I heard of a woman who at a very young age, started to smoke cigarettes. Her daily habit was one pack a day and eventually escalated to two packs a day and despite surgeon general warnings that it may cause death, she kept smoking. Every day she woke up, she told herself that today is the day, today is the day she is going to quit, only to find herself smoking ten minutes later. She sought help to quit but sadly, she was now addicted to the cigarettes and quitting was harder than she ever thought. Years of smoking passed by and she developed stage 4 lung cancer from her smoking and eventually, she passed away. When the news of her passing spread like wild fire, not one person made fun of her, not one person said she got what she deserved and not one person said that it was her own fault, NOT ONE. They all read her obituary and were deeply saddened by her passing and had nothing but kind words to say about her….
My question is this, why is it that when a person who is addicted to drugs passes, he is not afforded the same kindness from people? Why do people say that he/she got what they had coming or that it was their own fault?? Why do people look down on the drug addict who passes from using a drug but it is not the same who passes from ingesting a cancer causing agent?? Is there a difference? I SAY NO!!!!!!!!!!!
In order to stop this stigma of addiction, we must spread awareness anywhere we can and be compassionate for the families of the lost loved ones. We must not give up on the people who keep the stigma alive and well that they too can come to the realization that addiction is a brain disorder and in turn, deemed a disease by the American Medical Association. We all must realize that like smoking a cigarette and going through a lifelong battle trying to put them down, so too is the battle to stop using drugs.
So in closing, I ask of you, the person who thinks that using drugs is a choice, I ask for your compassion for the addict to be the same as grandma jones who passes from smoking. I ask for you to give the same sympathy you would give to a family of a 45 year old mom of 3 children who passed away from lung cancer because she smoked cigarettes, to the family of an addict who just passed.
Every person on this earth deserves to be loved, cared for, and never judged for their mistakes and if you agree, please share this post….
Please enjoy your day!!!!!!
Rich Barnes