Within the last few months a very close family member, who had been sober at least eight years, came up with the idea that it would be good for him to start using drugs again.
Even though I've been working with addicts and alcoholics for 31 years, I've never heard of one of them explain to me why they thought it was a good idea to start using again. If he hadn't been lucky enough to have a couple of family members in the house at the same time he overdosed, we'd be having a different conversation today. Instead, we'd be making arrangements for another funeral.
It obviously wasn't his time to go. Because he didn't want anyone to take him to the hospital someone finally insisted and the paramedics were called. At the time they arrived his respiration rate was down to three per minute. If it hadn't been for a few lucky "coincidences," he wouldn't be breathing today.
In America today the leading cause of death is opioid overdose. And as most of you know who are reading this, opioids include a whole class of drugs. Heroin. Fentanyl. Morphine. Codeine. Oxycodone. Yet the only thing anyone talks about is having a "war on drugs", which is code for I'm running for office please vote for me and I'll try to pass some legislation. "That way you'll want to vote for me."
The reality is that there's not a lot that anyone outside of ourselves can do about our desire to use drugs or other substances. We need to want to live bad enough so that we don't put our family members through the pain of our untimely death. During my 30+ years in the drug field I have seen so many people overdose and die because of drug and alcohol use. If they could only see the trail of misery and sorrow that they leave behind them they would never risk using any kind of substances.
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