A crack house can be likened to an ashtray in the community, a dark and poisonous place, where is collected all the toxic waste that is a side effect of people engaging in harmful, non productive drug use. People caught up in drug use, a crack house the focus of their existence, are regarded by society very much like the refuse that they create. Drug addicts might be in need of addict help – but we want them to move on, and out of our neighborhood, to a place where we can’t see them or need to be bothered by them.
We want our local community to be a safe house – free from negativity, everyone happy and smiling, living the good life.
Drugs today permeate all levels of society – seeking out those places where the fiction that we are “happy and content” fails to match the reality. Drugs present as an option whenever we drop our guard, and want to resolve emotional issues by something quick and easy, instead of sorting out our problems in natural and healthy ways.
Drugs are only one of many things that we might try and use when life gets us down and we want a “quick fix” in order to feel the happiness that we think is our entitlement. It is ok for us to gamble, get drunk at the local pub, shop until we drop for things we do not need, or eat trash food that makes us ill – but when someone sets up a crack house, that antisocial and destructive behavior has to be curtailed, and removed from our street.
To people who feel down and disillusioned with life, access to a crack house means availability of drugs and relief from feelings of negativity. If a crack house appears in your community it means that drugs have exposed some cracks in the veneer of social responsibility and respectability. People who go to crack houses, using drugs to fill up a void in their lives – are all people of our community, whether we like it or not.
Being non-judgmental about the appearance of a crack house means understanding that people never prefer to use drugs when life offers better options. A crack house begs the question – why are these people choosing a chaotic, disordered lifestyle, choosing to do drugs, if in real terms they have better options.
To become open, as a community, to policies of social inclusion means that we need to be willing to examine our own prejudices, and the attitudes that contribute to and cause social exclusion and drug use in the first place. If a crack house appears in the community, social rehabilitation and inclusion is a better outcome than simply closing them down, and forcing them to move on.
One of the best ways to give addict help is by encouraging an addict to seek a comprehensive program for drug addiction recovery and rehabilitation, a program that brings about natural and drug free addiction recovery, enhances self esteem, and positive life skills,
Communities are enhanced by and benefit from comprehensive drug programs that use drug free natural methods, returning people to the community happy, content, productive, an asset, no longer a burden.
The benefits of encouraging people to seek comprehensive addict help for addiction recovery are that we can say with community pride – and not horror – Crack house?! – Not in our neighborhood!
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