There’s a huge hypocrisy going on in this nation and it’s costing us billions of dollars.
It’s a war we’ve been fighting for years, but can’t seem to win. We pump billions of dollars and resources into it, but we can’t seem to find a way to make the money win our battle.
Many Americans have lost their freedom or their lives for the cause, but for some reason the problem only seems to get worse. A lot of the country doesn’t even support the cause, while others are confused as to what that cause even is anymore. And for the people who stay and fight for the cause, it only gets harder because their enemies are constantly creating new chemicals compounds and other ways to get high.
The war on drugs is a war we lost years ago, but no one who supported the war wants to admit it. They don’t realize it’s hard to stop a nation from using illegal drugs when similar addictive substances are forced down our throats in hospitals and doctor’s offices or able to be bought at local convenience stores by the bottle or pack. The fact that some of these substances are legal and some of them aren’t starts getting confusing when our government starts lying to us about the “why.”
We’ve been lied to for decades about the effects of illegal and legal drugs. The government used to say marijuana could kill you or cause you to go medically insane, and said that cigarettes were safe to smoke. Every time an inaccurate study is conducted or a misleading commercial is put on TV, it’s costing the taxpayers money.
And while the government spends so much time, effort and money to battle illegal drug dealers and users, we forget how harmful the legal drug market is in our society.
What do you think is more harmful: 25 shots of tequila or 25 hits from a bong? Which of these has even the slightest chance to kill you? Which one of these will land you in jail? Shouldn’t the substance that kills you be the one that’s illegal?
Scenarios like these cause confusion among the American people. When the government spends money on ads to prevent hard drug use like heroin, but then prescribes people OxyContin or liquid Morphine, it’s hard for us to see why one drug is illegal and the other drug isn’t. Some Americans require logic in their laws, and drug laws are beginning to border on illogical.
I don’t mind that there are laws on drugs. I believe that there needs to be laws regulating drugs. Sometimes people don’t know what’s best for them and will ruin their lives just to feel good for a while. The problem arises when some drugs are legal, but others aren’t and there don’t seem to be logical reasons why.
If we need some drugs to be legal for medical purposes then that’s fine. Of course, the drug that cures a disease or prevents it should be legal. But when it comes to painkillers, the laws are all wrong.
There’s a reason why Californians in pain are fighting so hard to have marijuana legalized. They don’t like the pills pharmacies give them.
Taking Valium or Vicodin is too heavy-duty for some people who still need to function while dealing with pain. For others who are prescribed painkillers for long periods of time, they gain resistance to the chemical formulas and have to find relief elsewhere.
Side effects also come into consideration while looking at how harmful the drug market is. Side effects of legal drugs are comparable to those of illegal substances. Both markets can provide pills that cause death or brain damage, and both will suck up all of your money in the process.
It’s time to take a good hard look at what’s going on with drug laws in this country because right now it’s all mixed up. People are spending years in prison for marijuana use while other people addicted to OxyContin are able to walk around and keep killing themselves.
Vomiting up blood while drinking myself to death isn’t a crime, but if I smoke marijuana to help reduce the nausea, which the drug has been known to do, and prevent the bloody vomit, they’ll lock me up and throw away the key.
Do you have more to say than a comment? Want any feedback from the writer? Story ideas? Click on The Gripevine.
