fun fact: any policy on drugs that isn’t harm reduction is going to cause addicts to suffer and die
fun fact: Drug addiction is a public health issue, and approaching it as if it were a law enforcement issue is prejudicial to addicts and will result in their suffering and death
if you just assume addiction is a method of self-medicating, you’ll pretty much never be wrong.
now, not everything people self-medicate for actually has a proper treatment. i’m pretty sure the reason my uncle made sure to be slightly drunk at all times ‘to round the sharp corners off of things’ was sensory processing disorder. i have that too, and i just kind of accept that i’m going to randomly get my brain sandpapered from time to time. there is no medication for that. all you can do is dull your senses. i’ve chosen not to, but i can’t blame him for his decisions. when a ringing phone feels like getting hit upside the head with a frying pan, liver damage sounds like a fair price to pay.
anyway, it seems really self-evident to me that people don’t enjoy living the life of an addict, they do it because the alternative looks worse. people don’t get addicted to substances just for funsies. they start making a habit of taking something because of insomnia, or grief, or headaches, or depression, or seething undirected rage and terror they can’t put a name to – something that they can’t ignore or shrug off. and for whatever reason – lack of access, lack of knowlege, lack of money, or it just plain doesn’t exist – they aren’t able to apply the Approved Correct Remedy. they use what they can get.
addicts aren’t some weird otherfolk who inexplicably just Do Drugs because they’re Bad. addicts are you with a problem you can’t solve.
these facts aren’t fun but they are pretty important
I can promise you that however bad you think drug addicts and/or alcoholics are making society, their experience of it is still worse.
It’s the responsibility of policymakers to find solutions and treatment options that address the issue in such a way that views and respects addicts as members of society who need help and support, not external evil forces who need to be eradicated in order for society to function “properly.”
These curfews are trash, sending a curfew alert ten minutes before it goes into effect is an obvious set up to give cops “just cause” to arrest protesters, FUCK THIS
LA also sent out a message in english that curfew was @ 5 and then like 10 mins later put out a message in spanish that curfew was @ 6
its not even to just arrest protesters anymore, its to target working class poor black and brown folks too esp since LA has a large immigrant and und*cumented population
just how closing the coivid testing centers in LA not only targets the protesters but also the greater working class communities of color that dont have equal access to insurance and hospital tests
literally the only thing that matters in life is creating what you love and genuinely loving other people. being hot is meaningless and depressing. being successful if your heart isn’t in it is meaningless and depressing. sex without affection is meaningless and depressing. partying or drinking with people you don’t like is meaningless and depressing. political posturing, saying stuff you don’t believe in for brownie points, performing opinions based on hollow moral schemas instead of listening to what your heart says about being kind and understanding, all meaningless and depressing.
being alive is like a whole fucking thing dude ive only been here 23 years and can only really remember like 10 of those years at most and yet im literally immobilized by fear and anxiety i have no clue what i want and yet i am mad at myself for not moving fast enough? like towards what? for who? who is even going to hand me a medal for living correctly? like what would happen if i was just content but like no one knew and i told no one. would that still count? i think it would
Sending so much fucking love to everyone else that’s stuck in quarantine and having to face their thoughts and mental health issues with nowhere to run for distraction, I know it might feel suffocating but we’re gonna get through it!
