How prevalent is this problem, and the use of illicit drugs in general? Is it getting worse or is it getting better?
For myself I have zero interest in drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, and I am completely opposed to all of them. The only one of the three I have ever partaken of is alcohol, and this was minimal and long ago. As the motor vehicle rules were tightened, I stopped drinking away from home. Then I just stopped all together.
From what I see of it, no good comes to anyone from drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. And if you want to be able to relate to people, then you have to take a stand and enforce some rules. So for me, zero use is the rule.
But I was talking to someone today, another middle aged man like myself who has no use for drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. I mentioned Philippe Calderon's Drug War in Mexico and how that has turned Ciudad Juarez into an unlivable place. And even worse yet, the drugs that cannot get into the United States get consumed in Juarez. Mexico has historically had very little of a drug problem. It actually has a very conservative pre-industrial culture. Men and women are expected to hold themselves to certain minimum standards of conduct. Drug use is not welcomed. But now this is changing.
So here, the late Charles Bowden talks about cocaine in Juarez
"Now the city has up to 200,000 addicts, according to local clinics."
He also talks about there being over 20,000 retail cocaine outlets in Juarez now. It is sold everywhere.
In his memoirs Vicente Fox laments that though drugs had not been a part of Mexico's culture, now they certainly are.
So I think about the US, where I am Santa Clara County. Drugs are a big big deal. But the main one is methamphetamine.
But it is also an entire culture. There are huge numbers of people now well into middle age, who's lives have revolved around tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and often methamphetamine, from the time they were teenagers until well into middle age.
And then you see them in all of these recovery programs. As far as I am concerned it is all complete bull shit. Anything which talks about Recovery or Rehabilitation I just see as helping to propagate the problem. All the more so if there is a Born Again Christian component to it. It is all just more of the same fatalism and powerlessness.
People who want to stop using, stop. Likely they stop because they have something else to live for and because they change friends. But the people who stop, but then get into recovery or rehabilitation programs, they are setting themselves up for more using. They convince themselves that they are powerless. They hang out with people who substitute even worse addictions, like idol worship, for chemical addition. They still live in the same sort of a world.
Now I know that much of this is just caused by capitalism. Labor has been in gross surplus for more than 150 years. So most people are not needed in the kind of world we've made. So people sense this and respond with chemicals. It is a kind of a religious or spiritual problem. Born Again Christianity is probably one of the most dangerous drugs ever invented.
So is it getting better or worse. The stats I can find say of course that tobacco use is going way down, even among teenagers. Great!
But overall illicit drug use is rising, but most of this increase is in marijuana.
Has methamphetamine use peaked?
I am reading that Oklahoma has the worst meth problem, and that places like Oklahoma City and Omaha are some of the worst, and that North Dakota has also got it bad, and that these places are far worse than Detroit or NYC.
But I also read that most of the meth is coming from labs in California and Mexico.
Here in California, at least with some segments of the population, they are constantly in and out of custody and always peeing in bottles for probations officers. It is never ending, and almost always mixed in with the bull shit of recovery and rehabilitation programs, and then always with Born Again Christianity.
How does it look to other people where they are?
SJG


Alcohol is great and is actually beneficial if used in moderation. As long as you dont drink and drive or hurt others i see no harm there.
I've never done hard drugs or smoked pot. I dont see any harm in marijuana as i've never heard of anyone dying from use or partaking in crimes etc like crack, heroine etc to get it.
SJG is a bit to much like the departed psycho robot Alucard for me where they think banning stuff is the answer. The answer is education and unfortunately there are a lot of dumb people who don't think/care about consequences you just can't help everyone because some people will fuck up everything.
If you are responsible you should be free to do or ingest whatever you want as long as you don"t harm other people in the process.