Manufacturing Addiction
The drug culture is the most widely recieved taboo in all the world. It is a place where addiction and acceptance hold hands and dance in the moon light. If you’re in the right crowd and on the right shit, they fade into each other. Suddenly being fucked up is normal and that’s where the magic of drugs begins. Drugs are the tangible aspects of what our dreams are made of, they are the warm feeling in our stomachs, they are the confidence we lack in the day to day, they are that which we cannot be, they are the fill to our void. But drugs can be evil, they can be controlling, and they can be the ultimate thief. They will kill that which they helped create. Drugs are threatening, everywhere, and overall they are fucking amazing. Which is precisely why we are in the predicament that we are in now
For those who haven’t heard or those that can count their lucky stars, because they haven’t been affected by this demon in some way or another, we are in the worst heroin epidemic in recent history. Heroin finds itself inside of a new vein everyday, and these are not just the veins of the junkies with the “I need money for dope” signs that you’ve become accustomed to seeing on your drive to work. This epidemic is your son, your daghter, your niece and your nephew who are burning sooons in your basement as we speak. This cancer is in our families and at the rate we are battling it, we will never cure it.
We have been fighting this beast for decades in America, and we have never so much as drawn blood on this animal, but that’s what happens when you fight the devil with legislation. The laws fail because there’s no jurisdiction on the selfish needs of man. Take a look at our insane timeline of the government trying to “take action against the evil drugs, and keep America clean.” We criminalized alcohol in the 1920’s through prohibition because of a political agenda, and that caused bootleggers and organized crime to become empires in this country. We criminalized weed in the 1930’s because of a political agenda and a hearty portion of racism. That caused a dangerously violent black market for this wonderful plant to emerge in America. Fast forward to the early 1970’s and we have the infamous, “War on Drugs.” One of the most embarrassing political failures of all time that actually made the drug problem even worse. This shit caused massive tensions between the American population and the police that still exists today. The arrest rate for both violent and non-violent drug charges shot through the fucking roof, and subsequently our incarceration rate went to the goddamn moon. The War on Drugs caused racial tension that has never subsided. It put the all powerful eye of the media on drugs and made them even more widely accessible. Drugs were more widely talked about in music and tv than ever before, and it peaked the interest of those hearing about it. “If the ads say it’s so bad why do people keep doing it?” “It must feel amazing!” “Yeah, I’d never do it though.” Through all of this over saturation of a hypocritical anti drug movement, the “wet paint syndrome” took hold and people started using left and right.
By the late 1980’s the War on Drugs was in full swing, and the drug of choice was crack (mainly), and the number of people doing it was astronomical. If you don’t know the difference between crack cocaine and cocaine, I guess you’ve never watched a 90’s crime drama or listened to a hip-hop record. I’m just kidding, most people actually don’t know the difference. Cocaine is a drug derived from the coca leaf by a process of extraction and chemical treatments that (in short) creates the magic go dust that is beloved by so many coke snorters world wide. Crack on the other hand is basically just cocaine mixed with water and baking soda, and it is generally smoked instead of snorted and gets the user all sorts of fucked up. Now this new drug crack was an economic wet dream for the dealer and the user. See the dealer can cut his pure cocaine with other ingredients and stretch his product further, opposed to just selling raw product. And for the user, well except for the overwhelming addiction and degenerate lifestyle that comes from being a junkie, they had it made in the shade because crack is cheaper than straighr coke for two reasons. First, it’s way more addictive and that’s generally because it’s freebased, (smoked via glass pipe, soda can, aluminum foil, anyhing really) so that means the user is most likely a life long customer to their dealer. Second, the high is fucking outrageous, supposedly that is, just watch any episode of cops EVER and you be the judge. But the people making the real money off this shit was the cartels in Mexico, and that brings us almost up to date.
I won’t go into great detail about the cartels because I could write about those sick, crazy fucks until my fingers fell off. What you should know though, is the cartels were responsible for bringing cocaine into the United States through several avenues from South America. The cartels are as powerful as they are ultra fucking violent, but at the end of the day they are stone cold businessmen. And as any good businessmen, they kept their ears to the streets, their eyes on their market, and they noticed something astounding going on with their neighbors to the north, we were doing their job for them.
