I hear the term "war on drugs" a lot. Very very frequently actually. Especially given the degree I am pursuing. People have a lot of opinions on this war this country is fighting. Well, that the world is fighting.
I want to be sure to preface this entire post with the fact that I completely understand the thought process behind "ending" the war on drugs. I truly do. There are a lot of things that aren't working, and things are being criminalized that shouldn't be. There are lives being ruined because of criminal charges that may not be justified.
I get it.
But. There is another side to that.
My side.
Drugs ruined my family.
A few stupid white and brown substances tore my family apart piece by piece.
They killed my father.
They destroyed every chance at healthy relationships.
They took away a grandfather.
They caused mental illnesses.
They shattered any sense of normalcy.
I wish the person that provided my father with his drugs could be charged. I wish they could at least see the extent of the damage caused by their choices.
I don't blame them. My father had a choice and he could have gone elsewhere. But he didn't.
On that same note...I also wish my father had been charged earlier. It makes me physically ill to think of the amount of people he supplied drugs to. To think of the ways he behaved around me and other people's children. The dangerous choices he made that could have killed me or anyone else around him.
If he had been charged, or formally held in a facility...he might have stood a chance.
Maybe not.
But he might have.
It might have been the one thing that got his attention. No "suspended" jail sentences. No mercy. Just straight into lockdown and then to rehab. Forced psychological treatment.
SOMETHING.
If back then this "war on drugs" had been anything like it is now...I might still have a father.
Maybe not.
But I might.
It's something I choose not to think about frequently because we have to deal with life as it is given to us. We have to "accept the things we can not change." We can not dwell on the things that "could be."
But for just a second when you think about how bad this war on drugs is in your opinion...
Think about those "might" circumstances.
Because those MIGHTS would have changed so many lives.
Lives like mine.
