We Need Things To Change

I really wanted to end this month with something positive and uplifting but I can’t.  Today I want to throw things and kick and scream and I’m so angry and sad I can barely even speak.  I’m angry because it isn’t fair.  There are things about our society that aren’t fair and are so stupid and backward.  I’m just so furious about it all and today I witnessed someone I care about get screwed because of it.  Three someones really.  And they don’t even know how much I care about them because they aren’t really even a part of my life.  They’ve just influenced me.

People are going crazy right now because we have an “opiate epidemic” in this country.  We don’t really.  52,000 people fatally overdoses last year.  600,000 people died of cancer last year but nobody is saying we have a cancer epidemic.  30,000 people committed suicide last year but we don’t seem to be sweeping the nation with a mental health crisis which is more likely what we actually have.  I’d like to rant about that a little.  Why do we keep having a fucking gun control debate every time some crazy assed person gets a gun and shoots up a school and we never talk about the GIANT FUCKING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM?  We need effective mental health care in this country and we need to stop tippy toeing around it like having mental health problems is some terrible thing or a secret.  People get depressed or anxious or whatever.  So what?  Let’s give these people some dignity and HELP THEM DEAL WITH IT rather than shaming them into a corner and bullying them as a society and making them feel like shit for not being perfect little Stepford clones of what a good little American should be?  I mean YES, we have a bullying problem and it’s not just at school.  That shit is at home and in our business culture and everywhere.  We are cliquish and just shitty and judgmental to one another because for whatever reason we like to make ourselves feel better all the time by making others feel worse.  It’s twisted.  I’m sick of it.  Why not lift each other up?  You are having  a hard time wrapping your head around life? I’m sorry friend, what can I do?  There’s a really good mental health hospital that I’m delighted my taxes helped pay for up in Towson.  Why don’t we get you there to check it out?  I wish they were everywhere!

But I digress.  So we have this opiate problem and our solution is to remove the drugs from everywhere.  Let’s just take them away from people.  Great idea.  Except that it isn’t.  Because the people that are abusing them and don’t want to quit are just going to turn to street drugs like heroin and the underground market for pills.  The people that are abusing them and do want to quit don’t have enough options for help.  The people that aren’t abusing them and using them for legitimate reasons STILL HAVE LEGITIMATE REASONS and now aren’t being treated because we haven’t got good options for treatment of pain.

And before you start in with the “opiates aren’t a good solution for long term pain treatment” I already know this.  So does everyone else.  But we don’t have good solutions for long term pain treatment so we need to do something to help people that are in pain because the alternative is inhumane.  What we’ve done instead is tell people that have chronic pain that they need to learn to live with it and that they need to change their attitude about it.  I think that’s because people that don’t have chronic pain don’t know what else to say and don’t want to face the idea that there are people out there that have to live with that and it is easier to just stigmatize them and make it seem like it’s their own fault rather than face the fact that we don’t have all the answers and that every option available to us is a bad option.

Except it isn’t really.  There are some possible good options.  The thing is that those good options in and of themselves have been so greatly stigmatized because of fear, racism, and hatred that runs so deep in this country that it’s sickening.  We haven’t even been allowed to study them.  We have created this opiate problem rather than looking at relatively safer options because we’ve criminalized and stigmatized them to the point that we can’t even touch them.  Our law makers, propagandists and lobbyists have created such a pervasive message that most people believe it. Have you guessed what I’m talking about?

And it’s not just about marijuana.  It’s really about all drugs.  I started out this month talking about Topamax and how friggin weird I felt taking it.  I was high as a kite taking this med and I still feel pretty strange, although not that strange.  Maybe I’m just used to it?  I don’t know.  My brain has become so addled by the drug it’s difficult for me to tell and I don’t feel like thinking about it anyway.  But this drug is not illegal.  This drug is perfectly legal as long as you get a prescription and lots of people are walking around on it all the time.  Nobody thinks about it.  Nobody thinks these drugs are dangerous like they think heroin or cocaine or lsd or mdma or marijuana is dangerous.  People don’t even think alcohol is dangerous which is insane.  Last year 88,000 people died from something related to alcohol in the US.  Remember earlier when I was talking about overdoses?  Alcohol related deaths are more and alcohol is legal.  It’s easier to get than Topamax!

Now lets talk about people that have died from using marijuana.

Okay, now that we’ve talked about that, let’s talk about people that died from using lsd or psilocybin last year.

Okay, now that we are done with that topic…doesn’t it seem a bit odd to you that these drugs that have potential therapeutic value aren’t even being studied?  I mean, we write prescriptions for opiates and we go out and chug booze at bars and then drive home, and then we criminalize people for using something that is relatively safe?

It’s an old argument.  A very old one.  But people are still afraid.  So afraid that my friend lost his kids over that fear.  So afraid that people are losing their lives because they have to live with pain that could be treated by drugs we already know about.  So afraid that we aren’t even talking about it the way we should be.

And I’m really tired of fear driving this country and our choices.  I’m so sick of it I could vomit.  But I already vomit enough because I have a chronic illness that causes me to vomit a lot.  Guess what is really good for that?  But it’s illegal, so I better not use it or even talk about it because that would be dangerous.  Right?

What is it going to take for us to see that we need to change this horrible “War on Drugs” policy?  Prohibition doesn’t work.  Education could work.  Let’s teach people about the responsible use of all kinds of drugs.  Let’s also teach people that it’s okay to have fun, but how to do so responsibly.  I don’t care if you want to have some drinks on a Saturday night to unwind from a rough week.  Great!  Go to it.  I also don’t care if the occasional bump is your thing.  Whatever, I’m not the judge here.  I’m here to say let’s talk about this whole thing differently.  I’m over it and the expense of it all.

And I fully recognize I’m just one more person spewing the same crap every other “legalize it” person has said, but that’s only because it needs to be repeated until everyone hears it and understands.  STOP BEING AFRAID AND START THINKING ABOUT THIS.  Your way didn’t work.  It didn’t even make sense.  We tried.  Try something new.