While we were fighting the endless War on Drugs here in the US, we were simultaneously supplying the American people with drugs on drugs on drugs. Yes sir, we dishing out heroin, drown sugar, the dragon, whatever you want to call it, like it was fun size candy on Halloween. We were supplying our own war. Heroin was first developed as medicine and was widely used for years in the medical field to treat serious ailments and injuries. After some time doctors began to see how damaging heroin was in the long run for the patients, so they began to seek an alternative. Enter fentanyl and synthetic opioids. The pharmaceutical companies engineered heroin in a lab, gave it different names, tested it out on people, and started supplying. Big pharma started slinging dope on an epic level like the cold mother fuckers they are. Treating chronic pain with fucking heroin with a marked up sticker price and calling it medicine.They were giving medicine to the people that only numbs their pain temporarily, basically by manipulating and rushing the patients nervous system with chemicals, and knowing full well how addictive and deadly these pills are, they made the perfect repeat customer becuaese they engineered junkies. Addicts without the guilt because their dealer was a trusted friend with a degree and an empty oath to guide them on the road to recovery. These devils in disguise caught the eye of another demon, the Cartels. They saw that Americans were addicted in record numbers to their own supply. They noticed kids were not only stealing these drugs from the medicine cabinet and abusing them, but the doctors were giving these teenagers opioids too. They couldn’t believe that we did their plug work for them and like I said they’re businessmen, they would be foolish not to capitalize on this opportunity. They took control of this situation from its deepest, darkest, most desperate avenue.
They saw the suburban middle class junkie who had been taking oxy for a back injury that she got from gymnastics two years prior in high school. They noticed that her doctor said “no more pills” after there was no change to her actual condition, because the pills weren’t actually tearing her condition. They noticed that she falls asleep in cold sweats now, and she doesn’t know why she feels this way. They noticed that she wants to feel better no matter how it happens, so they extend their arms to comfort her and they offer her a remedy, heroin. They notice that she’s skeptical, because she’s a good girl, she sat through the D.A.R.E. classes growing up, she said no to peer pressure, and she tells herself that she’s not a drug addict. But her pain and these new symptoms are too much, so she buys a bag. She takes it home, and she snorts it as first because she doesn’t know how else to use it. The pain leaves and it’s replaced by euphoria, she’s warm and she’s finally comfortable. Eventually she meets others that are just relieving their pains too, and they show her how to shoot up. The belt is tight on her arm, and she feels the needle’s prick and then she’s in heaven right here on Earth. She’s never felt anything quite like this, but the feeling is fleeting and the pain is returning. “No, don’t go!” She says, as she comes back to reality. She needs more. Belt. Needle. Prick. Heaven. Relief. Heaven is different this time. There’s not as much air as there was on her last visit, her breaths are shallow. She lays down to feel better. She’s getting lost in the patterns in the ceiling tiles. There’s still not enough air. She begins to feel overwhelmed and nauseous. She vomits. She chokes on it, and she dies violently and alone. Her father comes home from work with dinner for the both of them, her favorite, a chicken burrito bowl. He yells from atop the stairs for her to come up and eat. Five minutes pass and still she’s not at the table. He says jokingly ”You better wake your lazy butt up!” He knocks on her door. No answer. He knocks again. No sound whatsoever. He’s concerned, and he enters the room. He’s face to face with his dead child.
Statistically speaking, that happened 49,068 times in America last year from opioids alone.
That number grows steadily every single year, and yet we are still not talking about this epidemic. We are still debating the legalization of marijuana and other trivial bullshit instead of doing something about this. I think we are silent because of how disheartening it is to actually acknowledge how fundamentally fucked up our health care system is, and realize that these dead sons and daughters, brothers and sisters are just viewed as lost business to the pharmaceutical companies and the Cartels. On the other hand they can just sling some antidepressants to the Daddy that found his baby girl blue, cold, and unresponsive, Lord knows he’ll need them. And just like that business is still booming.
