You often hear people say that addiction and drug use is a
victim-less crime. Usually that’s coming from the drug user themselves and you
will hear them say “I’m not hurting anyone just leave me alone”. But that’s
simply not true, one out of three people in the United States are affected by
drugs or alcohol.
You could be affected by a driver under the influence who
hit your dad head-on or a heroin addict who just broke into your house and stole grandmother’s
ring she gave when she died and the addict pawns if for $50 to pay for their
hundred and $100 a day habit.
Maybe it’s just the anger the pain and the hurt the family
goes through when they see their child addicted to pain pills,
meth or heroin.
If you spend any time around a family who has someone close
to them who is struggling with addiction you will see how it affects them and
in some cases destroys the rest of the family. You see one person in the family wants to hold
them accountable any other ends up enabling them and now they are fighting
because both of them love their child and have no idea how to help them.
Go to a homeless shelter and talk to the people living there
and see how addiction has ruined their lives and now they live on the streets
panhandling to get just enough to get their next fix.
Talk to the girl on the street who left her child with her
mother while she was selling her body for $25 to support her heroin addiction
to stop the pain she is in because she has not used in eight hours.
Stop and talk to the guy sitting on the park bench with his
bottle wrapped in a paper bag, all alone because his family left him because he
couldn't stay away from the bottle long enough to hold a job.
Visit the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and see the baby who
is addicted to crack cocaine when it was born and listen to that 2 ½ pound baby
cry out in pain because he hasn't got his daily fix he used to get through his
mother.
Then decide if drug use is a victim-less crime.
