Those who haven’t tried them/who haven’t ever PROPERLY been exposed to the scene typically don’t understand this. I’ve heard all this shit about people being weak minded, mere scum of the earth. How it’s the users fault and only the user at fault for the addiction.
Arresting people who are under the influence or arresting people on/using/selling drugs doesn’t equate to having an understanding of the dynamics behind addiction. I find those who have personally suffered from or who have been around addiction tend to harbour more of a realist/sympathetic outlook and at the same time IF they break out of a bad cycle tend to abstain from vice.
There’s a reason these substances wreck havoc on society. Aside from the neurochemicial alterations associated with dependence, drugs serve as a VERY good, albeit temporary escape from reality. If things are too painful to bear, being able to take a pill/shot and forget about it for half a day sounds like a very enticing scenario. Drugs are very good at allowing people to escape the painful confines of their reality… temporarily. Tolerance and dependence leads to heightened requirement, leading to financial strain and perhaps eventually crime to make ends meet to satisfy a chemical dependence. Sometimes this serves to ward off withdrawal, other times to maintain an escape… oftentimes both.
Then there’s the fact some merely use because they like the pleasurable feeling. Alcohol serves as the means for most healthy, productive adults to reach an altered state of mind absent of scrutiny as doing so is culturally accepted. It’s literally the same on par if not more toxic with taking the vast majority of illicit substances, albeit regulated. It’s fun, and those who don’t understand or comprehend that probably haven’t tried drinking themselves (or don’t react well). There are plenty of mentally competent young men/women who say… backpack to SE Asia, try opium and never become addicted contrary to the beliefs may harbour. It’s the predisposition, partly genetic, largely environmental that leads to the addiction and ultimately self implosion.
I don’t like alcohol as I believe it’s destructive and I don’t generally take kindly to the way drunken people have a penchant for behaving disrespectfully, but I’m not going to deny it isn’t fun to drink with a crowd.
Those who seriously believe we can solve this issue by turning into a police state or executing people probably don’t understand WHY people become addicted in the first place. Quality of life/happiness also plays into whether people fall prey to this type of shit. Turning into an autocratic nation that starts shooting people on sight isn’t a path to a happy population. Duterte’s regime has also been used to justify extrajudicial killings and arrests of journalists and political rivals under the guise fo “drug use”.
I get the feeling this is going to become a bigger issues in some countries down the line. Particularly Australia given our forever Covid zero stance. You should look into what’s occurring in the media here. I’ve actually had a mild reset recently, provided the rest of the world continues to open up yet we continue to operate as a society steeped in politically motivated fear mongering my goal now with my studies and life agenda is to do literally whatever I can to leave ASAP. We already have a large scale issue with alcohol/narcotics abuse. I believe this is going to implode as the mental health of the average Australian continues to deteriorate rapidly. This will either lead to a large scale spike in our already overpopulated prisons OR an uptick in crime as politicians won’t take a pragmatic approach, they’ll take a sledgehammer approach that totally violates basic rights to privacy to try deal with an issue that is already out of control.
Psychiatrists are currently statistically overbooked, youths in particular are taking it hard due to prolonged isolation. I have a feeling those in their tweens, teens and 20’s are going to fall victim to a “lost generation”. Once things (if) go back to normal it’ll be very hard for them to recover following a decade of isolation and constant fear. We are petrified of covid-19 (perhaps the most fearful nation in the world) despite having no covid… we are also just as scared of the vaccine as the virus itself.
There is no “back to normal here” as permeant pandemic laws/state of disaster legislature looks to pass through victorian parliament. From our public view, there’s a MASS pandemic here regardless of whether we have cases or not.
Some people, particularly those who lack insight (in my opinion) are okay with the idea of “shooting all those who use the substances I don’t agree with”. Typically that means anything the government considers illicit = fair game.
Remember, this is all my opinion. I could be wrong, but my predictions (albeit grim) for Aussie society have been shaping up to be even worse than I initially thought. Many dismissed my claims, now I actually have many who agree with me over here. The caveat being “it’s hard to move, I can’t leave my family” etc. Well I can… I don’t want to, I have medical requirements etc that will be hard to sustain overseas (but are do-able) particularly regarding TRT. But I will make ends meet or even god forbid go without if we are still shut off from the rest of the world five years down the line.
I mean… damn, Australia is a beautiful country. Amazing healthcare, there WAS an amazing standard of living, beautiful nature. But with current political projections, housing prices etc it looks as if it’s imploding on itself. I really don’t want to leave, but I may have no choice if the alternative is literally never seeing my greater family overseas within the next decade or so.