2006 - go ask alice

Enough stalling. Let’s get on with it.

I don’t smoke. I don’t drink alcoholic beverages. I don’t
use recreational drugs. This has been true for years.
Many, many years. In spite of all that, I recently spent 10
days in the intense, detox unit of a local hospital. I was
detoxing from a prescription drug that should never have
been prescribed for me at all. In fact, in my opinion, it
should not be prescribed for anyone.

Ever.

This medication is described as a “low-level” anti-anxiety
drug. It is hugely popular. You can get a prescription for
it from almost any doctor. Go to the internet and you’ll
find endless sources where you can buy it without any
prescription at all. In some countries you can literally
buy it over the counter.

It works like a dream. If you are tense or anxious, just
swallow one of these little suckers and, in less than 20
minutes, your tension and anxiety will evaporate. Many
people use it to get a good night’s sleep.

It would be great if you could use this pill on a truly “as
needed” basis. But, in my case, after years of using it, it
got away from me. I became dependant on this drug. For a
long time, it helped me get through my day.

Every day.

I guess, because of that, you could consider me a weak
person. I wouldn’t argue with you about this. But, you
should know this “innocent” little pill is now considered by
many experts to be the biggest drug problem in the world.
It seems to have gotten the best of thousands (make that
hundreds of thousands) of other “weak” people. It has
eclipsed heroin, cocaine and even methamphetamine as the
world’s major, most dangerous drug.