In America, there is all sorts of hue and cry, about the illicit drug usage by its citizens, with bad devastating effects not only for the person so using, but also for the family, which additionally hurts the community, because the more people that have turned to illicit drugs within a community, the more that community changes for the worse. There are plenty of those law and order types that don’t care a whit about why people use illicit drugs, or how they get here, and simply want drug dealers and drug users to be put away. Still, even when that happens, the proximate problem is not cured. The reason it is not cured is that many people have turned to opioids of all sorts, or methamphetamine, for the very basic reason that they see their life as one without opportunity, and without a future, thereupon taking illicit drugs is a choice that they make which will help them to alleviate the reality of their hopeless situation, at least temporarily.
Look, there are plenty of legal drugs, such as alcohol or marijuana, prevalent in many communities, which people avail themselves of, which one would think would be sufficient for those who need the crutch or the specific feeling of those drugs in order to best sort their life out. Yet, there are plenty of illicit drug users who aren’t satisfied with alcohol or marijuana, because they want to feel a certain way, which will relieve them of the misery of the life that they see in front of them. This signifies, that there usually is a specific reason why people take illicit drugs, which has a lot to do with these people, believing that their life just doesn’t have any upside, because the good paying jobs with benefits are not available, and the jobs so being available, don’t compensate people at anything close to a living wage, or a wage that would at least get some respect. Therefore, those without hope, who have pretty much given up that their situation is going to change, take it upon themselves, to find some substance that will not only bring them some sort of relief, but something that will either dull their senses so that they really won’t care, or something that will provide them with some degree of euphoria or similar.
Indeed, the war on drugs, sponsored decades ago, is the absolute wrong answer, for illicit drugs are going to find their way to just about any community as long as there is a perceived interest by those who live there in such. The more appropriate answer to correct things, is to look at these communities that are experiencing the greatest degree of illicit drug usage, and understand that their usage is typically a reflection of the dead-end lives that these people exist in, and that therefore the way to substantially reduce illicit drug usage within those enclaves is to provide those people with hope, education, and opportunity. In other words, illicit drug usage is a reflection that the conditions, so of, within those communities are intolerable, and until those conditions substantially improve, illicit drug usage will stubbornly remain.