I don’t know about you, but I’ve lost friends and family to addiction, mainly tobacco, booze and marijuana, and I’m genuinely concerned that more legislators are open to the idea of legalising drugs. Ultimately, people will do what they want and when someone’s determined to light a joint, they will do so and there’s little the rest of us can do about it, or else the war on drugs would have been won decades ago. Part of me gets why pro-drug activists argue that legalising, say marijuana, will help sort the black market since “business” is now in the open and that, in fact, drug abuse may decline. But the other part also fears that things will get out of hand in a pro-weed world. It’s just like the gun debate. Give civilians guns and don’t act surprised at the ensuing gun deaths. I know I’m not the only one who thinks that the more countries that allow recreational use of drugs, the more addicts we’ll have. I lost a cousin who died so young at only 36. To this day, his inconsolable father has never forgiven himself for not having taken a tougher stance against his only son’s substance abuse. “Maybe if I’d beaten some sense into him or even called the police on him, he’d still be alive.” My uncle has a point. Some things shouldn’t be taken lightly. My late cousin was a brilliant young man whose life seemed set until he started doing drugs. Like most addicts, he hid it well at first but soon enough we all got onto him to the point that we stopped calling him by his name and instead referred to him as the addict he was. Nights of heavy drinking and drug use resulted in absenteeism at work and, eventually, he lost his accounting job. By this time, he had fathered seven children from as many “baby mamas”, and of course he couldn’t afford to take care of them. By the time he died, he was persona non grata because if he passed by your house, chances were he’d take anything to sell or barter to fund his lifestyle. Even sadder was that when he died, hardly anyone outside his immediate family was “shocked” because we had all seen it coming. I’m not saying everyone who lights joint will die the next day but it’s just an example of how quickly this can turn into an addiction. You can live a gratifying life without drugs. I feel like legalising marijuana for recreational use will not end well. It’s like when someone throws a party or heads to the bar to meet up with colleagues. It’s legal and all fun until they decide to drive back home. Guess who their victims usually are! People who don’t even drink. That’s what I find tragic. It’s not like people are going to stay in their homes and not cause any trouble. I think we all know the kind of mischief some people get to when they’re high. Unsafe sex, self harm… I honestly don’t think we should be encouraging it.
