Pubdate: Fri, 30 Apr 2004
Source: Lindsay This Week (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004 Lindsay This Week
Contact:  http://www.lindsaythisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2213
Author: Ken Gorham
Note: Pastor Ken Gorham is an ex-addict who has been clean and dry for the 
past 17 years. His message comes from first-hand experience on the dangers 
of addiction.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

LIKE IT OR NOT, WE HAVE A DRUG PROBLEM

Food for Thought

City of Kawartha Lakes. We have a drug problem

If you don't believe this statement, you are either ignorant or in denial. 
Both will leave you blind to what is happening around you.

To be in ignorance means you are unaware or uninformed on a subject. Denial 
is a psychological defense mechanism in which confrontation with a problem 
or with a reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or 
reality.

Our drug problem does exist and is far too real.

Within this city we have many illicit drugs available for the asking. The 
following is only a partial list. Marijuana with a much higher THC level 
than the 60s, which makes it far more addictive. LSD is making a comeback 
and that is not a good thing. As you may or may not know, some day-trippers 
from the 60s are living out their lives in mental institutions because of LSD.

Sorry to say, crack cocaine is turning into the drug of choice in far too 
many circles here in the City of Kawartha Lakes, with some users barely in 
puberty. I have seen crack cocaine do as much damage to a human life in 
one-and-a-half years as a lifetime of alcohol abuse.

Cocaine is usually the drug of choice for the well off (those with too much 
money).

Heroin use is also on the rise. When I was doing drugs, my personal denial 
was that I was not a drug addict unless I did heroin (what a pathetic joke 
to play on yourself).

Drugs of any sort have the potential of stealing our health, wealth and 
well being. Ask any addict and they will say "I have no choice, my drug of 
choice has become my life." The life they are living is comparable to hell 
on earth or another way of saying it, "addiction is no life at all."

Their addiction affects every person within our community. Proof positive, 
the petty crime rate we continually read about in our local papers.

Every person battles with addiction (alcohol, coffee, nicotine, greed, 
lust, material etc.) and we all know people in glass houses should not 
throw stones.

Dealers and addicts alike need our help and their problem is our problem. 
If you want our community cleansed of this plague, you will have to be 
willing to do your part. Are you willing? That is the question.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager