PAINS OF ADDICTION

Editor:

I often wonder about the victims in this world, victims of crime and
manipulation, victims of convenience and choice.

Of particular concern is the victimization wrought by drug addiction.
. . lives full of potential and promise, thoroughly destroyed simply
for the convenience of the "feeder" class. By that I mean the class
of people who will coerce someone into drug addiction simply for the
purpose of control. They couldn't care less that the process will
destroy people's lives - indeed that seems to be the objective.

For instance they will target a beautiful and intelligent woman who
has the future as her own and by inducing addiction, say heroin, will
turn her into a hopelessly dependent victim. They will use her for
their dirty work, use her to enjoy the power of controlling the
process of victimization, the process of slowly murdering another
individual with that victim's tacit consent.

They will convince her, easily enough done through the fog of
addiction, that they are her friends and determined to help her. They
will ensure her supply of drugs goes uninterrupted along with the
illusion under which she is "living" the same illusion with which
they guarantee that they can continue to victimize her.

What she seldom realizes is that there will inevitably come a time
when a fresh young victim comes along to take her place, and that her
capacity for abuse and subsequent power, finite from the very
beginning, will only wane with time.

Unfortunately, people in the hell of drug addiction are often so
arrogant and conceited that they successfully reject any notion that
they may be weak, vulnerable or susceptible to sabotage in any way.
They put the pride of their own importance or beauty before the
reality of the shambles of their lives.

As in the case of the "Moonies" or any other mind control cult, those
who truly love the victims must stand back and wait. There is no
access to barge in and forcibly "awaken" the victim. Those who are
being victimized must be the ones who come to that realization - it
must be of their own accord. There is nothing that those of us who
love them can do except wait.

Wait, that is, for the first real opportunity to welcome them home,
and perhaps pray for the wisdom and absence of anger to recognize
that opportunity when it presents itself.

Robert MacKay

Merritt