Open Your Eyes

This nation has lost a very important war — a war which still rages throughout our homes and our streets. A war that everyone notices, in one way or another, yet no one does anything about… This is the war on drugs.

The number one drug of choice for Americans is Marijuana, because it is highly abundant and priced to where even the most financially desperate individuals can acquire it. There is a widespread misconception that this drug is harmless, when in fact, it has destroyed lives in far greater number than most any other like substance.

The addictiveness of Marijuana is known to be one of the most controlling and unbeatable of all drug addictions. More than a million people have found their lives ruined due to the effects of both the drug and the addiction on their day to day lives. Employers often times will not allow an employee who constantly smells of marijuana to continue working for them, and the addict can find their self unemployed. Unemployment is known to cause depression in most individuals, and depression is only made worse when the drug of choice is marijuana a potent depressant.

Many addicts become slumps or burnouts, individuals who are completely incapable of operating day to day life sober, because they are unable to fight their addictions cravings. Most such people end up living in poverty because they cannot maintain a job and end up selling everything they can or turning to crime for money with which to buy drugs.

However, not all users become burnouts. A select few are capable of living day to day with their addiction and drug usage, while blending in well with society. These people are often times the most dangerous, because they not only are usually the ones responsible for recruiting new drug users, but they often times supply the drug to others as well.

Not all people who start to use marijuana were directly recruited by someone else, however. We live in a time where all of our media sources over glorify drug abuse. Music lyrics that try to entice listeners into believing that drug abuse will make them more socially accepted, movies that make addictions and abuse comedic, television shows where the seriousness of drug abuse is made to seem almost negligible.

So whos to blame? Who can we say is responsible for the horrible state of affairs our citizens are in?

The answer is simple it us. Each and every one of us who turn our heads the other way and pretend like there is nothing wrong with what weve seen, smelt, or heard. If we can’t take it upon ourselves to take a stance against drugs, then we have only ourselves to blame when our children are expelled from school for abusing them. We have only ourselves to blame when our car or home is broken into by someone looking for some quick drug money. We are guilty of murder every time we look the other way and allow a friend, family member, or neighbor to ruin their lives because we were too afraid to step in and do something.

The phrase, Well, its none of our business is what most of us hide behind, but ask yourself this is it really none of your business what your neighbor is doing? What if it was your child who was doing the drugs? Would you want your child around drugs? You dont know the impact that your neighbor has on others, so its impossible to say Well if he wants to throw his life away thats his business, because while hes doing that and youre looking the other way, he might have sold or given drugs to one of his friends, or perhaps even you child. Maybe there are children who live in the house and who are exposed to it every day…

Just think of what were turning our backs to… And its not just us common citizens either. Law enforcement and Politicians have drifted away from the field of drug crime to such a point that it is hardly enforced. Our government has cut funding to the Drug Enforcement Agency continually each year for nearly a decade, while various local and state governments are focusing their law enforcement officers attention on crimes that are big enough to make it into the news. We live in a sad time when the police cant be bothered to break up a teenage marijuana party, simply because society has taken such an accepting attitude towards it.

We all need to open our eyes and actually see the damage that these drugs are causing all of us, and ask ourselves if we want to leave this country in such a horrible shape for the next generation to deal with. This attitude of No Harm Done is a lie and a shame.