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Monday, July 28, 1997

Substance abuse one choice everyone must make in life

DRUGS:

Individuals have sole responsibility for deciding values of right and wrong

The Drug Enabling Association, Cocaine Insertion Agency and the Federal Bud Inspectors work diligently in the never-ending war on drugs. However, one problem always exists: the war is being fought against each individual's right to do what he chooses with his body.

Choices and decisions are the things that life offers; whether the decision is right or wrong is a matter of personal taste. Now you're thinking, "Oh no! He's condoning drugs, he wants to stuff our little babies with all those disgusting needles." Wrong. I just think that everyone should have the opportunity to do as they choose with their bodies and, more importantly, do what they think is best for them.

The world of drugs is undeniably destructive. I have seen firsthand the effects of both soft and hard drugs ­ neither is a pretty sight. Some start off by smoking a bowl at a small get-together, maybe some hot box a friend's car late at night, or even get the family dog a little hip to the way of the walk. The hazy afternoons are nice for the average guy, but for others, the need, the yearning for the ultimate and the nagging of curiosity plagues the mind. The needle finds its way through the haze and the addiction takes over.

I once went into a hospital ward where a man lay, eyes half-open, mouth drooping with saliva slowly tapping his chest. The contours of his body screamed as his bones tried to rip through his skin. The IVs surrounded him like vines in a jungle, he laid there in a stupor with his fingers curled. My mind raced with the possibilities of what could have happened, including that he was the victim of a bad torture scene from some sick movie. Before I could arrive at any other conclusion, the nurse simply said, "Heroin."

The choice was made, the man had entered a world that consumed him. Nevertheless, it was a choice that he had to live with; at least it was his own decision.

If you're asking, "What about the children? They can't resist influence," you're right. But then again, that's what parents are for. Choice holds a great deal of responsibility. Responsibility is the ability to choose for oneself what is right or wrong, something that can only be learned through experience. Experience does not mean that a person should try everything, but that he should know enough about himself and his life to make the decision that is right for him when he reaches a crossroad. If he decides to go ahead and take drugs, then that is the choice that he believes is best befitting his lifestyle and his future. We cannot judge the decision as right or wrong because that would be applying our values and our perceptions to someone else.

Value judgments obscure the true problem. The reason drugs are illegal is not because they are bad for you and not because the government cares if you have a tummy ache. It is because the people who vote have a general interest in keeping a functional society in which their workers remain efficient producers and live in their communities undisturbed. If the entire middle class were to get high every weekend, the work week wouldn't be very productive. If people were to trek through Brentwood screaming, "purple haze, purple haze!" as some rich lawyers' children sipped lemonade, I'm sure property values would be a little hazy too.

People pay to live in neighborhoods that offer them the certain illusion that they seek, whether it be the fast-paced metropolitan area that suits today's modern man or the quiet, clean community that's just dandy to raise Beaver Cleaver in. If you come strolling along, eating your happy-time brownies as you contemplate why all these people seem really bummed, you've just shattered their illusion, and they can't get their money back any more. No one cares what you do with yourself as long as you don't crash into his or her world and destroy the happy illusion they've worked to establish.

Both those who use drugs and those who are against drugs have illusions ­ both are just as addictive, and both have the same right to exist. The problem is that when these illusions happen to run into each other and both are destroyed, the one that costs more money is the one that isn't illegal.

If we want to pierce ourselves or tattoo every square inch of our bodies, people may cringe and stare, but no one calls the police. People may think it's disgusting and think that it's nothing they would ever do to their own body, but that's where they acknowledge the fact that their body belongs to them and them alone. With our bodies belonging to us, we should have the freedom to take a trip, whether it be in the car on the way to Tijuana or on a couch going to the dark side of the moon.

It reminds me of the time one of my old high school friends told me that my body really wasn't mine but an investment that belonged to society. This friend told me that I owed it to society to keep its investment in good condition and, most of all, alive. Investment my ass! If I want to go into the woods, find a nice tree, invest a few dollars in an 1 1/2 inch nylon rope to hang myself, society could bill me later.

If society really has a stake in every person who lives within it, why does it leave some investments to fail? Why are some left to starve under a streetlight on a damp concrete bed, talking to a beady-eyed rat as if it really understands? Well that's because that starving person is not in the neighborhood. As people pass by, they tell each other that that's the way he wants to live, that's what he decided to do with his life. They don't approve of his decision, they don't condone it, but they still respect the fact that it is his decision.

Give it up, what people wish to do to themselves and their bodies is their choice. If the problem with drugs is all the crime that comes with it, then I'm sure that the legalization of all forms of drugs would enlarge the market enough to make today's drug companies find a way to serve the masses. If the problem is a society of addicts, then the problem is with the individual not the method. If the problem is freedom, then we truly have a problem.

The bottom line is that the choice to do drugs should be afforded to every person, regardless of what type of person they are. Whether you purchase your drug illegally on the street or with a signature in the office of a real estate broker, use your illusion, but don't let it use you.