Thoughts on Drug Abuse

A few days ago Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his New York City apartment. Not so many months ago, I wrote of Cory Monteith who was found dead in a hotel room in Canada.. he reportedly died of an overdose of a mixture of heroin and alcohol. We are expecting that Mr. Hoffman's cause of death will turn out to be an overdose of heroin. After all, a needle was allegedly found in his arm and many packets of heroin were found in his apartment.

I won't go into why I think actors seem especially susceptible to drug abuse. I lived in Los Angeles for awhile in the late 60's and hung out occasionally in the Hollywood area. Drugs were readily available then and I have no reason to believe they have gotten scarce in the intervening years. And actors, as they become successful, have plenty of money to pay for them and enough arrogance to think they are able to handle addictive drugs.

What I would like to do is begin a dialogue about drugs. I think we are well on the way to legalizing marijuana for "recreational" use at the national level. Most people I know who support that legalization do not extend that viewpoint to heroin and Cocaine. Some of my more libertarian friends do, however, and I respect their arguments though I do not agree with them.

My brother was once hooked on heroin. He did not think, at the time, that he was addicted. He fancied himself a "user" and that he did not have a "monkey on his back".. until he ran out and could not get a fix for a couple of days and felt the "sickness." Fortunately for him, he got arrested which resulted in his getting clean and did not result in a prison term.  This might have saved his life.

Something I think is interesting is the fuss made (mostly by the media) over Mr. Hoffman's death. Thousands die every year of heroin overdoses. You do not hear of them. You hear about celebrities, though, as if they are more important than the rest of us. These thousands who lose their lives are also important, I think. And we shouldn't let the celebrities obscure them.