I disagree with this sentiment:
It really sums up a problem I have with society at large these days, which is a refusal by individuals to take ownership of their mistakes. Yeah, BC and Canada’s drug policy still need a lot of work, but that’s not what drives individuals to try drugs, get hooked, become addicts. There are myriad factors that come into play there and no matter what system or policies are in place, you will never stop people from doing drugs, and thus you will never stop all the problems that go along with drug use — homelessness, crime, overdoses, etc. So blaming “the system” for an overdose death is an oversimplification of an incredibly complex situation, or it at least fails to mention that it’s also a failure of the individual, their family and friends and other support networks, society at large, the human brain, etc. There’s a ton of blame to go around so I don’t think it’s fair to lay it solely or even primarily on government policies.
Also, I wish that we weren’t just talking about opioids for these last several years. What about alcohol and its devastating effects on society? Liver cirrhosis, kidney failure, drunk driving, bar and night club fights, spousal assaults, drunks falling and hitting their heads, etc — alcohol kills countless people in a variety of ways and has been doing just that for thousands of years but I never hear shit about it, everyone just accepts it. And our medical systems are constantly overwhelmed by people with alcohol-related problems — if alcohol suddenly disappeared (and people didn’t riot or go into DT’s, I mean) our hospital beds would suddenly be half empty. Why don’t we talk about this more, and why don’t people claim that all these problems are due to our alcohol polices and not the people drinking the swill?
Oh well, who cares. It doesn’t matter because the problem isn’t the policies (although yes, they do suck) and it’s not the drugs or alcohol. The problem is humanity — people will always like to get fucked up on drugs and booze, and they will always suck at moderating or controlling those things, and that will always lead to problems like deaths and overwhelmed health systems.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. With 8 billion mindless human insects devouring Earth’s resources at alarming rates, I think we should be celebrating any and every human death, personally.
Oh shit, that reminds me — new tangent. The other day I heard some scientist on tv talking about how Earth is definitely going to die one day so if humans want to survive, we have to get on with populating other planets, and I was horrified. Can you imagine if we are successful at that, so even when the sun swallows Earth the nightmare of humanity would continue elsewhere, ravaging other planets, wiping out other life forms? Our eventual extinction is the only thing that has been giving me hope for the last several years so this idea was quite unsettling. I guess I just need to remind myself that once I’m dead, I won’t be able to know or care whether the human race lives or dies. Not my problem then.
crimson highway 