Bad People In Town

Sometimes when you are at the bottom, you must stare up through the weighty mass that holds you down, access your dire situation, muster your strength, and use every resource at your disposal to push yourself upward. This, the 27th day of March, 2010, is where you, as a Scioto County resident, stands in respect to a threat at hand -- you and I are at the bottom together. Like it or not, your health, financial resources, job, possessions, family, and future is being manipulated by bad people.

These bad people are infiltrating your county and making tremendous amounts of money at your expense. They care not for your health, for your community, or for your life. They greedily feed on all their victims here and don't leave until they suck the lifeblood from the area. They deal in prescription drugs and turn their minions loose to spread poison. Instead of relieving legitimate pain, they sell their products at huge markups to dealers who inject  once-healthy buyers into a nightmare of misery.

They come from Florida, the Southwest, Mexico, and points closer such as Columbus to feed in the frenzy. The bad people are young, middle aged, and old. They blend into the areas of operation with relative ease. No law prevents them from allegedly "relieving your suffering." They plant their deadly opiates like landmines in the killing fields of Appalachia. Week after week, they reload their weapons and unleash havoc.

Too often, the youth, fearless and foolish, step into their traps to become maimed, injured, and killed. Young people so full of life and inquisitive about every popular fad find themselves playing deadly games with prescription drugs. They experiment and combine lethal cocktails of substances. Some pay the ultimate price. And, families grieve their losses forever. Their tranquil lives are essentially destroyed. Relatives never get an answer to the haunting question -- "Why?" You listen to their unbelievable stories of tragedy and well up in sorrow and in anger.

When these medical impostors move their operations, they leave a wake of weak, broken junkies in their rear-view mirrors and set up operations in other locales. Then, the real pain begins. The hooked "patients" turn to theft, prostitution, and other crimes to find money to support their habits. They steal from you, from me, and from their own families in desperation to stop the pain -- the pain that now has become real misery for them. Their criminal behavior has turned them into people with slim hopes of recovery.

Many patients go through endless rehab to kick the habit. They try so hard to get things back to normal, staying straight for periods of time, then suddenly relapsing and repeating the vicious cycle of buying, using, and selling the very poison that debilitates them. They can't work; they can't think; they can't function as normal human beings. What began for them as pleasurable use then becomes complete possession. Willpowerless, they flounder and become someone's burden -- your burden too.

I don't like the bad people in Scioto County who profit from misery and death. In fact, I hate these people with a deep passion that defies comprehension. You and I sit on the bottom in an area racked with poverty, pain, and hopelessness. Bottom-feeders relish Appalachia. They do not care for your heritage or your dignity -- they want your money. They love your lack of care and involvement because they know they can use your "sit-back and watch" attitude to their advantage. To the scum-suckers, you are nothing but an ignorant, gullible pill-billy.

To close, let me assure you, you and I are currently on the bottom and struggling with a terrible epidemic of outrageous prescription drug abuse. You need to become involved in this battle even if you have little faith in the politics or in the officials who represent your interests. You and I need to organize a massive response to the current problem and fight like hell. One more death, one more addict, one more broken family is too much.

What You Can Do

1. Write your representatives and beg them to pass new laws concerning Rx drug abuse.
2. Become vocal and pressure people to become a mass of 80,000 county residents who won't take any more.
3. Believe that you are involved in the suffering whether you live in a mansion or in a shack.
4. Find out how you can stop bad people from controlling your lives and respond - the movement is just starting to gain momentum.
5. Above all, be careful and be active in lawful, positive manners.

You and I are not afraid. We will not be intimidated into inaction, which contributes to the coffers of the ruthless criminals. You and I have a stake in this battle after we leave this earth. The solution is going to take a long time because you and I have to change, too. You and I have too much pride in our community to let others pluck our freedoms away. You and I are the community. You and I need each other NOW. Please respond.