I know that many of us joke about drugs here at IW. Tonight something has occurred that has prompted me to post.

20 years ago, my sister-in-law came into my work crying hysterically. Her 3 month old daughter had stopped breathing, and had turned blue. I administered CPR and she started breathing again. Fast forward in time 16 years and this same beautiful girl was dead from a heroin overdose. It has been 4 years since my niece died. At her funeral there were over a hundred of her friends and classmates present. It affected my sons very deeply.

Now, tonight, I find another young person dead from an overdose. His name was Chris. He and my youngest sons were best friends for 12 years. I coached sports teams he was on. He lived at my house so much that everyone referred to him as my part-time son. Now at the age of 20 he is dead. He overdosed and died. The people who were with him just walked out the door when he O.D,'ed and left him to die. His mother, my son, his friends and I are devastated.

My youngest son turns 20 next month. So far his cousin and best friend have died from drugs. In my life I have had 17 people that I know die from drugs. You are not invincible. It can happen to you or to someone you love.

<font color='white'> Wow..thats some pretty deep stuff Antyrg..17 people, wow, you have my sympathy :( </font>

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...cons/icon9.gif It really hurts to have someone you love die such a preventable death. When will people ever learn... It's so sad to see so many die each year from drugs, I think it's about time we found the manufacturers of such things, overseas, and increase our efforts to stop illegal substances from getting passed around, especially ones that kill. The brain grows dependant and only wants more until it eventually destroys itself, why is such a flaw in our genes, I think it's about time for humanity to see a great evolutionary change brough on by psychiatric sciences which will forever alter the way the brain works to keep it unnafected by drugs, perhaps even a mandatory immunization for everyones brain to be made untouchable, even if through life-threatening surgery, to prevent such foreign chemicals from being able to get in or out of it without actually killing the body. Perhaps humans have grown too dependant on the things which no longer serve us as usefull, then again, perhaps we lack the understanding of ourselves to do anything about it. I am sorry to hear about the losses in your life. I have known people who have died of drug usage and overdose as well, It is a truley sad story, and my heart aches every time I hear such stories, drastic measrues need to be made, how many millions will it take to die, how many personal lives of others ruined, until something drastic is done? I suggest you take this story and act as a martyr to try and acheive something great, though I do not know what, nor can anyone outside of yourself imagine. The emmotional response to such a story along with others is enough to have decisions made in supreme courts and bills passed in congress. Good luck to you, and my prayres shall be with you and your loved ones tonight.

Sympathies antryg.. that is horrible.

<font color="plum"><font color="orange">antryg</font> - My deepest sympathies go out to you, your boys, and the mother of their friend. What a terribly sad tragedy. [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img]

My prayers are with you all.</font>

I'm so sorry Antryg

Yes we all joke and snigger about drugs and alchol don't we. Maybe in some way this is to blame, I do not know. I for one had to leave the Nethelands for the benifit of my health, not so much the pot but the other crap that was around. Perhaps if drugs were seen in the same negativity as cigarettes that would be a start.

Antryg, my heart goes out to you and your family and that boy's family. :(

Drugs do some nasty things to people. I've got a young cousin who's been in and out of jail for various drug offenses and she's left her kids by various fathers in some very bad situations because of drugs. Thankfully she woke up and saw what could happen before it DID happen, but I know it took many deaths and ruined lives for her to do so. Your warning to people here is a valid and caring one. God Bless you.

I don't have a lot of time to post an eloquent diatribe, but here goes.

Deaths from drug o/d are a sad thing, but blaming the person using them or saying "they should know better" or "when will people ever learn" misses the point.

People use drugs to deal with an issue in their lives, bury the pain, seek release from frustration, whatever - I'm not saying the parents are at fault or any such nonsense, but when something like that happens then everybody should take a good hard look at what they could have done to help.

(nb, I've seen a lot of drug abusers come from dysfunctional families, though - food for thought)

My sympathy to you antryg. However I have quite recent memories from 4 or 5 years ago of me at school and some pricks trying to do anything to persuade me to take some drug (can't even remember what it was) saying it was cool and all that. They were on at me all day sometimes but I just said "no I don't need it". They said "oh you're sad, man, don't be a wimp". I just laughed and said "you're the sad pricks for giving into it, you have no will power and need your sucker friends to think you're cool for taking drugs. You're depressing man, get outa my face". After a while they left me alone.
Therefore if I could say no despite a lot of peer pressure, I have slightly less sympathy than I should maybe for those that do give in. After all it's their fault for tryina act cool. If it means they ain't popular then they ain't popular. I soon learned to stand on my own even if it meant I had less "friends" at school I acted how I wanted not how peer pressure wanted. So therefore Sir K. it is their fault. I don't buy the crap about them needing it to solve problems in their lives. Maybe obviously some people have it bad but the solution to problems is never in gettin high and not dealing with them.

[ 01-24-2003, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

That sucks Antryg, I am very sorry about your friend :( A good friend of mine smoked crack. He doesnt any longer, it killed him with a massive stroke.