What does it take?

I have been in over 13 rehabs, been in hospitals more times than I can remember, and still, the problem persists – ADDICTION!

Not so much for me. Not anymore. But for the country.

Oh, that terrible/wonderful title called addiction.

Back when I was growing up, pot and pills, drink, club drugs – those were the things that were available, and to beware of. Now. My goodness, NOW – there is this terrible, newer thing: fentanyl. A synthetic opiate that is fifty to a hundred times stronger than morphine.

Way back when (that makes me want to both laugh and cry) heroin addiction and cocaine addiction were things you just read about. Something you heard about on the News. Something that did not apply to you, or your friends.

Sure, you always knew someone that knew someone that had an uncle or cousin with “a problem”, but not anyone you knew directly.

In recent years, the addiction problem and the deaths attributed to it have been staggering.

Overdoses from heroin/fentanyl have beat the number of deaths of soldiers that fought in Vietnam and Korea – COMBINED!

I’m not one that usually posts or publishes his own personal philosophies or politics for the public to read, but, on this topic, I will be damned if I don’t share my opinion.

Drugs and addiction are not going away. They rise and rise and rise. Americans love to get high. – That is a fact. Not all Americans, but a large percentage of them. And it’s NOT going away.

And, it has always been here.

Since the beginning of recorded history, drugs (and booze) have been involved. The Chinese with opium, the Greeks and Romans with their wine… the list can go on and on. But, now, things are really screwed up.

What is so dangerous is the WHAT that is out there… and what people are capable of doing to get it. Stealing, lying, killing – all for a high. And yes, I have loved certain highs. Feelings that made me think I was better than myself… a feeling that takes all the bad feelings away, turning them into good feelings.

My goodness, who does not find that attractive?

Problem is: there is a price.

Oh, there is always THE PRICE.

Physical and mental health problems. Deterioratization of relationships with family and friends. Legal consequences.

I love doing drugs. I just love my life more.

I wish more people felt the same way. It took me a long time to get to where I am at… to get beyond the wall I manufactured for myself. I scaled the son-of-a-bitch, though. And there is no secret cure to get over addiction.

(I don’t think a person truly gets over it.)

There is only the desire one has for something else. I have that desire. If you want to get high, get high. Just remember, you are not doing it alone. You take others with you. And they are not having fun.