Society and Substances

I was witness to an incident the other day involving a person and peace officers. The person appeared to be very intoxicated and was not complying with the officers. They chased the person to Winston Churchill square where he was apprehended. During the apprehension it appeared that he was trying to harm himself and was very confused due to the substance he was on.

It made me realize that this epidemic of substances has gotten severe, all over the nation people are succumbing to this drug. I have been homeless a few times in my life most recently in 2020 after nearly dying and now in 2022 after being "Cancelled". I am now able to view this epidemic up close and I am worried about the future of people on such substances.

I do not judge, I believe in sovereignty of self. The ability of self determination, to choose who we are, what we do (As long as it doesn't harm), which gender we love and what is done to our bodies. That being said, this individual appeared to be a student and should have been in school as opposed to being on substances.

I am concerned that this epidemic is spreading to our most vulnerable populations. I have spoken about this epidemic prior but the seriousness behooves me to repeat it. We need more funding for programs and services designed to help those on these substances as well as education campaigns in schools to ensure people grow up sober.

We cant just tackle the problem as it happens we need to proactively adjust our society and responses to be preventative. We need programs to educate people, house people who use substances in a medically supervised environment and we need more detox programs for those that are ready to become sober.

We cannot just sweep them under the rug by removing them from the public eye, they are people like us down on their luck. People who have lost faith in society and look to escape the trauma of our world. We need to create a world people do not need to escape from, a world where all of us can thrive.

Often people who use these substances have lost hope in a world racked with despair. We need to hope again and show others that its safe to feel optimistic again and prove it through kindness. We are a noble people and we prove this each time we stand, march and defend others. We uplift, we heal and shelter those in need and each time we do we create humanity, Umbutu.

Together, only together the path forward lies paved. Each action to help, heal or house smooths the jagged stones into a path for future generation to walk without bleeding. The time has come to fix the long standing problems that have plagued our society for too long. We cannot allow Bureaucracy or bullying to prevent change in our society, we must help our governments break through the red tape they face through activism, outreach and petitions.

The time is now, we cannot wait as good people fall through the cracks in the tenements of our society. We are one people and we must alleviate their suffering to perhaps one day prevent the suffering of someone we care for. Together we must rise from the ashes like the phoenix.

"Rights are just words without actions to defend them"

John Ames Birch

@johneames2