So, I have two things on my plate... the election and the Atlanta Heroin Epidemic. Let's tackle the more positive of the two issues: the Heroin epidemic.
Now, I've lost a good number of friends to this latest epidemic. I feel for the families and friends who've seen this first hand. I'm not going to come at this from a personal perspective. It sucks, and that's all there is to it. At the same time it bothers me in a big way...
Here is Atlanta's Heroin Triangle
Where my family stays at is at the very cusp of the triangle near 285 and 85. There is a good reason why my family isn't in that triangle. Ready for the reason? It's because we poo' folks. Plain and simple. Now, there have been heroin epidemics in the past, as well as cocaine and other epidemics, but this one is special. The casualties have almost exclusively been middle-to-upper class young white adults. Again, a loss is a loss is a loss.
Don't lose me just yet. I'll bring it back, and we'll all learn something. You gotta just sift through this.
When it was blacks and Latinos, it was business as usual. When our communities struggle with addiction and overdose, it's status quo. That's what I don't like.
I want to grieve with you. I want to be there during these tragedies, but there is this distance. I'm not sure it would get the publicity or sympathy if it were my people- if it were blacks and Latinos. There wouldn't be feeling of bewilderment, the "how could this happen" feeling. It would be more of the "oh, man, that sucks, but you know how life is in the hood" response. I'm not saying life in the hood ain't like that. Nah, son, life in the hood is DEFINITELY like that, but why is it okay for their to be consistent tragedy in the hood and not take place where you stay at?
So I'm a little heated. I don't like making this political. I don't like making this into a statement, but it nags me. Don't tell me "we are all human beings" when bad shit happens on your side of town, and then tell me "well, that's just how things go" when it happens on mine. Treat our drug addicts with the same compassion you treat yours.
Look, I've noticed this for a while, and this goes to mostly my recovering Alcoholics Anonymous folks... There is more we can do for our young black brothers and sisters in Atlanta. I know a lot of you folks wanna get into the recovery business, and that's cool, but let's work something out with the court systems of Atlanta. Let's work something out with the probation officers. Let's just work something out. I've been in the rooms for a while (more than 12 years), and my biggest regret is not reaching out more to my people. I stayed comfortable. I helped white kid after white kid get sober, and there isn't anything wrong with that, but I know in my heart that I could've reached out to my brothers. If anyone in Atlanta needs the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, it's the black youth and it's gotta be us who bring it to them. Trust me, I wrote my senior history thesis on the history of Georgia AA in the Jim Crow South. We can't just say "we'll help them when they show up." Nah, the system isn't set up like that. White kids go to rehab, black kids go to jail. I'm sorry, but that's how it goes.
That is one of the few things I admired about Complete Abandon. They didn't discriminate. So when people started talking shit about them, I'm like... yeah, true... but they're helping my people and you're not. Just saying.
Story of my life
Alright, now for the election... I just can't... I don't have it in me... WAIT! I don't have to! I forgot one important thing!
HEROIN!
I did not mean to leave the bold face on... ummm... hopefully I don't get flagged or anything.
So, heroin. Funny how it's made such a massive comeback in recent years. It's cheaper than ever, more accessible than ever, and quite possibly purer than ever. This is why it's such a problem, is it not? Well, there is some speculation that our little shitbag buddies in the Middle East (it rhymes with SmIsis) have been getting large amount of money from... you guessed it... HEROIN! YAAAAAY!
So, the terrorists are winning? No... stop being stupid... I mean, yes they are... but not in the way you are thinking... UGH... WHATEVER!
As I've stated before, Da'ush (ISIS) is merely a group of street thugs with beards that follow instructions from Washington. However, with something like that, you gotta keep operations off "official books." What's a great way to keep shit off the books? SELLING DRUGS! YAY! And guess what? We did the exact same thing during Vietnam in Laos! It's not even an original idea. Go figure, it also is the perfect time to do so because of such political unrest, especially amongst millennials. By the way... who is the hardest hit demographic in this recent heroin epidemic? Millennials? Weird, right? Back in the 60s and 70s with Laotian heroin, the hardest hit demographic was inner-city blacks in NYC, Chicago, LA, etc. You know, areas where there was a lot of activity from the Black Panthers, NOI, and other pro-black resistance movements. Thank God that nothing like that happened during the 80s with the resurgence of pro-black resistance... oh wait... CRACK! But, where did we get the cocoa- ... oh yeah, Reagan's War of Drugs...
You see a pattern yet?
Drugs never left, but when their is domestic turmoil and Keeping Up With the Kardashians isn't keeping everyone in line, just pump up the supply of hard drugs (making them accessible and cheap in the areas you want them to be). It's like Flavor of Love that you inject!
To think that this was one of the faces of Public Enemy...
...Cocaine... helluva drug
