Why Do People Take Drugs?

To feel better.

Duh.

It doesn’t matter what the drug is, we take it to feel better,

Have an infection?  Take penicillin, feel better.

Headache?  Take aspirin, feel better.

Cancer?  Chemotherapy.

Stress?  Nicotine.

Loneliness?  Alcohol.

Name the problem, there’s a drug for it.

The hypocrisy we spew is that some ailments are entitled tp use some drugs, but other ailments are blamed on the sufferer, who ios either expected to endure their suffering with stoic silence or seek relief through socially approved health care providers.

Gawd help the poor schmuck who opts to self-medicate.

When we talk about “the drug problem” we never mean it in the sense of big phrama charging too damn much.

Rather, we talk about it in the sense of denying that we as a society have failed many of our citizens by ignoring the myriad root causes of their psychic pain and instead demonize their efforts to seek relief.

Healthy people -- physically / emotionally / mentally -- do not need drugs to feel better; they’re already feeling good and / or at peace with themselves.

Only when something hurts do we seek relief.

A person sound of heart and mind may suffer some illness or injury that requires strong pain relievers, but once the cause of the pain is successfully treated the desire / need for pain relief vanishes.

But we see far too many people suffering psychic pain / illness / injury / trauma who hide it from public view, who succumb to drug addiction when treated for physical pain.* 

The prescribed drug does its assigned job well, it numbs the physical pain, but in many cases it also numbs the invisible pain, the emotional pain, the eternal internal pain.

And that’s when people get hooked.

Hanks to pious self-righteous blue-nosed progs (looking at you, my fellow Christians), people with internal damage are denied pain relief.

“If you feel bad, it’s because you sinned.  Pray the sin away.”

Yeah, calling shenanigans on that.  “Sin” means falling short of the mark.  It means not giving a damn about others or their pain, just relieving in self-preening pride over our own lack or fecal odor.

There is a sinner in most sermons, typically the one casting stones from behind the pulpit.

This is not to say people with addiction issues can’t be hurtful or harmful to others,

I don’t care how much you need to drink to forget whatever-their-name-in, DON’T GET BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR!

Addiction related problems arise by forcing users to seek expensive black market drugs which often propels them to commit crimes to finance their drug use.

Many sex workers are classic examples of this.  They feel guilt or shame over their profession, turning to drugs to assuage those feelings, requiring more sex work to buy more drugs to numb more feelings, etc., etc., and of course, etc.

Even in supposedly nice middle class Norman Rockwell homes the same issues arise.  Homemakers need “mother’s little helper” to get through the day which makes them less likely to meet their obligations be they self-imposed or even worse, imposed by whatever group the homemaker identifies with.

Which of course leads to more drugs to soothe the pain which only causes more pain requiring more drugs…

You get the picture?

The first step towards helping people with addiction issues is for society to stop being so damn moralistic and judgmental.

Stop laying imaginary sins on them from the pulpit, accept them for what they are where they are.

The next step is to accept responsible drug use.  There are people who are alcoholics and drug addicts who know how to keep their consumption under control.  People like that are to be encouraged.

Drug addiction is not a moral issue but a health problem,

Cure it, don’t punish it.

© Buzz Dixon

* Because gawd forbid we show we are vulnerable on the inside.  Whack off our arms and legs, gouge out our eyes, rip out our tongues, but never reveal any mental or emotional weakness.