Despite growing up in a town that really had nothing going for it, I always found something to do.
My friends and I, as young boys, once found a train bridge that we threw rocks at each other on and I’ve got a scar on my collarbone from a metal washer that I was “tagged” with in another moment of childhood lunacy.
I grew out of all of my adolescent experimentation before madness and death became intimately involved, but for the record, I’ve never used anything other than alcohol and nicotine.
Maybe I shouldn’t be spouting off on a subject I know very little about, but I’ve often wondered why people would knowingly choose to partake in a potentially life-threatening experience, especially when it is in the pursuit of what these people perceive as happiness or self-gratification.
The point is, while my decisions at the time were not the best they could have been, I am still alive while many others are not.
As harsh as it sounds, I suppose if ever there was a point to Darwinism it would have to be substances like fentanyl, or the drugs created to circumvent the prohibitions against them.
According to a report by the University of Maryland’s National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), between 2009-2014, more than 1,019 deaths in Canada were attributed to fentanyl abuse – an average of 203 per year.
In August, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse reported that illegally produced and diverted pharmaceutical fentanyl seizures increased from 29 in 2009 to 894 in 2014.
In my opinion, that’s insane.
It is still a mystery to me that anyone would choose to abuse a substance like fentanyl at all.
While it was originally intended as pain relief for cancer patients, fentanyl is now being ‘cut’ with even more dangerous and addictive drugs, like heroine and cocaine, to increase its potency.
In reality, mixing it with these other substances makes the concoctions even more dangerous, more lethal.
I don’t know about you, but the choice kind of makes itself with that statement.
Has anyone been paying attention to that guy we just elected in Ottawa?
You know, the one who said he was going to legalize something?
It is a fine line I am walking here, I know.
Please understand I am not condoning the use of any one substance over another, however, given the choice between something that could potentially kill you the first time you use it over something that won’t, if you’re determined to go that way, the choice seems easy enough.
When there is no dosage control between individual pills people can get on the street and certainly no way of knowing what substance it was cut with, well, you really are taking your life into your hands aren’t you?
Think about it.
If you want to gamble that badly, go to a casino instead.
Better yet, channel your energy into something that isn’t illegal and healthier for you.
There are many activities that can give you the same sense of euphoria and they won’t ruin your life.
