Opiate addiction has reached epidemic proportions in Vermont and all of New England. Last weekend as reported in the local media there were 9 overdoses, one resulting in death.
How did this happen? Well it’s nothing new, people have been addicted to all kinds of substances. Tobacco probably being the first. Europeans never thought that inhaling smoke was a fun thing to do until they saw the Native Americans doing it way back in the day. Talk about Red Mans revenge.
Tobacco addiction cost me my oldest best friend to lung cancer. But it’s legal, and governments collect revenue from its sale.
Some drug addictions start because of physical PAIN. A drug relieves the pain. The problem starts when the pain goes away but the drug is needed just to feel normal.
Cocaine, crystal meth, acid, heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone, alcohol, the list is long. The casualty lists include the unknown and the well known, people at the the bottom of the barrel, wealthy people who live in mansions.
In many cases people who sell narcotics are addicts themselves. It’s similar to selling Amway Several years ago I served on a jury trying a central Vermont man on the charge of distributing cocaine. He had a stable of addicts who sold the drug for him in return for portion of the product to feed their habits. He never touched it himself. He just did it for the money. The case against him was so strong after the prosecution rested he and his lawyer through in the towel. He got twenty years.
As I stated before, drug addiction has been here a long time, but its never seemed to be this bad. Especially in rural, small town America.
I blame most of it on 3 generations of dumbed down education. the breakdown of family and moral values. The banning of moral education in schools (who are we to judge) No decent jobs. no future except staying on the government teat. And for that you have to vote democrat.
I must confess that I’m no choirboy. I went through a “fear and loathing” period myself. Perhaps the one thing that saved me from a wasted life of addiction was my upbringing and the fact that I simply couldn’t afford the shit, and committing crimes to satisfy an addiction was not an option. I was busted once for possession and almost spent a night in jail. fortunately a friend posted bail. That was as close as I ever wanted to come.
I’ll leave you with a song from my youth. Relevant today even more.
John Kay certainly doesn’t sound like a liberal here.