Why I Think Drug Addiction Is The Next Civil Rights Issue
I’m going to start this article with a hypothetical situation:
Say there’s a guy named Ken. Ken likes smoking meth. I think meth is disgusting, but Ken fucking loves it. Ken supports himself as a janitor at an office building. Ken does his job and goes home. Ken spends the money he makes on his apartment and other normal living expenses. He spends the rest of the money on meth.
Ken loses his job. He still is addicted to meth. He loses his apartment. He still is addicted to meth. He loses the ability to make legal money, but guess what? He still is addicted to meth. So what does our humble protagonist, Ken do?
One day Ken is doing his job when he is notified that he has to take a random drug test. Ken has been working this job for five years, and has had no complaints. He even got a raise a few weeks ago. He takes the drug test and because he likes to suck the glass dick, he get gets fired. So, what happens? Ken loses his job. He still is addicted to meth. He loses his apartment. He still is addicted to meth. He loses the ability to make legal money, but guess what? He still is addicted to meth.
So what does our humble protagonist, Ken do? He start stealing cars, and sells the parts at chop shops to fund his habit. Some days he’s sleeping in seedy motels, other days he’s sleeping in the car he just stole before he sells it off. Soon he goes to jail, but jail doesn’t help him. He’s still addicted. He gets released. Now, in addition to addiction, he has a criminal record. His mental health starts to deteriorate. He ends up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood where he has began to talk to himself because no one will talk to him. He keeps stealing. Gets violent. Shits outside. Ends up in a Fox News segment about how cities in left-leaning states are nightmares. We as a society have created a ton of Kens.
But to simply fire someone for having addiction, to me, is immoral.
Instead of letting him exist and continue to live his life as an addict, we took someone who was functioning with a disease and and ripped away their ability to continue functioning. We should legalize all drugs. Allow addicts to work and support themselves. Obviously, if an addict shows up to work high and unable to work, fire them. But to simply fire someone for having an addiction, to me, is immoral. We have a ton of functional alcoholics in every profession imaginable. And a lot of meth and heroin addicts are already working for you, you just don’t know. Let’s allow them to live.
I’m not saying drug addiction is okay. Our society should provide every treatment option available for those who want to become clean, but we shouldn’t socially castrate those who aren’t ready… Legal and commercially available drugs would also decimate most gangs and international cartels whose entire existence is based upon the drug trade. Look at that, American, I just solved crime. OH NO, BUT THEN WHO’S GOING TO BE MODERN SLAVES IN PRISON!?!? Who’s going to fight California’s wildfires…for free?
While addiction is brutal, an unspoken burden many addicts face is an economic one due to the treatment of addicts. We all say we want them to get better, but just not near us. It’s fucked. It’s also bullshit. We have a ton of dudes drinking and doing blow around us all the fucking time. We’ve accepted it. In high paying jobs, cocaine use is borderline the norm. Working class people are forced to bear the brunt of their proclivities for drug use.
It’s time we change that.
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