I think of you often Mike when the subject of drug addiction and the toll families pay comes up.

I doubt we ever eliminate drug addiction from our society.

I believe we could reduce the number of addicts though.

What we are doing now doesn't work.

Far to many families grieving like Mike's family. It's time to try something different.

I believe the roadblock to a different approach is the money black market sales generate.

I really believe money has nothing to do with any of it.
This country has more money at every turn than anywhere that's every been.
More money?
We are the richest people and also the most medicated people that's ever been.
And more pills are on the way to counter what people say they need help with.
Anxiety. Off the charts.
Depression. Commonplace.
Anger. 364,000,000 Google resources.

We've lost sight of what knits people together y'all and we are harvesting those seeds as a people.
Example: tell me how many people look you in the eye as you pass them by on the sidewalk, in the grocery aisle, or at the gas pump?
Not many.
People have retreated. Into themselves.
The lies of affluence and all you need is love, and all you need is to be alone was always a lie,
and it is horrendous to those who find no meaning in a life of stuff... and stuff, and more stuff.... yet no relationships.
Which by the way, doesn't mean what the culture says is relationship = the lies of hookups and sexual relationships.
Which almost always end up in some form of shame, guilt, and more.
To which we medicate and get right back in the game.

The fiber of our morality is shifting and we see it play out in front of us but we sweep it aside until we are struck and then we wonder how this could happen?
We're all in this together. You. Me. Us.
One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Anyone even hear that much these days?

Blessings,
Mark

What does how much people spend on illicit drugs have to do with anything,
other than to highlight the direction of people's desires.
Which was my point.

Boys I am here to tell you that crappy Fentanyl used to cut other drugs is whats killing most of the fentanyl OD's. Even the biggest morons out there know PURE Fentanyl is DEATH

And I am here to tell you addiction is MENTAL its a way to escape whatever the heck is bothering you that you can't or don't want to face. We need more mental assistance for those with addiction as I can relate. It helped me a great deal with ferret out the root causes of it, how and when it started as well and healthy coping skills. No easy or fun but very effective.

I'll get off my soapbox now

Mike

I will type slow. No real war on drugs exists. There is too much money being made. What we are doing is not working. Time to try something new. Time to end the huge profits.

good post mike

Mike,
Sorry about your brother.

I have a question although I'm not sure anyone can answer it. I hear on the news all the time, " died from cocaine laced with fentanyl." Seems odd that a drug dealer would lace his drugs that he sells with fentanyl since the fentanyl will possibly kill off the pusher's customers. Any thoughts anyone?

Justsayno

Maybe just God sweeping the streets, addiction is an horrible thing be it drugs, booze or tobaccos. Sad but I guess folks making their life choices. Hard to understand or comprehend especially when its the first time. After the addiction sets in they are not of right mind and or are hooked. Sad to say the least, not sure if anything can change it.

Yep

Fentanyl is cheap and addictive. Cocaine is expensive. Lacing cocaine with fentanyl creates a cheaper more addictive product that can be sold at the same high cocaine price. Cocaine used to be cut with baking soda. Cutting it with fentanyl creates more, shall we say, repeat customers. The problem (well, one of many problems) comes when morons use too much fentanyl to cut.

Running to the other side of the boat hull would not, I'd say, bring about anything but more of the same.
Legal?
Not legal?
Cash?
No cash?
More cash?
All of these are a philosophically myopic view of a monstrous cultural dilemma and do not borrow to the core.

Blessings,
Mark

I lost my son to fentanyl a little over a year ago... 3.8 college gpa, computer programmer Fortune 500 company, nicest kid in the world to people he met... dead at 31... I didn't even get to say goodbye...

Coop,
There are situations where words were never meant to describe such suffering as you've experienced.
So sorry for your loss friend.

Blessings,
Mark

Tomorrow is George Floyd Day. Is it celebrated? or recognized?

Lost my little sister 12/24/20 to fentanyl. She was 22 years old. I read the texts from her phone and she "ordered" a clean percocet (sp) from a guy - meaning a prescription pill. He passed off a dirty 30 which is poorly mixed pills laced with fentanyl from Mexico and they look identical to what you would get at a pharmacy. The guy is being charged with murder and we are still waiting for the courts to set a date for sentencing. Sounds like she was a once or twice a month user. It obviously was hard to comprehend and has been devastating for my parents. I've learned the younger generation in this area prefers popping pills on the weekends over drinking. I was amazed at how big of an issue it is and how easy it is to get cheap Mexican pills.

Most people have no idea. They are not involved in the drug culture. It IS a culture btw. Homeless thieving and or sex workers ( both male and female) on one end, and wealthy wholesale distributers , "upstanding businessmen" and the "honest politicians" their money supports, crooked judges , cops and prison guard's on the other, with a lot of sometime users in the middle.

Maurob,
How sad we are to hear that.
Though it is painful to remember your sister, by God's mercy he sustains us through such times because what a travesty it would be to ever forget.

Blessings,
Mark

Today is the IMF day and I will once again chaplain a major hospital (this is my last week as I graduate Saturday) here in Dallas and I will no doubt meet one more family, I've never met before, today in either the PICU or ICU who hopes their loved one survives. The stories are almost always the same. One pill. One dose. And here they are in a hospital, where no one envisioned they'd be just one day earlier. The patient is almost always between the age of 12 and 35. Some have been older.

You know I was thinking a few weeks back about a lesson I learned here in my ministry courses, taught by a big tough Navy chaplain who is about 6'6" and a solid 260. He said last semester and I haven't forgotten his lesson.... that the biggest lie he thinks he's ever been told in his life, as he sits amongst Navy and Marines as a military chaplain is that, "Big boys don't cry." He grew up with that lie. That lie was hammered into him by his dad (not literally). And he has come to figure out, after 22 years of serving soldiers that the heck with that lie..... and that in times of grieving and suffering and heartache, it's more than fine and he actually teaches soldiers it's OK to cry - not like a baby - but as God's child. As we are made to do.
Humans are made for relationships and not some survival of the fittest paradigm. How do we know? Easy. We cry when someone dies. Survival of the fittest would be happy when others die.

And so this big strong Navy/Marine chaplain sits amongst the broken and supports them with what known as a "Ministry of Presence."

I'll need that again today when I meet people who are emotionally drained because someone they love beyond words is lying in a hospital bed in really bad shape.
Thank God for modern medicine. The hospital. The doctors and nurses and EMTS. The meds. All of it.
But let us remember what God calls VERY GOOD.... and that is people.
It's really OK to hurt when they hurt. It's how we're wired y'all. By God.

Hug your kids and spouses y'all.
Blessings,
Mark