Drug use is violence

Drug violence in other countries is spurred on by American citizens.
There is no denying it, drug use in this country directly supports murder and other violence in the countries where the drugs come from. Drug use in this country supports murder and other violence in this country.

Gangs are supported directly and indirectly by our drug use (not just heroin or methamphetamine or marijuana or cocaine, but ecstasy and steroids too). You can access any news source in the world and read about how drug trafficking has claimed another life, either by taking the drug or killing to control the traffic of the drug.

People find themselves doing things for drugs that they never would have considered doing before their drug addiction. Stealing from others, prostituting themselves, submitting their free will. These are extremes that we have all heard of that are definitive reasons against drug use. Those ‘casual’ drug users who haven’t reached these extremes are just as guilty of sustaining the drug trade and therefore the violence that supports it.

Is the high worth it? People who do drugs do so for a few very selfish reasons. They want to ‘feel good’, they want to escape from reality, they do it because their friends do it and therefore think it is ‘cool’ to be one of the crowd.

Our legal system is not curtailing drug use. The threat of jail time or financial loss due to fines or losing a job or even their family and the stigma that goes with these losses is not enough to stop most drug users.

Society is approaching the illegal use of drugs from the wrong direction. Education is not working. Scare tactics don’t work. Drug users come from loving families that communicate with each other as well as from abusive households so that isn’t working either.

A personal choice. The potential user needs to ask whether doing this drug is going to improve my life. And I don’t mean in the way that it provides a temporary escape. This is not improving anything. I mean, is doing drugs going to make me a better person. It might make you feel like you are the ‘life of the party’ but again, that is only temporary and it comes at a very high price. What if the answer is ‘I don’t care if it makes me a better person’?

Too many young people are getting sucked into the mystique of the drug culture. The glamour needs to be dispelled. Whatever draw there is to starting drugs that first time needs to be identified and examined so that we can finally put a halt to the useless and expensive incarceration of the user (save tax dollars by not having to support them while in jail), clear space in rehab centers for others, lessen the demand for drugs so gangs in foreign countries and the U.S. cannot make a profit from drug traffic.

Afghanistan provides 90 percent of the world’s opium because it brings more money to farmers than growing food crops; Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia are increasing their coca production because they make more money on this than from food crops; Suriname has become a transshipment base for South American cocaine to the world; Myanmar is directly benefits from illegal drug traffic; Mexico benefits from drug trafficking.

What is it going to take to get U.S. citizens to see beyond their own personal desires to get high and recognize the effect they are having on those people who choose to become involved in the drug trade?

Stronger role models would defiantly help. Finding value in yourself will help the desire to not become a junky. Giving support to other people who need it to feel better about themselves can go a long toward finding that valuable side of you. Encouragement and support from family and friends can make a great deal of difference in valuing yourself.

We are the cause and effect. And as such, we hold all the power to change it. Please, lets not add to the problem.

The thing is that after coming back down, reality is still there. And possibly worse because you didn’t tackle whatever it is that made you want to get high in the first place.

Here is a list of drug treatment centers for yourself or someone you love. It is not too late.

Here is a list of support groups for ex-drug users.

Here is a website for parents of a drug user.