I came across something kind of crazy recently and it just blows my mind. I grew up in a town that used to be safe to walk outside after dark, and even the rougher areas were still pretty okay. I'm not sure when that changed, but suddenly as I lived in what was the pretty okay area, people were being murdered across the because of drugs. I don't know when this thing took over my city, but even then, I've been semi-conscious of it because it hasn't really affected me directly. There was an instance of a huge ring of drug dealing being taken down across the street from my Mom's thrift store, but that's really as close as I got to it. But it definitely was a problem. I just was good at avoiding those circles and steering away from the bad spots.
Recently, a friend of mine broke his hand. Last week I had an article about emergency rooms and the ridiculousness of healthcare there, but apparently there's even more to it than that. He couldn't get a cast for something like 3 days. That might seem like a short period of time, but when you break a bone, and you're trying not to do anything to make it be more in pain, I don't think it's as simple as ignoring it. I was aghast to think he had to wait so long just to get his hand set right to heal correctly. But it's even more than that.
Breaking bones hurt. Or so I hear. As I said last time, I actually haven't broken anything before. But since bones aren't meant to be broken, I'm assuming it hurts a lot. That's what my friend said. But here's the kicker. The type of pain medication he needed to not be in a ton of pain was Oxycotin. But, with this darn drug abuse thing going on, they gave him minimal doses, combining it with Tylenol to try and simulate the same idea as a higher dose but it wears off too quickly. Because of the epidemic, honest people who don't have drug problems and need the medication can't have what they need because of the worry that someone else will get it or sell it.
That just blows my mind, and is often the case with so many different types of things. The government makes these rules that us law abiding citizen's are stuck following, but it makes no difference to the people who don't follow the laws. You write stricter laws, and the people breaking the law are still gonna break the law. The only people who pay for this are the honest ones, and something seriously needs to be done.