I wish I had a solution to end this article with, but unfortunately I don’t know how to take on the largest and most corrupt industry in this country. The only thing I can offer is a helping hand to anyone who may be struggling with addiction, because I’ve seen too many people, too many loved ones, too many young, charismatic, beautiful souls go before their time because of this nightmare that we are plagued with. I’ve seen addiction tear someone I loved so very much to his lowest level right before my own eyes, and deny help over and over again because the drugs were better than reality. The same drugs that we have a supposed war against, are still taking people by the hundreds daily. So please be a voice for this epidemic, spread awareness, and get on the correct side of this war.
We have been fighting this beast for decades in America, and we have never so much as drawn blood on this animal, but that’s what happens when you fight the devil with legislation. The laws fail because there’s no jurisdiction on the selfish needs of man. Take a look at our insane timeline of the government trying to “take action against the evil drugs, and keep America clean.” We criminalized alcohol in the 1920’s through prohibition because of a political agenda, and that caused bootleggers and organized crime to become empires in this country. We criminalized weed in the 1930’s because of a political agenda and a hearty portion of racism. That caused a dangerously violent black market for this wonderful plant to emerge in America. Fast forward to the early 1970’s and we have the infamous, “War on Drugs.” One of the most embarrassing political failures of all time that actually made the drug problem even worse. This shit caused massive tensions between the American population and the police that still exists today. The arrest rate for both violent and non-violent drug charges shot through the fucking roof, and subsequently our incarceration rate went to the goddamn moon. The War on Drugs caused racial tension that has never subsided. It put the all powerful eye of the media on drugs and made them even more widely accessible. Drugs were more widely talked about in music and tv than ever before, and it peaked the interest of those hearing about it. “If the ads say it’s so bad why do people keep doing it?” “It must feel amazing!” “Yeah, I’d never do it though.” Through all of this over saturation of a hypocritical anti drug movement, the “wet paint syndrome” took hold and people started using left and right.
By the late 1980’s the War on Drugs was in full swing, and the drug of choice was crack (mainly), and the number of people doing it was astronomical. If you don’t know the difference between crack cocaine and cocaine, I guess you’ve never watched a 90’s crime drama or listened to a hip-hop record. I’m just kidding, most people actually don’t know the difference. Cocaine is a drug derived from the coca leaf by a process of extraction and chemical treatments that (in short) creates the magic go dust that is beloved by so many coke snorters world wide. Crack on the other hand is basically just cocaine mixed with water and baking soda, and it is generally smoked instead of snorted and gets the user all sorts of fucked up. Now this new drug crack was an economic wet dream for the dealer and the user. See the dealer can cut his pure cocaine with other ingredients and stretch his product further, opposed to just selling raw product. And for the user, well except for the overwhelming addiction and degenerate lifestyle that comes from being a junkie, they had it made in the shade because crack is cheaper than straighr coke for two reasons. First, it’s way more addictive and that’s generally because it’s freebased, (smoked via glass pipe, soda can, aluminum foil, anyhing really) so that means the user is most likely a life long customer to their dealer. Second, the high is fucking outrageous, supposedly that is, just watch any episode of cops EVER and you be the judge. But the people making the real money off this shit was the cartels in Mexico, and that brings us almost up to date.
I won’t go into great detail about the cartels because I could write about those sick, crazy fucks until my fingers fell off. What you should know though, is the cartels were responsible for bringing cocaine into the United States through several avenues from South America. The cartels are as powerful as they are ultra fucking violent, but at the end of the day they are stone cold businessmen. And as any good businessmen, they kept their ears to the streets, their eyes on their market, and they noticed something astounding going on with their neighbors to the north, we were doing their job for them.
