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Bloggers Unite To End Abuse: Drug Abuse
By Marisa | September 27, 2007
This day is almost over but there’s still time to join thousands of bloggers today who are joining together to end abuse. Some have written about elderly abuse or spousal abuse, animal abuse and child abuse. I covered dog abuse on my other blog. Here, I want to alert everyone to the increasing problem of drug abuse in this country.
When I was a teen, many of us experimented with drugs. We smoked pot, maybe tried a few harder drugs, drank before we should. When I got married and started a family, I stopped all of that. It never occurred to me that some of my friends did not stop. I didn’t realize that some of my friends would become addicted. I’d never heard of addiction; I didn’t understand it or how devastating it could be.
Today, I am a mother of a recovering addict. My child has been clean for 3 years and 7 months, thanks in large part to a wonderful drug rehab facility. During the past 4 years, I’ve been to over a dozen funerals of children who did not make it to recovery. These children had spent countless hours at my house, watching cartoons, playing Nintendo. Some were the children of people I’d known since we were just kids ourselves.
I don’t live in a big city. This is small town West Virginia. Yes, we’re within a short distance from large cities but life here is more simple. At least it used to be. It isn’t about a little pot now. Our kids are addicted to the hard drugs. Heroin. Crack. Coke. Crystal Meth.
And it isn’t just kids from “bad” homes or underprivileged families. It isn’t the troublemakers at school, the special ed kids or whatever stereotype you may think. These are kids whose families are middle or upper class. They’re football and basketball players, the cheerleaders, the band members, kids in the chess club. They’re smart, they graduate early and go to college. They just don’t finish college because even though they think they’re “handling it” they’re not.
I know there are those who point fingers at addicts, believing addiction is a weakness or character flaw. I know plenty of people who blame parents and practically break their arms patting themselves on the back because their own children made it through without becoming an addict. That makes me sad because the odds are that even these saintly folks and model parents will be touched by addiction sooner or later. The statistics are against them.
Regardless of the debate, I’m convinced that addiction is a disease. The disease is treatable but part of the treatment is to abstain from the substance of addiction. It is not curable. Think of it like diabetes. You don’t cure diabetes but you can treat it and learn to live with it. You just have to abstain from those foods that cause you problems (like sugar).
I would love to see communities joining together to bring real drug treatment facilities to the communities that need them. The Not In My Back Yard crowd needs to realize that drug use and abuse and selling and buying is going on right in their back yards now, and maybe in their very own homes. Drug treatment facilities don’t bring in more “undesirables” but rather help to bring good people back to society.
If you’ve read my ramblings thus far I thank you. Please consider making a donation to a drug rehab facility near you, especially one that assists those who do not have insurance coverage. Many who want help are unable to afford the necessary treatment. If you are not sure of which facility is worth a donation, please consider Gateway Rehab in Aliquippa PA. I can vouch for their program. I owe them more than I can ever hope to give.
Topics: Addiction |
5 Comments
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Great post
Thank you for sharing you experiences
It is wonderful to see how many people Blogged for a Cause
Please go by and read my post as well
http://www.versatileblessings.blogspot.com
Hi.
Just so you know, you should reduce the size of this textarea box…. I’m sure it looks great in Internet Explorer, but in Firefox (hugely common among blog readers), it extends to the left BEYOND the scroll bar and, believe it or not, under your menu bar.
Download Firefox to test it.
Thanks Cristoph. I know the text box is messed up. I’ve been working on it for a while but can’t seem to get it right. One more frustration.
And for the record, I’ve never used IE (unless forced to do so by evil websites.). I started out with Netscape, switched to Opera when Netscape got bloated, then jumped on FF sometime between v.1 and v.2.
What is it about me that makes me look like an IE user? A wonky theme?
Thank you so much for your open honesty and willingness to share personal pain so that others can benefit. In my own way, I do the same. I can’t believe how many people who are like my son-in-law…who refuses to share with his children mistakes he made in order to protect his facade of being better than… and yet insists he wants his children to be open and honest with him about their struggles. Good luck on that one… poor kids have to hide being real just to try and measure up the image dad portrays of himself. I’m delighted with your style of bloggling. And think finding interesting blogs is an unintended consequence of being part of the Bloggers Unite Against Abuse campaign. How great is that! I blogged about being an abuser… Hope you read it. For now I’m off to check out the other grandmother’s site… Mayber there are more grandmothers than we think blogging? I may not be too far from being a great-grandmother. I wonder how many of us/them are blogging?
Take Care…Be Aware,
Nancy Lee
[…] Marisa wrote a fantastic post today on “Bloggers Unite To End Abuse: Drug Abuse”Here’s ONLY a quick extractI would love to see communities joining together to bring real drug treatment facilities to the communities that need them. The Not In My Back Yard crowd needs to realize that drug use and abuse and selling and buying is going on right … […]