Excerpt

Abraham Woodliff
3 min readSep 12, 2019

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Drugs:

Drugs are everywhere these days, aren’t they? And despite what you may believe, they’ve always been there. Mind altering substances have always been apart of the human experience. From the earliest human societies, drugs and the collective response have been as varied and prone to conflict as humanity itself. We need to stop pretending drugs are going anywhere and truly adapt to the fact that the majority of us are going to experiment with drugs and that a small percentage of us are going to become dependent upon those drugs. What I think an ideal America should do is legalize all drugs. Yes, I said it and I mean it. The “War on Drugs” was a fucking failure. I think someone’s addictions shouldn’t bar them from work, housing or any other right or privilege that every other American takes for granted. I know what you’re going to say. “Drug addicts are criminals!” “They steal and shit outside!” I think the theft and public defecation isn’t a result of the drugs. I think it’s a result of the dehumanization that occurs when it’s known someone takes drugs.

Let me present a scenario for you:

Say there’s a guy named Ken. Ken likes smoking meth. I think meth is disgusting, but Ken fucking loves it. Ken supports himself as a Janitor at an office building. Ken does his job and goes home. Ken spends the money he makes on his apartment and other normal living expenses. He spends the rest of the money on meth. One day Ken is doing his job when he is notified that he has to take a random drug test. Ken has been working this job for five years, and has had no complaints. He even got a raise a few weeks ago. He takes the drug test and because he likes to suck the glass dick, he get gets fired. So, what happens? Ken loses his job. He still is addicted to meth. He loses his apartment. He still is addicted to meth. He loses the ability to make legal money, but guess what? He still is addicted to meth. So what does our humble protagonist, Ken do? He start stealing cars, and sells the parts at chop shops to fund his habit. Some days he’s sleeping in seedy motels, other days he’s sleeping in the car he just stole before he sells it off. Soon he goes to jail, but jail doesn’t help him. He’s still addicted. He gets released. Now, in addition to addiction, he has a criminal record. His mental health starts to deteriorate. He ends up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood where he has become to talk to himself because no one will talk to him. He keeps stealing. Gets violent. Shits outside. Ends up in a Fox News segment about how cities in left-leaning states are nightmares. We as a society have created a ton of Kens. Instead of letting him exist and continue to live his life as an addict. We took someone who was functioning with a disease and and ripped away their ability to continue functioning. We should legalize all drugs. Allow addicts to work and support themselves. Obviously, if an addict shows up to work high and unable to work, fire them. But to simply fire someone for having addiction, to me, is immoral. We have a ton of functional alcoholics in every profession imaginable. And a lot of meth and heroin addicts are already working for you, you just don’t know. Let’s allow them to live. I’m not saying drug addiction is okay. Our society should provide every treatment option available for those who want to become clean, but we shouldn’t socially castrate those who aren’t ready… Legal and commercially available drugs would also decimate most gangs and international cartels that entire existence is based upon the drug trade. Look at that, American, I just solved crime. OH NO, BUT THEN WHO’S GOING TO BE MODERN SLAVES IN PRISON!?!? Speaking of slavery…

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Abraham Woodliff

Bay Area native, Hip Hop nerd, literature and poetry enthusiast, freelance writer, gamer, caffeine addict. Follow me on Twitter.