Denial

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         As I sit back and ponder about our society and the monstrous, wonderful world we inhabit, one of the thoughts that relentlessly nags at me is 'Why are we in such denial?'. We are in denial about teen pregnancy, abortion, war, and a slew of other things I'd rather not get into detail about as they are only examples in this paper. What I mean to discuss is our attitude towards drugs. There is a huge misunderstanding in our society when it comes to drugs. And I am talking about legal ones as well as illegal. Society needs to face the facts, we love to get high. Even if you haven't done a single drug throughout your entire life, you still fear doing one. Why? Because you'll get high, and you might love it. You might never stop. You just might fail at something and become that very addict you heard about in the paper.  Humanity loves to get high, it can't be denied any longer.  Think of the bars you have passed on the street countless times, the stories you have heard about the dying, homeless drug addicts, or the time you smoked pot in high school. The human want to get high, get lifted, has been around since as far back as our historical time line goes. It isn't going to change, just like teenage girls won't stop getting pregnant. So, what do we have to do, you ask?
         
We need to first come to terms with the fact that the want, almost the need, to get high exists. Most people face a repetitious, monotonous, and seemingly interminable existence while at work throughout the week. All they want is for their time at work to end so that they can go home and seek out their awesome relaxation, whatever that may be. For some people, this relaxation comes in the form of completely illegal drugs, such as heroin or cocaine. For others, they like to get drunk at clubs or bars on the weekend. Still, others are completely against drugs. They don't like to put anything besides food and drink in their bodies, mostly out of fear of becoming the dreaded addict. Almost all of these people, however, have been intoxicated at one point in their lives. All of these people have taken, at the very least, medicine to achieve some cure for a sickness. A man, or a woman, who goes through life never once experiencing intoxication or using a single drug is a rarity and thus can bring us to the conclusion that downright sobriety simply cannot be seen as the solution for everyone else. Based on those facts, that would just be ridiculous to even think.

Yet it has been established in our society that the act of intoxication is nothing but a despicable crime. Kind of like teen pregnancy. Yes, there it is again, this ludicrous denial. The fact remains: it is natural for a human being to enjoy getting high; therefore, people will never stop getting high. Does this mean we close our doors to these people? That we pretend drugs don't exist, that this want isn't really there, and just put all of the users in jail? No. It means we accept the fact that there is a want to get high, and, armed with our knowledge of science and the various chemists wandering about, create new drugs in replace of the primitive drugs that have been around for god-knows-how-long, literally. Aldous Huxley wrote in the 'The Doors of Perception' that “The only reasonable policy is to open other, better doors in the hope of inducing men and women to exchange their old bad habits for new and less harmful ones.” If you are not familiar with the name Aldous Huxley, you may be familiar with his book 'Brave New World'. It is read in classrooms across the nation. 'The Doors of Perception' was published in the year 1954. It is now the year 2007 and I still only see people with the same exact habits. Why? Because a reasonable policy opening better doors never happened. Why? Because our government is still, after all these years, in denial about drug use!

So we say to legalize the drugs. Sure, that will work. But people will still be hopelessly addicted to some high, hopelessly attached. So, that's why people should just stay sober and we eliminate all the drugs. But that can't happen! That is an impossibility. Drugs grow naturally, just like food. We eat them, take them, naturally. It is all apart of our society, our world. So what should we do as a society armed with the right technology? Create new drugs. New soft drugs similar to marijuana or new hard drugs similar to cocaine. We have the technology, we have the knowledge. We can destroy the negative aspects of these drugs and create new, positive ones. People won't stop doing them, so why not just improve them? With some research, it can be done. And as for money, well we all know that is no problem. The Drug Enforcement Agency is making more than enough of that imprisoning people! Think about all of the families that have been torn apart when a mother's only son is sent away to prison all for a first or second time drug offense. If we created new drugs that were completely pleasurable and comparable to the ones we have now, people would use them instead. These drugs could be administered to the public by private organizations solely devoted to the particular study, similar to the study of genetics or a cure for cancer. There may be mistakes, but really, how much worst could the current situation  get? We have thousands of people jailed across the country for meaningless drug offenses. Meaningless. These are usually otherwise innocent people. It's just not fair. And I don't want to hear 'life's not fair' because this isn't just one life, this is a nation full of lives. A nation that was once considered a melting pot. A nation that we stole from a group of people who used drugs in religious ceremonies all the time. Drugs have been around for awhile, just standing out in the rain knocking at the door. It's about time somebody opened that door.