Recently, I have read and heard several local comments regarding drug addicts.  Some of the quotes were as follows; “We should just let all the heroin addicts die.  They deserve it.”  Another quote read, “Don’t waste our time on drug addicts, they are the scum of the earth.  They never recover.”  Another quote labeled addicts as “the dregs of the earth.”

As a 35-year chemical dependency counselor, myself, and my other colleagues have dedicated ourselves to providing humane, professional, dignified care to addicts and their families.  Thousands of people are now living productive drug-free lives in this community who formerly found themselves entrapped in the tentacles of addiction.

I remember speaking to a community group one night when an adult shouted out, “All drug pushers should be given the death penalty.”  I stopped my presentation and asked this individual, “What if the drug pusher is your 12-year-old son?”  After a brief silence, the adult answered, “That’s a different story.”

George Washington stated, “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong…because someday you will have been all of them.”

Addicts and alcoholics have been and continue to be an inspiration to me because of their raw courage in confronting their disease and the passion by which they live in recovery.  Many years ago, I learned that addicts and alcoholics are good people with a bad disease.  We need to help them feel valued, we need to help them identify their goodness, we need to help them re-light their human spirit, and we need to understand their pain.  The last thing they need is to be condemned, ostracized, and labeled.  If we want to give them a label, then I would ask that you label them as sick with a medical disease with the potential for recovery.

Please take the time to meet recovering addicts and alcoholics.  Look in their eyes and I guarantee that you will be energized by their spirit.

Martin Luther King, one of the world’s greatest influences, stated, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

I believe that our community is overwhelmingly supportive of rehabilitation and has a true appreciation of the beauty of recovery.  Please, let us never lose our compassion and love for those who suffer among us.  Jesse Jackson’s words should guide our daily lives; “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.”