www.newser.com/story/128800/drug-deaths-soar-past-traffic-fatalities.html

Don’t become one of these statistics.

People use drugs. Reality sucks, life is hard, and it’s quite honestly nice to numb it all out for a while when the opportunity presents itself. It’s well within anyone’s right as a free-willed human being to do so, and to put into their body whatever the hell they want. Some chemicals carry a lot more risk than others. Specifically heavy pharmaceutical opioids and benzodiazepines. In the end, no one’s going to stop you if you’re of the mind to get high. But if you are going to use drugs, try to at least be smart about it and don’t jump right in over your head. Make sure you have a person or persons who are at least remotely responsible around who can rush you to the hospital or at least call 911 if you overdose, have an allergic reaction, or break your neck because you’re just too high to be replacing a lightbulb but you try it anyway. For all the addicts out there that either don’t want to change or simply refuse to because you’re too fucking stupid, well, you’re fucked, and you’ll probably die a horribly depressed, lonely death and severely affect the lives of anyone who cared for you in a disastrously negative manner. Stop being a selfish piece of shit and smarten the fuck up. Or, if you simply think you can’t do it, seek professional help, or give this a shot: reduce the amount you take by just 1/10th every week. DO NOT take your “standard” dose again once you have reduced it by more than half. Your body will not have the same tolerance and will likely reject it or shut down. There are plenty of treatment options out there, many state-sponsored and completely without cost, and even a week or two hospital stay for detox you can simply dodge the bills from forever and depending on the state you live in, after a few years they can’t legally collect it anymore anyway. Specifically in New Hampshire it’s 3 years. I know this from personal experience. It’s best to get into some kind of structured program that can help you monitor what you are doing, or at least under the advice of a doctor. I understand that people enjoy drugs. I understand that drug use is not going away, ever. Also, that it inherently contains a generous amount of risk and by definition irresponsibility no matter how cleverly or carefully you try to plan it. But if you can manage to be just a little bit more careful and more responsible about it, there wont be so many people harassing, pestering, disowning or looking down on you in pity about your habit. Also, if you’ve gotten to the point where you physically have no choice but to use every day, or mentally feel like you need to do it every day to function, you are not a recreational drug user. You are by definition an addict, and should get some help. Seriously, I’m sick of my friends fucking dying.

That is all.

[r.h./r.b]