Its 4:20 a.m. Are we sparking up another joint? Are we cranking up the tunes? Are we disrespecting our neighbours, as we are disrespecting ourselves as we live life in the grip of addiction?
Addiction is a cunning, baffling and powerful disease. It not only affects the addict who is actively participating. Mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, the effects are felt by our families, friends, all the people who care for us and all the ones we are supposed to be caring for.
Our neighbours are affected, our communities are infected by all of the behaviours that go along with that lifestyle. The ripple effect it has is way beyond comprehension, while the disease is actively being promoted by the use of drugs.
I can remember having this person in my life who was in active addiction telling me and all the others in my life that his addition wasn't harming anyone.
Now, I can see that I was living in ignorance, in a life that was full of lies. The ripple effect I was creating was incredible.
After 35 years of addiction, not really comprehending the true nature of the infection I was spreading, I was tired, I was done. I was beat by the very thing I supported and promoted - the use of drugs.
I had to surrender.
I lay here after six years of recovery, listening to the beat of my neighbour's bass and basking in the lingering smell of pot smoke that funnels from his home, realizing and still learning how truly disrespectful I had been with my own behaviour.
I truly apologize for that.
I am writing this with compassion and understanding for my neighbour.
The confusion I feel for the freedom to grow and use dope legally in any neighbourhood is quite something else. We have a select few in our communities who support legally growing and using, basically active addiction to the use of dope.
How can this be allowed to go on without some sort of guidelines, some regulations, community and neighbourhood say?
Still living in the smoke of yesterday without a say.
Drug addiction kills.
name withheld by editor,
Kelowna