Drug Dependence Is a Death Sentence

Drug dependence is a death sentence; death to those poor dependent souls, and to see it any other way, is to shun the problem! It is cancer that infects society from the inside out; and most of us, unsuspectingly, unknowingly, go about our daily lives, unaware of the deadly reality that innocently exists, just behind our city streets. Within the homes and apartments of everyday people; people, just like you and me.

Here is the fact that our Government, social agencies, and harm reduction facilitators don’t EVER want you to know…Through-out these hundreds of thousands of apartments and millions of homes in this city, there exists a population of vulnerable people; people addicted to drugs; pharmaceutical and recreational drugs; all deadly and dangerous. In our city, we have thousands of apartments and thousands of homes, where drug dealing and drug usage takes place on an hourly basis! The inescapable truth…sadly, we are a nation of drug users.

This epidemic of drug dependence is bigger than anyone could have ever imagined; as it has been secretly growing, unabated for decades! So far, globally speaking, there have not been any real solutions for this global epidemic; all countries are affected!

Let’s just run through the list of failures. The number one, the biggest reason, we still have runaway drug addiction, has to do with the laws and resultant penalties of incarceration for these drugs! Next on the list are drug rehabs; they've been around for over a 100 years, even in the form of sanatoriums in the 1880’s!

They have been a BIG failure; on average producing less than a 3-5% abstinence rate within a few year period! And, at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars per person; it is a repeating example of wasted insurance, business and Government funding, and resources. 95% or more, never get off the drugs; they relapse and continue to live and die because of them.

This is the reason behind the establishment of these Harm Reduction Programs, designed to help the drug user continue to use their drugs but in a safer way. They know, like our Government, that this problem isn't just going to go away; if anything, it is growing, and at epidemic proportions. Like an Ebola virus!

So, they know, that the drug dependent individuals odds are stacked against them; they know, that too much money has already been wasted on these poor miserable beings; and, that true hope for complete drug recovery and long-term abstinence, is just a farfetched fantasy; one they can’t afford-financially; and most importantly, they don’t believe is EVER possible!

I on the other hand believe something else, entirely:

I believe in the goodness of people; their desire for a better life; their longing for a freer life; without sickness, disease, debility, or a lifetime of drug dependence. We all want the same things. We want to be, do, and get out of life the maximum enjoyment, pleasure, and rewards. It’s called survival!

Then why should we continue to cripple a drug user for life, through harm reduction programs and therapies; basically, to facilitate their continued use of the drug, but now, through harm reduction, to use it a bit safer, to themselves and with others? This is a bumbling bureaucratic solution, to ‘controlling’ the problem; but, not ‘solving’ the problem; most importantly, by stopping it dead in its tracks!

I do not wish to live in a world, a city or town, where drug users are controlled by the state, for the rest of their lives. Keeping them addicted as they rot away, closer to death each day. Their immune systems compromised, their choices for a real life limited, and their hope for a better life, free of drugs and their sinister effects; well, all gone, because of our uncaring Government policies and harm reduction programs. Basically, in my opinion, they are a death sentence to every drug user!

There are real solutions to drug dependence; recovery and abstinence are not only possible but achievable by anyone, wanting to be free. Sure, it will require both the will and resources; but, I firmly believe that we as a compassionate society are up for the challenge. We cannot turn our back on our most vulnerable friends, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, uncles, and aunts; they need our help; and they need to believe once again, that abstinence is totally possible; and that a drug free world is just peeking out on the horizon; now that you know, drug dependence is a death sentence!

The End to Harm Reduction Programs

Harm reduction programs ineffectively approach a ‘life and death’ condition, like drug addiction...with these limiting qualifiers, “Recognizing that drug use cannot be completely eliminated….” Thus, the predefined need for harm reduction programs! In other words, hope and help are both limited and finite quantities and qualities, to a point! Endless hope, limitless help, and unbridled compassion don’t exist in this finite Universe of Harm Reduction. I need to ask, why not?

What if there was a way to actually help people stop using the drugs they are so dependent upon?

What if there was real hope for a better life, a healthier and happier life, for EVERY drug user?

What if there was a place beyond harm reduction; a place called, harm elimination; where total drug abstinence, comfortably existed for every drug user as a real possibility? An end to harm reduction programs!

Sure, sure, I know, there are so many unworkable and failure dependent drug addiction programs and therapies out-there; with zero-2% success rates as the norm; is it any wonder social agencies, Governments, corporations and, even every- day-people have lost hope in them?

My approach to this myth of failure is not a fantasy or just my optimistic reality; this is real, it is tangible, and, an observable actuality; this end condition of drug abstinence is realistically achievable; given the means to make every single and precious life matter. That’s the start and foundation for all of this. That EVERY life matters! And, it needs to matter to every one of us in part, and as a whole society! People need to be responsible for each other and help each other while giving each other hope in the process! We ALL need to be involved in the well-being of any of our societal members.

