Pubdate: Sun, 24 Nov 2002
Source: Herald-Times, The (IN)
Copyright: 2002 The Herald-Times
Contact:  http://www.hoosiertimes.com/mv-to-top/index-ht.php3
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1498
Author: Dick Cady

SOME NEED TO STEP UP ON DRUG ISSUE

We all are hypocrites to some degree. Pick your topic - sex, race, 
religion, family relationships, business. We need a long list to 
accommodate human weaknesses.

For many people, drugs and alcohol rank near the top. All too often we need 
to anesthetize ourselves from the demands and problems of everyday life.

We tell ourselves we deserve a harmless diversion, a little pleasure, a way 
of escaping from a world of seemingly endless conflicts, dilemmas, 
exasperation and headaches. What's wrong with a little fun?

So we have as many places to buy or drink beer and liquor as we have to 
pray. We have parties and public events where getting popped doesn't bother 
anyone. Going to the "500?" Make sure your cooler is full.

If it's not liquid escape, there are the drugs - the pot, the pills, the 
powders, from marijuana and amphetamines to cocaine and ecstasy, whose very 
name promises dreamy pleasure.

For those who grew up in the 1960s and especially the '70s, marijuana was 
as common as beer. When the pot smokers became parents, they had to learn 
to minimize or hide these pursuits. How many budding politicians lied when 
they said, "Yes, I tried marijuana, but I didn't inhale?"

We have a multi-billion dollar "war" on drugs because drugs constitute a 
multi-billion dollar business in which the consumers are our friends, 
neighbors, and - yes, the face in the mirror - just as much as they are 
crackheads down in the inner-city. Who keeps the Colombian cocaine cartels 
in business? Who buys the mega-tons of marijuana smuggled into the country? 
Why are there so many meth labs? Why, around college campuses and many high 
schools, are drugs as easy to get as pencils? Why are jails and prisons 
crammed with drug dealers and users?

We can't solve the drug problem because we don't really have the desire or 
will to solve it. Thus, it passes from generation to generation. The only 
thing that changes is the variety of drugs. It gets bigger; 20 and 30 years 
ago, there wasn't any OxyContin.

I once wrote of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay that it couldn't have 
been easy being the son of the late Bob Irsay.

Bob Irsay was a hard-drinking, profane, self-made man who reaped his 
millions in the tough Chicago contracting business and divorced Jim's 
mother after 41 years of marriage.

But perhaps it wasn't easy being Jim Irsay's father. Born in 1959 with the 
proverbial silver spoon, Jim was different from his dad in the sense that 
he gravitated in his teens to the culture of drugs and rock 'n' roll that 
wants to kick the establishment in the seat of the pants.

Jim Irsay is a big-hearted guy who writes songs and can quote rock lyrics 
by the dozens. Among his close friends is "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. 
Thompson, who apparently never found a drug he wouldn't try. That Thompson 
would call Irsay wilder than he was speaks volumes.

Yet when Irsay was identified recently as caught up in an investigation of 
prescription drug abuse, he issued a statement saying he had been addicted 
to pain killers, and called it a private matter. The statement implied he 
got "hooked" after pulling a muscle on his StairMaster.

As the owner of an NFL franchise, Irsay is a very public person. As such, 
he is a trustee in a sport watched by millions, including many young 
people. With this visibility comes an important responsibility.

Irsay can turn what is now an embarrassment into something positive by 
admitting that he, like so many others, has been caught up in the drug 
whirlpool, and using his public position to urge a sane solution to a 
seemingly endless dilemma.

About the same time the Irsay story broke, a suburban school released 
findings of a survey of student drug use. Twenty-two percent of juniors 
said they smoke pot regularly. Seventeen percent of ninth graders said they 
smoke marijuana on a monthly basis.

"Only" 3 percent of sixth-graders said they smoke pot periodically.

Sixth graders are 12 years old. Instead of pot, they should be getting high 
on Harry Potter.
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