Just a thought, and by no means a summary of how I feel about the weakness of the human race, and its seemingly helpless surrender to the power of drugs, and the greed of those who purvey an artificial bubble of temporary happiness...The author's choice of title for his piece, "Seattle Is Dying," indicates that he believes Seattle is those who have surrendered to drug addiction, not only the addicts, or those who will "try" drugs for the first time today, or even those who are sworn to enforce and uphold the laws against such behavior, yet don't...For our purposes here, Seattle also is those who profit from the distribution of those drugs, and even those who profit from combating drug addiction...Since he only talks of the horrors without presenting a solution, he along with those others of good heart who offer comfort and support to the addicts without offering an end to the suffering, is Seattle, and as a result all are dying...
Even if those well-intentioned souls somehow brought about the end of drug-induced corruption to their city, the problem would still exist as long as one person was willing to sacrifice a human soul on the altar of greed for a quick profit, and another person was willing to buy into the fantasy that a temporary euphoria can be had for no further payment than a few dollars...The author's ending paragraphs spoke of only one of two true solutions to end the ongoing blight on human society...He failed to mention that the eventual death of those addicts ended the hell-on-earth brought about by their own choices...The other solution was to find the inner strength to either resist the temptation in the first place, or once in the stranglehold, to find an even greater strength to stop the destructive behavior, and never take it up again...Those two choices, strength to resist or death, are also the only ways out for the other half of this vicious circle, the supplier...
The many nuances of arguments for or against either extreme solution are open to discussion, but both stand equally alone as the only effective means to deal with the scourge...And before any of those who know of my own addiction to alcohol raise their voices, yes, I consider alcohol a drug...
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