Government Supplied Drugs; The Opium of The Masses

Conspiracy theorists might theorise that governments seek to control the population through whatever means possible; some hardliners may even suggest that The X Factor is the best way to seal the lid on the nations I.Q.  But news that the government is openly advocating drugging citizens is the latest controversial news item from “paranoia-mania” Britain. 

Drug use in the country is epidemic, but to the average citizen its only seen occasionally but “one or two bad eggs” in the school.  My experience as a youth worker for Young Offenders would suggest that these people are doped on naivety, and unwittingly turn their eyes.  A huge proportion of the people I’ve worked with have direct personal experience of drugs; Cannabis of course being the most common, but Ketamine and Ritalin [misused] following closely behind.  A *vast* majority of kids have indirect experience of drug use through friends and, worryingly, family members.  As a professional, the slippery slope all too often spoken flippantly about, I believe is real.   Why bother going to school to work hard at progressing when a joint for under a quid with mates gives you all the satisfaction and peer-respect that poor parenting has failed to give you up to then?  Why bother Just Saying No and risking months of mental torment by becoming ostracised when Just Saying Yes will give you a group of friends to protect you from it? 

And then, 20 years later, that group has gone and all those opportunities with it.  Drugs are perhaps the only form of recreation available to someone, and is it really all that different to a night in the pub that others dream of?  No hang over, cheaper, socially acceptable, police not desperately bothered about seeking convictions for drug use.  But there’s a 30 year old dependent on the supply of someone else, someone who knows that they WILL wait at a street corner for hours, and someone who knows that they WILL pay “a bit more” to get the gear.  Imagine a shop doing it to an upstanding member of society; they wouldn’t last long.  Do you feel outraged at a drug addict being treated like that? 

So the government seek not to eliminate a nations drug habit, but to eliminate the work of the dealer.  Replace them, be better, be cost effective; They’ve privatised drug dealing and have out-priced and outworked the dealer.  The government isn’t looking for a profit, so you can be pretty sure they’ve got your best interests at front and centre (trace the money stream and you can see who cares about you!).  The question is, will the lure of free heroin and free Ecstasy be means enough for people to escape the nightmare, or is it possible for the government to give these addicts what they really crave; a fresh start in life and independence which they never gained in the very first instance?