It seems to me that the people best equipped to help drug addicts are the drug dealer themselves.  A  dealer can become a best friend to many young people, someone whose searching for a quick pain reliever, looking for a quick escape from their present situation,  or just times when they need and want to feel good for a change.  They learn quickly that these so called “friends” are only a phone call away or a few steps from their home, even a neighbor.  They can purchase their fix anytime of the day, and all their worries and anxieties can remain on the back burner for a little while longer.

Keep in mind that the drug addicts that I’m talking about do not necessarily choose this destiny for themselves.  Most often they’re experiencing hardships within the family – parental separation, sexual abuse, alcoholism, and most often,  disabilities of their own that they’re trying to tackle by themselves. These categories of drug addicts start off in life with little or no self esteem. At an early age, they seek acceptance often by the wrong crowd, those who appear no better than what they feel about themselves. They get introduced to drugs, and before they know it, they can’t live without them.  Still,  there are others who just can’t cope with the inconsistent confusion of present day pressures. It’s wrong to assume that we are all made alike, equipped to handle everything that comes our way.  Therefore, is it any wonder that they’ve found something that leaves them emotionally numb, a moment in time when they don’t have to care, worry, or fear anymore.

Unfortunately,  it’s the addicts that become society’s castoffs, beyond the reach of cities, church, schools, and even families. They soon become society’s rejection, the losers and failures, the bums, and for some, it only ends when they are transported to some burial plot in town. People say, “Oh, he was just a bum anyway, a drug addict” The idea that the drug dealers have just murdered another human being never seems to enter in their mind, “because drug dealers didn’t force them to take it in the first place.” “Nobody forced this drug into him.”  Whether or not he was an abused child, raised by an addict parent or alcoholics, born as an addicted infant, or just can’t cope with life. “They should have had brains enough to say “no”!  Oh, Please!!!

Ironically, in the richest nation on earth,  it seems that the best people equipped to handle drug addiction are the drug dealers themselves. You see, some are  lucky enough to have medical insurance for treatment and rehabilitation programs, and certainly, the government does their share in helping them, but first they have to find a rehab in their area, and one that has an open bed.  Not many users have the means or insurance to transport themselves around the country. They, then,  have to go through a screening over the telephone because it’s not enough to just say “I’m an addict and I want to go straight”. Instead they wait patiently by the telephone for what could be hours to get  the call back saying they’ve been accepted.

Once there, AA & NA meetings are available as well as drug treatment, but if  they care to spend any length of time with a psychiatrist, seeking some truth into why they need the drugs in the first place, the waiting games begin.  After all, there are hundreds of others at the same Rehab. Chances are they’ll be released before their second or third session.

After only 10-14 days, they rejoice in telling them that they can go home, not because you’re cured, but because your insurance ran out, and for most it’s not a happy day.  They know that 14 sober days will not make them strong enough to fight the drug war within themselves in the same familiar surroundings they are returning to.

The center may offer other options,  the chance to have a better support system, in a halfway house, but the waiting period for their beds can take longer then the treatment center. In the meantime, they send them off to a  holding facility which is often located in a drug infested neighborhood, or a location that holds 500 cots full of fellow addicts waiting to be transferred.  If the drug addict has ADD, anxieties, or social disorders, like most do,  their fear level begins to rise.  They’ve only been straight for 10-14 days, and often aren’t ready to handle this type of situation.

There their time is spent at one meeting after another, hearing one drunk-a-log or drug-a-log after another, until they can hear them in their sleep. I guess they assume that hearing the other stories will convince them to go straight. However they soon sound all alike. Nobody is helping them discover the real reason they were led to drugs in the first place, and to get the counseling, they have to wait their turn just like the other 500 people.

So, in the meantime, they put on the band-aid to cover the sore, and they take in every meeting they can attend.  The heck with the source of their addiction, the source of their infection, they slap on the band-aid and pretend that everything will be fine.  Finally, waiting for that halfway house and never knowing when fills them with anxiety and they decide to go home, they can attend meetings every day in their own hometown as well as there. 

However, the best source of any drug connection can be found at those meetings, not everyone there is sober or straight. Many attend these meetings only because they have been court ordered to.  At these meetings they hear the words, “You have to want it bad enough”, “It’s all up to you” “Nobody can help you, except yourself”. Sometimes they hear the words “Call me if you want to talk”, or “I’ll pick you up for a meeting if you want.”   AA was once known for their untiring attempts to reach out and help someone, but that went out the door long ago.  When the “Old Timers” died, so did most of their outreach methods. Today, many sober members cannot look beyond themselves to be patient, self sacrificing and persistent in helping others. 

So, being new in the sobriety world, they face reality.  It all begins with THEM. Nobody is going to be there for them unless they reach out to others first, until they make that first call.  Therefore, while engaging in low self esteem, anxious and afraid, sober and straight for the first time, they know they’ve got to draw strength from within, some guts.

They begin to hear those familiar words running in their head, “What happens if I’m rejected, or they’re too busy?” “Will they stand with me for as long as I need them?” “Will they give up on me if I have a slip?” “Maybe I can do this on my own, find a hobby to keep busy, get a job. But where do I go, I have no car, no money…no guts.”  So many questions, so many doubts, so much confusion. The anxieties begin to kick in, and within days their making that phone call again to the one person that can help them…the one person who can take their troubles away and become free of all anxieties, the one person who is consistently there for them when they need them…..the drug dealer.  What is wrong with this picture?

We have drug dealers running free all over this country, getting rich on the addictions of others.  Yet, it is the drug users that are imprisoned.  The truth is, the easy accessibility of drugs is sucking out the life of our fellow human beings.

When a small city dealer, the “middleman” is arrested, bail money is paid, and he’s walking the street within 24 hours.  The truth is most bail money is not large enough to stop a dealer from getting out….they or their friends have more money in their pocket than most average citizens do.  If a dealer is found guilty at his arraignment, which often takes months in our crowded court system, he doesn’t spend nearly enough time in prison…why? Because he was only a drug dealer, he committed no violent crime, he is not a threat to society. Forget the idea that he is in the process of murdering our children!

The life of an addict is different – they need that fix and will go to many lengths to get it, rob, threaten, or beating up on someone…most often in their own families. Therefore they become the violent ones, the criminals, and the threat to society. They’re the ones they haul away and throw away the key.  What is wrong with this picture!

We fight for the restrictions of handguns, and some believe that without easy accessibility there wouldn’t be so many killings.  The system now requires sexual predators to register in their home town. We’ve even taken smoking out of public places for the safety of others.  Yet, drug dealers, murderers of the human spirit are allowed to go free and continue to walk our streets.  Wouldn’t you want to know if there was a drug dealer living next to you and your children?  It’s possible that their kids could be playing with your kids.

The real truth is many drug addicts would love to quit, just like smokers.  However, life for our children will never get better until the law punishes those who robe them of their life, those who suck out our child’s fighting spirit and their will to live.  Why aren’t they trying to making drugs less accessible, and kids returning home from rehabs will not find it so easy to return to the same habit? Why aren’t they investing money into their future, more rehab centers, improved insurance so they can stay in rehab more than 14 days, more halfway houses.  They should be spending less money on beautifying our cities and towns, and start investing in our children. These dealers are murders and should be treated like murderers, and do time like real murderers. Taking the dealers off the streets will give these addicts, our children, a real chance.  They should be holding out their hand to them, as they would with the victim’s families of other murderers…assuring these addicts that they will get their killers as well.