Came across this link today and rushed here to share it with you. Go ahead and take a peek, I'll hang out here and drink my coffee.
Elephants addicted to heroin
Well? Is that not bizarre? What do you think?
I think it's cruel enough to be true. There's no end, it seems, to what a certain slice of humanity will do in order to gain money and power.
And I can't help but wonder....do we feel more sorry for the elephants than we do for the human victims of addiction? I'm willing to bet that if you took a survey many people would say, "people have a choice and they know better. The elephants didn't."
To those people I would say, it doesn't really matter when or why people try drugs. It might be by choice the first time, it might be by trickery, sometimes it's by force. The end result is the same-thousands of children and adults leading a sad existence from which it can seem there is no escape other than death.
Heroin dealers infiltrate society and use the drug the same ways on people as they do on elephants. They have to create a market. To control people. To manage their human trafficking operations. To make money.
Heroin dealers make house calls. In your neighborhood.
At least the elephants don't have much of a choice when it comes to being rehabilitated. They are at the mercy of their handlers. Human addicts in recovery have to make the difficult choice every day to stay sober.
I wish that we were as worried about the drugs crossing the borders as we are about the children crossing our borders.
And now I'm just all upset. I started out with the intent of talking about really skinny elephants, twitching trunks and elephants on street corners holding signs.
But then I started writing and you know what ? It's just not funny, is it? Too many people (and elephants and who knows, maybe dogs or other useful animals) are suffering from addiction. How can they be helped? I'd start with harsher penalties for dealers and free elective and non-elective rehab for addicts.
You got any ideas?
Chicken out
Addicted elephants aren't funny. Addicted anything isn't funny.
ReplyDeleteDammit, Chick-Chick.
I've known a number of addicted people in my life (which is what you get when you listen to people: their stories) and none of them wanted it/saw it coming/could control themselves.
But addicted elephants? Man, that is a special level of effed up. That kind of cruelty to animals defies description...
Pearl
Nope, no one envisions growing up to be an addict and yet it's an epidemic just the same. It's touched my life more than once. I'm sure everyone knows someone. It's just sad and so not funny. although Urban Outfitters seems to think it is. I'd stop shopping there but I've never shopped there, so I can only share this: http://theweek.com/article/index/220370/racist-navajo-attire-and-7-other-urban-outfitters-controversies
DeleteThe only thing that keeps me from throwing myself off a tall building in despair at what humans can do is knowing all the good that other humans do.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings who are cruel, who have no conscience or compassion, who use other animals (human or not) for their own pleasure or enrichment, are the lowest of the low.
No, I have no ideas. I think there will always be bad people in the world. All human beings have the potential to do good and to do bad, and sometimes its hard to understand why some go one way and some go the other. Deterrence is about the only weapon I see, since I don't believe in corporal punishment.
Crap. Now I'm all wound up!
Sorry Jenny. You are right, though, the good guys give us hope, and good and evil would cease to exist if they didn't have each other to bounce off of.
DeleteI haven't been around because your notifications in my sidebar haven't been updating. Damn! Well, I'm here now. The U.S. War on Drugs has done nothing but make things worse both here and in the countries where children are not trying to escape. People who want to use are going to find a way to get what they want. I say legalize, regulate and tax them. Same with prostitution, by the way. We would decriminalize a whole bunch of people who should not be in the prison system and save ourselves the judicial and enforcement expenses that keeping them there costs the taxpayers. Just my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteHI JayneI-I know - I messed up my blog and it's kind of irreparable, I think:-) I deleted something I should not have. Anyway...I've wondered if making then al legal would help, as well. On the plus side, it might keep some people out of it and cut down on the violence that comes with the trade. And I completely agree about the prison system. It makes everything worse. The only thing that bothers me is that many people get addicted to legal prescription drugs first. And they may have started them for legitimate reasons. Something is wrong there. That shouldn't happen. Big Pharma is responsible for some of this problem and they are so greedy they don't really care who they hurt. And your mind is big and beautiful. Don't be so humble:-)
DeleteOK, this is my third try at saying something about this. Here goes:
ReplyDeleteFirst, I agree with injaynesworld above about prohibition laws. And second, I have seen a LOT of illicit drug use in my life, and a lot of damage in the lives of the users and their loved ones, but I have never heard of anything more deserving of the term "abuse" than this.
-Doug in Oakland
Hi Doug-it is sickening. It's also pretty ballsy. I wouldn't want to deal with a jonesing human addict, never mind an 4 ton elephant. I think Jayne is on to something, as well.
Delete