We keep a few doses of naloxone at our apartment just in case people party too hard. We've both been trained to use it, although it is pretty simple to pop the spray nozzle up a nose and squirt. Luckily, I've never had to administer it myself, but I've been to plenty of nightclub raves and EDM festivals over the past few years where I've seen the spray in action. Seeing someone pop out of an OD from the spray is something you don't soon forget.
We all know the excuses to blow up these drug ships is garbage. They are only killing off the supply because the government wants more control over the drug trade themselves. They don't care to stop the flow of drugs, they just want to make sure they get their fair share of the profits.
All that being said, I've definitely gone through phases in my life where my use was closer to addiction than recreation. I use the excuse of my teenage trauma of sexual abuse, but it is just lazy justification rather than putting in the work to deal with my issues. It's caused issues in my marriages, relationships with family and friends, and my ability to show up for myself.
I haven't become the type of person who looks for an easy way to avoid dealing with my problems.
I have, and it is no fun. Just floating through life on autopilot. After months of smoking weed every day (well really since 1994), like a habit without even a thought, I've put the pipe away and taken another THC break. Nothing lasts forever, but we'll see what type of clarity I get from this latest pause.
Don't you find this pretty wild? But I get it.
It is laziness, but it is also the way we are wired. We aren't made to deal with trauma very well, which is why the conditions affect us so much. In a perfect, untraumatising world, perhaps there would be no addiction.
And these all have impacts too. it snowballs and turns something manageable, into a mountain. It is happening to more and more people in many different ways, and more will fall into the "can't cope" categories and turn to avoidance of some sort. Unable to show up for themselves - and no one else willing.
An interesting journey so far?
Putting the pipe/bong down was the first step in taking back my will to improve. More time to write. More time to cook. More time to give help and attention to others. More time for myself. I am getting there!
I'm more worried about someone taking a bad dose laced with fentynol than someone doing so much that they OD. Typically it is tainted products that cause the deaths, not too much of the product. Either way, better safe than sorry.