It's Just Too Convenient

Back in the day I stepped in a piece of broken glass and a shard was pressed upon a nerve in my foot.
Being a guy, I ignored the pain until it became unbearable.
A failed surgery to remove the shard (I took it out myself a couple of weeks later.) and a Vicodin prescription later and I was on my way.

But I had soccer games to play and I couldn't let pain stop me from living.
One game I broke my toe but because I was taking so much Vicodin I didn't know it until it started to turn purple and green.
A dose of Keflex and a quick slice with an exacto-knife later and the infected toe problem was solved.
(And yes, I just showed my toe to a nurse at the bar I was working and she brought me a bottle of the antibiotics without a prescription.)
After all this my Vicodin was raised to the ES variety.

The Vicodin worked well but I was always sleepy and I had things to do and it made me drowsy.
One of my coworkers suggested the old school Mini-Thins.
These puppies were only five dollars a bottle and could be found at just about any counter anywhere.

After about three months of the Vicodin-Mini Thin-Vicodin-Mini Thin-Vicodin work-sleep-work cycle my doctor and his physical therapist wife came in to check on me at the bar I was working.
My doctor asked questions and determined that I was doing something that was causing me harm.

A weeks worth of cranberry juice, activated charcoal tablets and a clean diet later and I was back to normal.

The thing is, I didn't think I was doing anything illegal.
I could get Vicodin ES from the doctor who performed the surgery but it was easier to get it from any number of women who had just gotten newer bigger boobs and
Mini Thins were readily available.
The antibiotics were given to me by a medical professional so I thought nothing of it.
To this day I can still ask doctors and or nurses for medicine and most will just bring it to me.

I wonder how many people made the switch from Mini Thins to Speed when Mini Thins were no longer easily obtained?
If the Opioid problem was initiated by doctors who over prescribed pain pills - I wonder how many ADHD kids will transition to harder street drugs.

And don't even get me started on weed.
Apparently some may blame the gay epidemic on the proliferation of legal marijuana.

From heroin in the hood, to MKULTRA, to the war on drugs, to international drugs for guns programs, to this most recent Opioid scare - I doubt that our government has the best interests of its citizens in mind when it comes to policy.
Judging by past misinformation, disinformation and propaganda I doubt that our country's mid-management at the White House or Congress even comprehend the scope and affects of their policies.

If our government and its agencies are complicit in the easy dispersal of narcotics throughout the country then they really have no moral authority in administering punishment.