When we ‘just’ reduce the harm, we do not salvage the individual drug dependent user from their crippling drug use and its ill-effects. Instead, we just prolong their misery and suffering. They are suffering, every second of every waking day! Let’s address the real spiritual needs of the individual drug user, instead of their drug habit. Let’s zero-in on what’s ruining their lives, and not, that they are taking/using drugs in a harmful way to themselves, others and society!

Is this the best that we can do for them…these miracles of human existence, these wondrous beings of life…harm reduction?

Why? Because we ‘think’ we don’t have the money or the social will to go all-the-way, and take full- responsibility for that troubled and scarred individual drug user?

Instead, we offer doomed-to-fail and highly contrived, cookie-cutter solutions to this problem of drug addiction; allowing the users to continue on and on, eventually, the drug or associated lifestyle contraindications take their toll and their life!

Another classical/farcical definition for this no-end game is one offered by our Government social research scientists, ““Harm reduction” is a pragmatic, non-judgmental set of strategies to reduce individual and community harm caused by drug use. The focus is on taking incremental steps to reduce harm rather than on eliminating drug use. Abstinence may or may not be the end goal.” Thomas, G. (2005). Harm reduction for special populations: Harm reduction policies and programs for persons involved in the criminal justice system. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

As you can see the options for abstinence is not the focus, aim, goal or ‘life-saving application’ of these harm reduction programs. In the next posting, I will offer practical, affordable and highly workable solutions that we as a society and drug-users can work through together; cooperating responsibly and proactively with each other, to eliminate drug dependence; while creating together, a truly achievable and everlasting abstinence!

Harm Reduction Programs & Why They Fail To Achieve Permanent Results

I applaud the goals and intentions of the Harm Reduction Programs; including, its many dedicated staff and hard working Harm Reduction Program volunteers. These programs help save lives and make our communities a lot safer and disease free; as infections and contagion are also dramatically reduced! Yet, I can’t help wondering in theory at least; is this the best we can do for that valuable human being-the drug user, we are supposed to be helping? 

Or, are we just providing a fiscally and politically correct, band-aid solution, as a means of social engineering and population control? To weed out the sickly and mentally unsound; the impoverished and drug dependent; while making and creating the illusion that something is actually being done of permanence and hope. Personally speaking, in my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth!

Honestly though, throwing a bit of money at a problem like this (drug addiction), is about the same order of magnitude as our current and prolonged problems as a nation; regarding terrorist threats and their tragic effects! It will not help us win any real victories or prevent the bombing of innocent women and children over there in the Middle East! War is war, the body counts are high, and tragically, people become displaced, robbed and raped, tortured and brutalized, during this whole maddening and dehumanizing process!

Like an addict that becomes addicted for life; no hope for a better life; no real chance of becoming a better person; imagine if you will; no reason to want a freer life, without being an addict for the rest of their life! Mostly living poor, with poor hygiene and poor living conditions; while being forced by other conditions and circumstance, to eat devalued, denatured, sugar-laden, greasy, fatty and salty foods; that our Government and social agencies are more than happy to dish out!

Then, on the front lines of some of these agencies, where all the action really happens; it’s all about budgeting, scrimping and fighting for ‘dollars and cents’; trying their best to provide some measure of hope and help. Unfortunately, with zero ‘true’ nutrition available from the food these agencies serve! How is a valuable human being (drug user), supposed to get healthy and live a long and productive life?

An addicts’ diet, like their lifestyle, is limited by many means. Their relationships are fragile and emotionally explosive, and their habits force them to make many compromises; while giving them added stress and pain as they deal with getting the money to feed their daily addictions! I am NOT judging, just stating the facts as I see them and have experienced them first hand and, for decades on end. You know, from the school of hard-knocks, living on/off the streets myself and seeing all this harmful, 'harm reduction programs,' play themselves out, for well over a decade now!

I need to ask, why are we advocating, providing and educating for the ‘safer use’ of drugs; for what, the ongoing needs of even ‘other’ social agencies and programs, to help facilitate the further use of drugs; but, in a bit safer way? While the addict remains a helpless prisoner to their drugs for the rest of his/her life! Sad but true fact!

I am in favor of saner, longer term and, more productive solutions; where the addict becomes a non-addict for the rest of their live-long-days! Is that too much of a radical idea? Is it subversive of me to suggest we treat these addicts like ‘valuable human beings’; to save/salvage their lives from the crippling effects of their almost guaranteed lifetime drug dependence; including, their sometimes deadly and untimely consequences?

Shouldn't we be focusing on a more permanent solution to this age-old drug problem? Haven’t we all realized by now, that most of the current drug programs and rehabs out there are not working; they, like our jail inmates, have a high rate of re-offending! Sanely, as I see it; if we actually cared about the value of a human being; the only true way to harm reduction and, to finally escape from the effects of drug dependence is by way of drug abstinence! To finally rid oneself of that diseased monkey on their back once and for all PERMANENTLY!