This drug abuse talk again… Sigh

Hello folks! Welcome to a new month! How’s the year been? Good? Great? Achieving? Working hard? Feel like there are some things you need to work on, change around? It’s all in your hands!

Let’s start by catching up a bit – won’t dedicate a full post to it because honestly I’m tired of writing about the effects of drug use/abuse. Ditto ranting about drug trafficking, especially to countries where the penalty is death. So, I’m not saying drug trafficking is ok (God forbid), I’m saying that if you have given yourself over to the devil (or allowed the devil to use you according to former President Goodluck Jonathan), why not help your career by staying out of countries where the penalty is death? Na wa.

On drug abuse, and the recent death and internment of Bobbi Kristina Brown, I have a few things to say. Not to her family (who must be in so much grief all we can/should do is pray for them to be comforted) but to the rest of us who are still privileged to be in the land of the living. Not because we’re better, more righteous or whatever. God is just merciful. But we have a part to play.

Illicit drugs were, are, and will always be a bad thing. There is no way abusing drugs (even if it is cough medicine I hear people sniff to get high) will ever produce a positive result.

Michael Jackson – 50.Whitney Houston – 48. Phillip Seymour Hoffman – 46. Cory Monteith – 31. Bobbi Kristina – 22. She’s the latest entrant to the list since the post I wrote titled, “learn from it, don’t be it”. How hard can it be to say no to the first whiff, injection, smoke? What are you even doing amongst people playing rough play like that? Let me sound like my father a bit and say that do you think Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, etc. would be where they are today if they spent their time sniffing whatever it is that ends up destroying the mind and the body? How do we by ourselves become the architects of our own destruction?

Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s death hurt me in a different kind of way. This man was an addict, cleaned up, was drug free for at least 8280 days, then fell off the wagon again. And this time it killed him. Would to God he had stayed clean another 6 months from the 8280 days; he might still have been here.

Don’t start. Don’t try it. If you’re sad/depressed/feeling bad, pray. Shop (more like window shop). Go out, hang out with your friends. Call someone close on the phone. Pray. Sing. Dance. Sleep sef!

But in the name of everything pure, leave drugs alone. There is no light at the end of that tunnel.

Love, light, and warm fuzzies,

FGS.

Another one bites the dust…

Cory Monteith. Michael Jackson. Whitney Houston. What two things do these names have in common? Fame/wealth. Undisputed access to tons and tons of money, acclaim, all that good stuff.

The second thing is illicit drugs/death. Whatever it is they snorted, smoked, injected or inhaled, it led to their death, and very early too. Cory Monteith was 31, Michael Jackson was 50. Talk about lives being cut short.

Exactly one week ago, when I heard Philip Seymour Hoffman had been found dead on the 2nd of February with a needle still stuck in his arm and heroin (a special type called ‘Ace of Spades’) in packets around him, I was sad, then angry, then sad, and angry all over again.

Sad – he died young, he was just 46. He was very popular too, an Oscar award winner, and recently starred in Hunger Games (which by the way I have never watched and don’t think I will ever see because I don’t like fight fight).

Angry – are there not enough examples to prove that drugs are a sure way to die early?

Sad – heartbroken for his family, his wife/partner and their three young children. His parents, and the stigma of being related to the person ‘who died with a needle in his arm’.

Angry – what on earth made him go back to drugs after 23 years of being drug free? Whatever could have entered him all over again? They say his drugs could have been laced with something else. Ok, but why take them in the first place? Why?

I’m sure I could go the sad and angry route a few more times, but I won’t.

Psychologists say anything you do for 30 days becomes a habit – this man had been drug free for at least 8280 days! Then according to a report I read, he started abusing prescription pills, graduated to heroin, and then on to this substance that took his life.

I chatted with someone recently, and he told me the amount of thanks and gratitude he got because he gave him a $5 tip. 5 dollars. Reports say just weeks ago the now late Seymour withdrew $1200 from an ATM to pay for these drugs. $1200 on drugs when the next man is almost throwing a party because he was gifted 5 bucks.

Here’s another reason why I am angry – a child is attracted by the flickering light of a candle, and they want to touch it. Most times we let them because we know once it hurts them that first time, they most likely will not go back to it again. ‘Most likely’ because children have the attention span of a goldfish! Bless them.

23 years after, did he forget? Did he become so wealthy that he felt that the drugs would ‘fear/respect his money’ and not harm him? What was he thinking? The Bible says that the things that are written are unto us for examples.

Just like I wrote the ‘learn from it, don’t be it‘ post when Cory Monteith died, I’m writing again  – say NO to drugs. Say No, and mean it so much that whoever asked you before will be convinced you are not interested. You shouldn’t even be friends with such people in the first place!

RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Related articles

• Philip Seymour Hoffman Didn’t Have to Die
• I couldn’t agree with this more…
• Hope defeats fear!

Learn from it, don’t be it

When I was younger my father would always say that the stories we read in the Bible are supposed to be examples for us. So when you see that Solomon gave a thousand burnt offerings to the Lord and God came down to ask him what he wanted, it kinda tells you that to see extraordinary from God you need to do extraordinary right?

In the same way, when you see people punished for disobeying God’s laws, you automatically know that there will always be a consequence for wrongdoing right?

Do we agree? Good.

