Any Port In the Storm - Addicts Need a Port

To need a safe place, any place will do, even outside under a bridge.

Anyway I have been thinking about addictions and how we have no control over it.  The damage addictions does is immense. Taking lives and destroying lives. Sad way to live.

I have experience on the periphery of addictions, as a treatment administrator and a passenger. I have come to realize what a disconnect there is between those "treating" or working in the field and those living in addictions; the addict and the family/friends of the addict. Can you imagine, if the treatment experts are disconnected, how far removed policy makers are to the issue?  I mean sure they speak with them, the addicts, but can they really relate to the addict and how they live? Or what their families are going through?  Sure they are listening to the war stories and the horror but are only on the outskirts, the outer rim of what is going on. That is just the nature of the beast. We can't live their lives nor would we want to. But it comes down to how can we work with the addict?
We know Alcoholics Anonymous and other similar programs are actually ineffective and research is not favourable on how effective treatment programs are.

I had a friend, a treatment director, who used to say "when you are working for the people you are working for the Creator".  I like that idea. Still if you are working only to feed yourself is it really working for the Creator or are you working to eat? It is disheartening that best intentions seem to be lost when it comes to care of others.

Anyway I think this, Addicts need a port, any port in the storm. If I had spare cash I would offer a house. Just a place to house addicts with no promise of anything except a place to REST for seven days and then your out again. Just enough time to rest nothing more. Just a bed to rest with a locker and lock for their stuff. No entrance requirements. A four bedroom house and that's it. A living room with tv and a fridge with food.  Since I can't afford this, maybe some group of means can do something like this. Opioids have become the drug of choice in today's society. And the drugs are killing the addict. Not only does it physically kill the addict over time, it kills the person's spirit first. Then it attacks the people around the addict. It is not a solitary monster. It feeds and devours all around and it has a wide path. There is some out there who will try to get off the drug with a drug substitute like methadone. Many of the addicts become a memory for the grieving. We can't forget they are the loved ones of someone, right?

But who gives a fuck, right?  They made choices. No one forced the drug into their system. That is the disconnect from society.  If you have the disconnect with whatever made them "chose" drugs, well that's kind of sad. If we have lost the humanity to care, what chance do they have?

A port in the storm.

We all need a port in the storm but they are few and far between. The bureaucratic set up for getting into a treatment program can be a nightmare for some. Its a chore for an addict to live, never mind having to fill out the proper paper work and get the right assessment from doctors or care givers in the community.
Want to get into detox program? There are hoops. Want to get into treatment more hoops of fire to jump through. Its difficult to access a place to rest.

That is all we can offer. A place of rest and some kindness.  They say kindness is the best practice for treatment.

Rest in a safe place.

Or eventually rest in peace.