– ADDICTION WITHIN, AN IMPOSED SCOURGE

WRITING from experience, none across the nations where addiction was not a concept discussed, or even imagined could have had the vaguest idea of what narcotics can create. As a social-sub deity that can infiltrate the mind and consciousness and enhance the worse and imprison the potential of normalcy- not implying that human normalcy is not at times questionable to the most severe skeptic as to whether ‘Demons’ do exist- as a more concealed cognizant virus or related parasite, invisible even to the sharpest micro-vision detectors. There are people we know who fit the mould of demons, they import the drugs and others like them run the drug yards.
I said last week that the addict is a pathological liar, but under duress, they have proven to speak the truth, like the case when the addict admitted that he was paid with a snow-cone to commit a murder. This was funny to the court, but citizens should have taken it dead serious that a fallen citizen could have been reduced to a level where a fake act of human concern could have let him oblige a request for murder, at the binding seal of a sno-cone; see ‘Kaieteur News-Sept, 28, 2014 pg 8. Another addict was paid GY$300 to steal a motorbike- December 2019, and the list does go on. What are the implications to not have a more serious look at the citizens we casually call ‘Junkies’ (there are hidden-high social ones also). Long before this social scourge entered my home I had sensed that mind-altering substances and methods were dangerous. Strange enough, I was alerted to this factor while much younger by the comic book and comic strip character of ‘Mandrake the magician’ “What was he doing that made him make bad people see things?” briefly, my Godfather explained hypnotism, and he insisted that bad people use it too. Thus, anything that can overpower the mind can lead to bad decisions and likewise the familiar regrets after a rum shop brawl that lead to a regrettable murder. But what is medically known about the effects of addiction, is less conclusive than we imagine.

“What does chronic cocaine abuse do to the brain to cause chronic cocaine addiction? In clinical terms, how does repeated cocaine exposure make individuals compulsively continue to take the drug even when they know it may cost them their jobs, possessions, loved ones, and even their lives? We now know that cocaine affects brain cells in a variety of ways. Some of its effects reverse quickly to normal. Others persist for weeks after the drug leaves the brain. With repeated exposure to cocaine, these short and intermediate-term effects cumulatively give rise to further effects that last for months or years and may be irreversible.“ Eric J. Nestler, M.D., Ph.D. This should not surprise us that some layman (like myself) exploration in the medical field of Neurobiology would inform us that the brain is still uncharted territory. What is somewhat clear is that genitic, inherited mental conditions are different to drug-induced psychosis in the medical approach, towards treatment. The alcoholic, marijuana, cocaine, over-the-counter pill and substance abuser and eventual addict require treatment platforms that appear similar, but are definitely different in application.

I can recall debating with the late Clarence Young, who jump-started the drug-rehabilitation process in Guyana, on the concept that with respect to managing the addict in rehabilitation, he or she must have the option to leave if they so desire, or choose to stay. This blew my mind; the conversation began in 2015. I had paid for the rehab of my offspring’s problem and after three days, one evening was back at my door with a ridiculous composition of logic that fell flat before my feet. In returning my offspring to the facility, the discussion began and continued long after. My argument is what is the mental state of a human that might have bowed to peer pressure or needed to explore some fictional benefit of a drug, as an entire generation across the Western world did inspire by Aldous Huxley’s book, ‘Doors to perception, Heaven and Hell’ and plunged into the ‘High is Right’ Hippy Age. To expect a ’Mind at Large’ to decide rationally whether to obey the alive magnet of drug-cravings or the tiny voice of the repressed self, towards the rational decision, which normal humans struggle to do, how is the addict expected to accomplish this in a favourable percentage?

I am even more convinced now that homes cannot manage the victims of this scourge, addicts can act at home like the drug yard or as they would sleeping wherever, they spit a foul-smelling mucus, in the house, their babblings and accusations of projective guilt anger and irritate, and other unprepared for manifestations that challenge tempers and patience. Too many parents, grandparents have been murdered by their own for denying money to feed drug cravings and in such arguments; a Boot-Camp rehabilitation format with a strict but not brutal interactive policy is needed, Guyana would be a first in this area, we must consider what we are chemically dealing with. Quote- “The process of extracting cocaine-liquid from the vat will be mixed with lime, gasoline, ammonia and other chemicals to make cocaine base. Large labs refine the base and add acetone, ether, and hydrochloric acid to form a crystalline powder, cocaine hydrochloride.” see- National Geographic Jan. 1989: this same edition featured a map that identified Guyana as a shipment point from the mid-1980s.

In closing, it will be argued that lack of political vision with our political cabals left no economic option, and that cocaine ushered in the new nouveau riche. But at what cost? Now that we recognise that every other drug is within our borders, Chemical produced Marijuana, ecstasy, mali and other narcotics, some bought over the counter, the one institution that we have must be empowered, too many lives are at stake.