DRUGS

                                                            

 For the past few weeks, I have listened to the many accolades for Whitney Houston, who passed away so suddenly. The words were very deserving, as Whitney was a wonderful singer, and we are in an era where music plays a huge role in how we feel about life.  Whitney’s death has been ruled to be caused by drowning but drugs played a big part in her demise. She had a long and sad history of use. If this is true, she joins a long list of celebrities who met a similar fate. Always, after sad events like this, we ask why. Why, when someone is at the top of her/his game, would they get caught up in this? They are not alone—read on.

After forty years of the war on drugs, the cost of this to our country is over a trillion dollars, and if anything, it is increasing. The cost in lives is incalculable because of the far-reaching pain and suffering it has caused. There have been over forty thousand Mexican citizens alone—killed in the last few years—caught up in drug wars while supplying this country with its insatiable appetite for drugs. Maybe if these people, and the others who died, were held in the same light as Hollywood celebrities, we would pay more attention. But they’re not because, in our eyes, they are insignificant and the demand for drugs is so great.

Imagine yourself, standing at the top of a high cliff with a lake below. On one side of you is a man telling you, if you jump, you’ll very likely be hurt badly or killed. On the other side of you, is a man telling you this could be the biggest thrill of your life. You choose to jump, just this one time; but now you’re addicted, so you jump time and time again, from higher and higher up the cliff, until one day your luck runs out. That’s what drugs will do to you. At first, they will be taken “just for fun,” but gradually, the fun becomes tame compared to that ultimate high you are now searching for. Stronger doses, stronger drugs, and an insatiable appetite for that ultimate high will now control you. Tomorrow doesn’t concern you any more, it’s today and now that’s important. You used to be popular—a good student and an athlete—but that’s no longer fun. You had a job, but they let you go. Your friends drift away from you, and your parents won’t leave you alone, so you hide in your bedroom and withdraw from society. You hang around with the low life’s that got you here. If you’re a boy, at some time the money will run out, and you will steal or rob to get it, even if it’s from those you love. Right now, you love the drug more. If you’re a girl, you will most likely turn to prostitution, and do things that will morally sicken you, to get the money, risking unwanted pregnancy and disease. Along with this goes the loss of your self-esteem and self-worth, and most of the people who loved and believed in you. Now, you’re left alone with your drugs.

I’m not a former user, but as a fireman, I saw the results of people using drugs over and over again. I helped bag up their overdosed bodies, and I pried them out of car wrecks. I fished them out of the river when they became so desperate they ended it all. I cried with their parents, who sobbed over their lifeless bodies, and could only say over and over again…“Why?” If you are using drugs, stop before it’s too late and you become just another statistic. Look at your friends and family and think of what you are doing to them. God gives you second chances—and so will they.