I grew up in a party house. Lots of drinking but mostly weed. Parents smoked, grew, and sold for most of my childhood. I was young but the parties at my house were epic affairs, all night, full of people, and usually started off fun. I was kind of like a mascot during that time. Of course by the end of the night there were usually fights, police, and all kinds of nasty stuff I was probably to young to even realize. I would wake up in the morning and walk downstairs to get breakfast and step over passed out people on the floor, bottles, bongs, the whole deal. This wasn't nightly but probably weekly to monthly at some points in my life. It's kind of sad but when I smell weed it's almost like a nostalgic smell to me it reminds me so strongly of my childhood.
As my parents got older pot wasn't enough, they eventually moved to pills. All prescription but they had a few different doctors, ID's, and a notebook of places they had been, what they got, and when. A whole system but again I was still young so I don't understand all the specifics. As middle age approached the fun and parties stopped but the pills got worse. They were no longer weekend recreation but had become a daily thing just to get through the day. For a while if they ran out they could get by just drinking and smoking weed but eventually that wasn't enough.
For a while my step father moved to heroin. Not sure if my mom did or not, she was really pissed at him for it but not sure if she waded into the waters or not. He was able to pull back a little and still seems to goes back and forth a bit. Seems like when they can scrounge up the pills they stick with it but if money gets tight or pills dry up he falls back to heroin for a while and things get bad. It's a been a while though and it seems like they've been sticking to pills for a nice long stretch now.
My two older sisters and I got out before the hard core addiction started, we were old enough to be gone by that time. Sadly, my three younger sisters did not. Two of them are doing ok, hate the drugs, hate the lifestyle, but one of them lives with my parents now. She is just as bad, actually probably worse. Just this last year we convinced her to give up her daughter to one of my older sisters care for the foreseeable future. She has been committed short term a couple of times and the psychotropic drugs they have given her the past few years have completely changed her personality. There have been times she has come out and I swear she was just a step above the lobotomized McMurphy in Cuckoo's Nest and other times this girl who has been mild, sweet, and kind her whole life has this insane edge about here. Angry and edgy in a way she has never been in her entire 30+ years of life. She has cut herself a couple times now, a couple possible suicide or attention attempts. None of this happened before the psychiatrists' drugs got involved, they've really screwed her up. But now she feels like she can't live without them and the hooks are in too deep. She takes them for a while then when she does something crazy they bring her in, re-mix a different cocktail and try again. One night she was picked up standing in the middle of a giant road in our town at 3am playing hide nad seek with her 7yo daughter. Cops were on a frantic search for my niece, parents were to high to remember if she was there or not. She had actually been at a friend's house the entire time but nobody remembered dropping her off. This is normal stuff in the house, thank goodness, as mentioned above, my niece is now in a safe place.
I say all this to offer a few observations I have.
First, the legalize pot people just absolutely cannot admit that a lot of addiction begins with weed. Pot is like a cup of coffee in their eyes and can do no harm. It's BS. Not everyone who smokes weed becomes a meth head or heroin addict. MOST people who smoke don't become addicts. But pretending that it is not an avenue for a huge number of the people who ARE addicted, especially young people, is disingenuous and just not true. I know it doesn't fit the narrative they want but many addicts, junkies, and people whose lives have been wrecked by addiction started by smoking a joint with some friends. I know you don't like to hear it but it's absolutely true. It's true that there is a whole group of people moving to harder drugs through the avenue of legal prescriptions, opiates, etc. but pretending pot doesn't play a part for just as many people or more isn't helping anyone. I'm not saying it should or should not be legal, what I'm saying is that people need to stop pretending there is no connection and if we ARE going to legalize we need to stop pretending it's completely harmless and give it the same attention we give to tobacco and alcohol when it comes to prevention and our youth.
Second, I am a law and order guy. I believe we should strip away criminals conveniences and make jail a harsh and terrible place to be. No more satellite tv, weight rooms, internet access. Four walls, three meals, and a yard to walk around in a couple hours a day. Then all of the books and educational/rehabilitative/spiritual outlets you want but NOTHING else. Also, we need to stop letting violent criminals out of jail so quickly. Armed robbery, rape, molestation, murder... you're not going to see the outside of this horrible prison until you're an old man, especially for the latter 3. I'm all about harsher penalties for criminals. Saying that, I just don't see the benefit in sticking people in prison for possession of drugs. If we emptied the prisons of all the people put away for possession we'd have plenty of room to keep the real criminals in there for a long time. And we'd have plenty of money to treat people. I know that prison wouldn't do my mother, step father, or my sister any good. They may have to detox a little bit, at least until they found some kind of connection inside. But they're not criminals, they're addicts. Now when they drive around high, steal, or if they ever hurt people they should go to jail for that... but not just for having the drugs. It's counter intuitive and not going to make them stop. Honestly the only thing that will ever make them stop is reaching a point where they decide they've had enough or death. If they reach that bottom point, as a society, we should be there waiting for them without judgement, with resources to help, and with whatever we can provide for their recovery. Not just for their own good but for our own.
Third, this problem IS an epidemic and heart breaking. Everyone's lives seem to be touched by someone they care about who is strung out and living a life of daily addiction. It has not always been this way, it is getting worse, and we need to face up to it. We're moving in the wrong direction. We're pushing a false truth about the "health benefits" of gateway drugs on our young kids. We are glorifying and romanticizing in every possible form of media a lifestyle that leads to addiction for not all, but many people. We've adopted a failed philosophy that harsher punishment for addicts can save our society from drugs. We've decided that every single psychosis or even neurosis we come across should be handled with pills and prescriptions, starting as young as possible, instead of actually dealing with the core problems causing them. That nobody should ever suffer even a moment of pain or anxiety without medication.
My parents and my sister are addicts. One of them is probably going to OD eventually and it's going to be horrendous, the guilt and regret and pain is going to wash over everybody in my family, even though there is nothing that they can do. They're not criminals they're junkies. They take drugs every single day to kill the pain and until the pain of taking the drugs is greater than the pain they feel from the other hurts in their lives, they're going to continue. In or out of jail. Nobody can convince them, treat them, or force them to do otherwise. Everyone around them just hurts and prays and waits for them to change... or die. Whichever comes first.