month, or so.  The sugar in that product, like chocolate, is stronger and more detrimental to my health, so sure, I need to avoid excessive amounts of products that do not help my health, strength, vitality, balance.

    But chemicals, or drugs, sometimes qualified as narcotics, are to be shunned. 

    We have thousands and thousands, even millions of law enforcement, health professionals and first responders, plus so-called sociological or psychological and other experts that deal with drugs, trying to counter them. To ameliorate the negative effects of them.

    Some people blame guns for mass shootings; I believe a lot more blame should be laid on THC, a psycho-active component that has increased over the decades to more and more potent mind-altering effects on brains. When you hear about a mass shooting? Check the marijuana usage or abuse of the perpetrator. The connections are obvious to me, but alleged really smart people blame video games, social media, again, proliferation of guns, and a dozen other things, while all the while advocating recreational pot use.

    Yep, drugs. There are many of us that are intellectually and professionally are anti-drugs, counter -drugs. We oppose the illegal use, abuse, and selling of them. The selling and competition itself leads to thousands of gang-related and other drugs. Every year. Bystanders and little children, blasted and dead in ridiculous scenarios. Which has become normal. Drug-related deaths are so normalized. This is a shame upon us. Really.

    Alcohol kills its own, regularly. We seem to accept these deplorable numbers of innocent and idiotic victims of booze, most of it while inebriated behind the wheel of a vehicle, to include boats.

    I started writing my little "drug essay", this post, on a Sunday afternoon, thinking of someone getting liquored up or beer buzzed, and casually driving and destroying the life and livelihood of some innocent stroller on that same fateful path of the drunk.

    Smoking, especially now vaping and the like, are not as directly as destructive. But cumulatively it is a national and international disaster.

    We accept a level of fighting, mitigating, dealing with the losses causes by overuse and abuse of drugs and narcotics. It is a huge part of our economy, on all sides of it.

    A co-worker passed some Narcan to me the other day. To save a fentanyl victim. The new artificially produced killer and hyper-potent, an opioid, enhanced by ketamine or xylazine as a cutting agent, all of which kill us off day by day.

       

    Caveat emptor. Buyer beware. User beware. Abuser beware. Innocent victims, I am trying to help you.

    Don't do drugs: an old refrain, but more accurate as an adage as ever.

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