While we were fighting the endless War on Drugs here in the US, we were simultaneously supplying the American people with drugs on drugs on drugs. Yes sir, we dishing out heroin, drown sugar, the dragon, whatever you want to call it, like it was fun size candy on Halloween. We were supplying our own war. Heroin was first developed as medicine and was widely used for years in the medical field to treat serious ailments and injuries. After some time doctors began to see how damaging heroin was in the long run for the patients, so they began to seek an alternative. Enter fentanyl and synthetic opioids. The pharmaceutical companies engineered heroin in a lab, gave it different names, tested it out on people, and started supplying. Big pharma started slinging dope on an epic level like the cold mother fuckers they are. Treating chronic pain with fucking heroin with a marked up sticker price and calling it medicine.They were giving medicine to the people that only numbs their pain temporarily, basically by manipulating and rushing the patients nervous system with chemicals, and knowing full well how addictive and deadly these pills are, they made the perfect repeat customer becuaese they engineered junkies. Addicts without the guilt because their dealer was a trusted friend with a degree and an empty oath to guide them on the road to recovery. These devils in disguise caught the eye of another demon, the Cartels. They saw that Americans were addicted in record numbers to their own supply. They noticed kids were not only stealing these drugs from the medicine cabinet and abusing them, but the doctors were giving these teenagers opioids too. They couldn’t believe that we did their plug work for them and like I said they’re businessmen, they would be foolish not to capitalize on this opportunity. They took control of this situation from its deepest, darkest, most desperate avenue.
They saw the suburban middle class junkie who had been taking oxy for a back injury that she got from gymnastics two years prior in high school. They noticed that her doctor said “no more pills” after there was no change to her actual condition, because the pills weren’t actually tearing her condition. They noticed that she falls asleep in cold sweats now, and she doesn’t know why she feels this way. They noticed that she wants to feel better no matter how it happens, so they extend their arms to comfort her and they offer her a remedy, heroin. They notice that she’s skeptical, because she’s a good girl, she sat through the D.A.R.E. classes growing up, she said no to peer pressure, and she tells herself that she’s not a drug addict. But her pain and these new symptoms are too much, so she buys a bag. She takes it home, and she snorts it as first because she doesn’t know how else to use it. The pain leaves and it’s replaced by euphoria, she’s warm and she’s finally comfortable. Eventually she meets others that are just relieving their pains too, and they show her how to shoot up. The belt is tight on her arm, and she feels the needle’s prick and then she’s in heaven right here on Earth. She’s never felt anything quite like this, but the feeling is fleeting and the pain is returning. “No, don’t go!” She says, as she comes back to reality. She needs more. Belt. Needle. Prick. Heaven. Relief. Heaven is different this time. There’s not as much air as there was on her last visit, her breaths are shallow. She lays down to feel better. She’s getting lost in the patterns in the ceiling tiles. There’s still not enough air. She begins to feel overwhelmed and nauseous. She vomits. She chokes on it, and she dies violently and alone. Her father comes home from work with dinner for the both of them, her favorite, a chicken burrito bowl. He yells from atop the stairs for her to come up and eat. Five minutes pass and still she’s not at the table. He says jokingly ”You better wake your lazy butt up!” He knocks on her door. No answer. He knocks again. No sound whatsoever. He’s concerned, and he enters the room. He’s face to face with his dead child.
Statistically speaking, that happened 49,068 times in America last year from opioids alone.
That number grows steadily every single year, and yet we are still not talking about this epidemic. We are still debating the legalization of marijuana and other trivial bullshit instead of doing something about this. I think we are silent because of how disheartening it is to actually acknowledge how fundamentally fucked up our health care system is, and realize that these dead sons and daughters, brothers and sisters are just viewed as lost business to the pharmaceutical companies and the Cartels. On the other hand they can just sling some antidepressants to the Daddy that found his baby girl blue, cold, and unresponsive, Lord knows he’ll need them. And just like that business is still booming.
I wish I had a solution to end this article with, but unfortunately I don’t know how to take on the largest and most corrupt industry in this country. The only thing I can offer is a helping hand to anyone who may be struggling with addiction, because I’ve seen too many people, too many loved ones, too many young, charismatic, beautiful souls go before their time because of this nightmare that we are plagued with. I’ve seen addiction tear someone I loved so very much to his lowest level right before my own eyes, and deny help over and over again because the drugs were better than reality. The same drugs that we have a supposed war against, are still taking people by the hundreds daily. So please be a voice for this epidemic, spread awareness, and get on the correct side of this war.
Absolutely spot on!! So eloquently written!!
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