Kudo’s to the Pharmacist for having the policies and procedures (and GUTS) and the alertness to catch her and get her off of the street. That is a very dangerous part of the Pharmacist’s job that is often over looked – stopping someone who is trying to steal narcotics.

These are potentially very dangerous people, and the Pharmacist “busted’ their deal”. Catching a person like this, either a user or dealer, is like catching a Polarbear with your hands – now that you have it, what do you do with it? You can’t hang on and you can’t let go . . .

I once had to pry the remains of an 8 month pregnant mother of THREE other children out of her mini-van that had been run totally over by the pot-stoned driver of a huge logging truck . . . and I can tell you that just because alcohol is legalized, the tax money from the sale of it does not come even-close to covering the damage it causes – even just the physical damage, not to mention the damage to families, communities, and the children of drinkers.

I must also say that “the War on Drugs” has failed, and we cannot continue to operate on THAT basis and expect the outcome to be successful or even different. I APPLAUDE THAT YOU ARE STRIVING mentally and emotionally for a viable solution.

I think we must address addictive personalities in a preemptive manner however, to “enable” their bad behavior by feeling sorry because society has imposed a punishment of “shame and isolate even further an already shamed and isolated person”. Shame and isolation has for centuries been the most severe punishment society could impose other than death.

The problem here is NOT the corner dope dealers – they are a problem unto themselves – but moreover, they are a symptom of social decadence and jailing them is a dysfunctional solution attempt. Simply replacing them with a “government dope store” is gross foolishness in my opinion; however, YOU ARE CORRECT, we MUST DO SOMETHING, and it must be DIFFERENT from what we are now doing.

We cannot give a FREE-PASS to people who abuse their freedom and become a FATAL danger to society. There is no easy answer to this problem – certainly not legalization and enablement that allows ANYONE to become an irrational and irresponsible killer of innocents.

In no way do I mean this to imply that this was idyllic–merely that it kept physical addiction in the health care sector rather than in the criminal justice sector. I believe firmly that legalization is the only way to return this issue to it’s proper sphere. Incarceration does not “treat” drug addiction, nor does it “scare” ill people into wellness. It merely serves to shame and isolate even further an already shamed and isolated person, without resolving the crux of the issue, and leaves them with a lifetime of “fallout” to deal with (i.e., no student loans, no federal assistance, no food stamps, no housing assistance, countless legal bills, and a felony conviction forever impacting their ability to get a job with a living wage.

This situation is nothing to laugh at and I hope she gets the help she needs.