Love Rehab

Do you remember the D.A.R.E. program from elementary school? I remember that bullshit vividly. I don't know if they still have that program in effect and I'm not trying to knock it because honestly, keeping kids off drugs is a good thing and I totally understand that it is the intent of the program to make sure that this is a reality; however, having a fucking cop come into a South Central L.A. classroom full of children who are raised not to trust cops and having him try to tell them right from wrong is just not the way to go about it. I can recall those Thursdays when that jackass LAPD Officer Horton would come into our fifth grade classroom and glare at us as if we were already the drug-addicted criminals that he was trying to prevent us from becoming. Add to that the fact that most, if not all of us had immediate family members who had suffered at the hands of him and his buddies. How could we listen to a word this guy was saying after all that?

Here we are, years later, and I can say that all of us that were sitting in that classroom listening to his bullshit have all had our relationships with various drugs. Some have experimented and moved on and some have made drugs a part of their everyday life. Perhaps if someone with more credibility had came and spoke to us on those Thursdays, even the need to experiment would not have developed. The way I see it, drug addiction is a disorder that spawns from within the individual and the tendency is not universal. Its a problem that needs to be cut off at the head. We can prevent kids from experimenting but once addiction takes over, the magnitude of the issue becomes much greater. Officer Horton failed to prevent experimentation. Mission Failure. Period.

So where am I going with this? Well, I've always wanted to take a shit on D.A.R.E. and there was my golden opportunity. And of course, I want to bring up the issue of drugs. I have traversed into the world of drugs and luckily it was a relatively short trip. At no point did I find myself even the least bit addicted to anything I've come across (no thanks to D.A.R.E.). Unlike many of my classmates from grade school, I will never spend my last 20 dollars on drugs, I will never kill for drugs and I will never go into rehabilitation for drugs. Fortunately, I am impervious to that type of addiction, however, I am not impervious to other types of addiction and here is where I finally come to my point. My friends (word to John McCain)... I have suffered the effects of that pesky little drug we call love.



We all know the symptoms. Constant craving, inability to see life beyond it, change of appearance, alienation from others around you, and insurmountable money loss. Sound familiar? Love is a drug and a helluva drug it is (word to Rick James, bitch). It is a drug that no program can prepare you for. No washed up police officer can intervene on your behalf. Once you have succumbed to the effects of love you are in for a wild ride. For almost three years I was a love junkie, getting my fix everyday. Then...it came to an end.

I'm doing better now. Three weeks of rehab have set me straight and put a lot of things into perspective. I've got the right sponsors (y'all know who y'all are) and I've been taking the proper steps of recovery. Before I got off the drug I didn't see how I would go on without it but now I realize what a burden it was in my young life and how much better off I am without it.

This is for all those readers who have ever found themselves addicted to anything, drugs or otherwise. There is a way out...and it's closer than you think...

"No matter how far out on the sea of suffering we've sailed, all that is required is to turn toward awakening and no one can do that for us."-- Bonnie Myota Treace