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Why "Hard Drug" Users and Addicts Commit Suicide

O

Odd_nonposter

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 21, 2011
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114
Why "Hard Drug" Users and Addicts Commit Suicide: A Declaration from the "Other One Percent"
OpEdNews
Feb 26, 2012

Lately I've been seeing daily rhetoric concerning percentages. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about ; "the 99%," "the 1%," and the reaction of the comfortably oppressed, defining themselves as the "53%" who "actually pay taxes."
There is also another "1%," those of us who've been alienated from out first contact with organized society , whose deviance, will at best be pitied by liberals, reviled by conservatives, and never truly accepted outside of our own permanently hated and hunted underground subculture. In a majority of the world's nations, it's a crime for us even to exist.

The fact is that we do exist; and we are human. Our professions at times reflect the side of "decent society's" soul that remains hidden and denied, save for when some hapless pillar of the community is caught indulging in the forbidden.

You may have had contact (knowingly or otherwise) with one or more of us; friends, family members, co-workers, lovers and spouses exposed, labeled, and banished from the ranks of the wholesome and decent, to live in a gray-zone, between jails, treatment programs, the streets and interludes of feigned normalcy where we work, pay rent or live with conditionally tolerant family members.

When we return to the only place we ever belonged, the continuum of injections and inhalations of sacred poisons, and the things we have to do to get them; living among those who truly "get it," our lives and freedom are again forfeit. It's just a question of time; the ones who fatally overdose can be counted among the luckiest.

Continued at: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Hard-Drug-Users-and-by-Dan-Mage-120225-226.html
 
Damn, compared to some of you guys my previous "addictions" have been mild at worst. And this still touched me. great post. :)
 
Wow that pretty much sums it up.
 
Great article.........gets to the truth behind what our world has become.
 
i would post this on facebook, to raise a little awareness and show information from "the other side", but then everybody would be concerned i have suicidal intentions in my head, and the "conditionally tolerant family members" will add too many more conditions for their tolerance... :/

how could a culture alienate so much pain so easily? i feel as though i can relate to, understand, talk to, etc, those on "the other side", across the "generation gap"; i can love them, forgive them for their hardened and cold ideology; they still have wisdom to offer. the "other side" claims the same, that they understand "us", but they "rationalize" "tough love" and continue the alienation.

how can this gap be bridged? or at least, how can both sides live in peace? it's as if my town has a pile to throw its emotional excrements, and people like me can easily be thrown onto the pile if we are not careful. i am forced to lie about my feelings, about whether i feel pain, about what i do with my brain, without ever hurting anyone*, and if i get too honest, i see the alienation (which is a process that happens on both sides of the gap) take place...

* if i bring this much honesty to the discussion table, the general reply is something like "you're hurting people by being a drain on society... get a job". well, what they never seem to understand (unless it relates exactly to an experience they've gone through) is that a teaspoon can weigh a ton. if somebody is "stalling" their productivity in life, it's not because they're evil or wrong, it's because they have work to do on the inside. and if they put off that work, and take a year vacation at the methadone clinic, there is a reason for that, too. and we DO have the resources to accommodate all of this mental healing. to believe that we cannot distribute resources in a more fair way is a divisive delusion.
 
Very well thought out and written article about the reality of the situation we find ourselves in for at least 40 years now. Yeah... 4 decades of the same futile shit. I thought the author hit the nail on the head when he writes that, "As the laws would have it, my body is not my property, and if I take responsibility for meeting my needs, I cannot do it without breaking the law, or paying monstrous sums of money to licensed drug manufacturers and dealers." That paragraph - for me - hit really close to home. It is exactly how I've felt from the first time I was caught/arrested due to my opiate habit.
 
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To anyone considering suicide: before you do that, try moving. ;)

For every one person who commits suicide, there's too many variables at hand to really define why hard drug users commit suicide in a single sentence or article. However what I read here was well spoken.
 
The only reason I could ever contemplate suicide would be to prevent my 14 yo nephew, the person most important to me in the world, ever getting any sense from me that drugs are ok.
Having said that, I would want to be around when he is older and help him if (as would seem a high chance given kids' exposure to drugs these days) he ever decided to try them...I was appalled last year when he started joking about ice, couldn't believe he even knew what it was. Fuck, I am not sure when I heard of my (now) DOC but it was probably the first time my (now dead) poly addict mate tried it. And, to be honest, I don't think the name registered at the time.
My credo: first do no harm.
I know my sense of "normal" changed long before my anti-drug views did because (suddenly) I knew people in "that" world. My drug use and subsequent addiction is still my responsibility but I honestly suspect the slow progression from "can't understand why you would want to" to "I would like to feel what those who use drugs feel". And ice is made for me. Generally, it enhances the feeling of control, and I hate the idea of not being in control.
 
qwe said:
* if i bring this much honesty to the discussion table, the general reply is something like "you're hurting people by being a drain on society... get a job". well, what they never seem to understand (unless it relates exactly to an experience they've gone through) is that a teaspoon can weigh a ton. if somebody is "stalling" their productivity in life, it's not because they're evil or wrong, it's because they have work to do on the inside. and if they put off that work, and take a year vacation at the methadone clinic, there is a reason for that, too. and we DO have the resources to accommodate all of this mental healing. to believe that we cannot distribute resources in a more fair way is a divisive delusion.
Click to expand...

I like this. People do have inner work to do, and it actually is far more important than the outer work.
The way things are set up, people don't have the chance to explore themselves.
Forget M-F 9-5; we would be just as productive working M-Th 10-4, and it would give people a chance to LIVE.
If I had some power, I would make Fridays the official "lesson" day.
Free (or, income-based fees, where the rich pay but the poor go for free) classes to allow people to live their lives beautifully.
Art, music, languages, science, math, and job-based skills. Learn to be a gardener, a farmer, a computer scientist, a chef, etc.

People could use this kind of thing to help them not only do their "work" (on the inside) but also to create passions, and live life with less work and more passion/fun.

Add full legalization of all drugs (for adults), and you would get a good society, I believe.

Suicides would drop dramatically, I bet.
 
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