I’m not ‘preaching’ today, so this is not one of the ‘welcome to church, get out your Bibles’ episodes, I just want to address something I can’t stop thinking of. I’m also going to try to appeal to the part of our brain that houses (or should house) common sense. You know that part where you debate stuff before you decide to go ahead with them or not? Yep, that one.

Why on earth, in the name of all things pure, and decent, do people do drugs? What is the attraction that cancels out the simple logic that it is deadly, dangerous, and never ends well? Are there not enough examples for us to see that this is a very bad thing? I don’t get it!

Every other year we hear of one high-profile person or the other, cut down in their prime at the peak of their careers by something they could easily have done without. Easily.

Michael Jackson – cause of death? Cardiac arrest, acute propofol intoxication; midazolam, lidocaine, diazepam, lorazepam also noted in autopsy report. He was 50 at the time of his death in 2009.

Whitney Houston – cause of death? Drowning, complications of cocaine and heart disease; Flexeril, marijuana, Xanax and Benadryl were also found in her body. She was 48 at the time of her death in 2012.

Lil Wayne (not dead, yet after this episode, at this rate it won’t be long)

Most recently, Cory Monteith passed; he was 31, thanks to a mix of heroin and alcohol. What? I don’t know about you, but where I come from it is a bad thing for parents to bury their children. Especially when they were lost in less than dignifying circumstances (not like there is ever a ‘good way’ to die but you get the idea).

There is a more comprehensive list of the causes of death here.

Regardless of what it is called, crystal meth, ecstasy, heroin, coke, and weed, whatever – to my mind if you are not sick you don’t need medication. Why burn your candle form three ends? Spend your money to purchase poison (and they are not cheap), spend money to treat or orchestrate your withdrawal but the biggest loser is your body, your temple which you should ordinarily cherish and pamper. I feel the same way about cigarettes and alcohol.

Would you prefer to learn from examples or you’d rather you were the example? I’m saying that because trust me, any fraternizing with drugs will not end well. At all.

The Bible says to “flee all appearances of evil”. Ladies and gentlemen, flee means to take off from wherever you are when someone offers you stuff you know has no place in your body, not wait for the niceties of ‘on your mark, ready, set, go’. Ain’t got no time for that.

It means to run, and sever all ties with such people before they sever your ties with your destiny!

Too many examples around; let’s be guided.

Related articles

• Testimony of a Former Prisoner (opendoorssg.wordpress.com)
• Basketball mogul arrested for heroin sales. (thasportsjunkies101.wordpress.com)
• Understanding Why Drug Abuse Happens (paxhouse2013.wordpress.com)
• Supply and Demand (juwannadoright.wordpress.com)
• The Painkiller Epidemic – Dangers of Legal Prescription Drugs (arcpointelkgrovevillage.wordpress.com)
• Signs of Substance Abuse in Teenagers (combataddiction.wordpress.com)
• Drug deaths in Scotland remain high, figures show (scotsman.com)

LAST WEEK……

How have you been? Good? Me too! A little stressed this past week but it’s been worth it. Every single minute of it! Let’s play like this; I’ll run you through a couple of things that I was up to, and you can tell me yours too. K?

For starters, I graduated last week! Masters in Social Media in the bag; whoop whoop!

Whoop whoop!! Thank you Jesus!

I’m grateful to God for the grace to finish, and for the provisions made available to me to study, and finish the course without any hitches. Oya o, direct your social media needs my way; I promise I’m affordable; will be the best value for money ever! I’m particularly interested in and offer

• Bespoke social media solutions for start-ups, entrepreneurs, corporations, you name it….
• Hands-on monitoring and technical support
• Content development and production for radio and television programmes

What else happened last week? Err; apart from going to Heathrow from Birmingham (an approximately three-hour trip) like five times, I did a lot of writing, and writing I’m proud of. The previous week, I’d announced on Twitter that for a few hours I would accept requests from anyone to guest post for free on their websites. Quite a number of people responded, and so I did a lot of writing. I’ve handed in a couple of them, and they’ll be available on here in exactly nine days. That was one challenge I enjoyed, and will repeat soon. Follow @chiomachuka  so you don’t miss out!

Got a phone call about 4.50am on Sunday, a friend called to tell me Whitney Houston was dead. When she hung up, and I had checked to be sure I wasn’t in any way related to Whitney Houston (why else would someone call me that early just to give me bad news), I went on Twitter. Against my wishes/hopes, Whitney Houston had passed on; she was found in the bath of her hotel room by her bodyguard. At forty-eight? Death really has no shame. Who hasn’t been touched by Whitney’s music? The minstrel with 415 awards, the highest by any single musician according to the Guinness Book of World Records; what gave her the right to die?

Of course, conspiracy theories sprung up as to how, why, and who to blame for her death. From drugs, to her husband Bobby, to depression, every option was explored. Her voltrons were on duty as well, and at some point it was almost laughable.

This is what I think: Whitney Houston is a legend, even more in death, one of God’s greatest gifts to music of our time. Larry King said, “All of her life was in her voice”, and even that didn’t quite capture the greatness that was Whitney. She was beautiful, strong, and was all about the music, rather than the sex symbols our musicians are today. But, she was a drug addict. There’s no loving way to say it. All the love, admiration, and respect we feel for her won’t change that so let’s call a spade a spade and not a dessert spoon. As my friend said,

I would to God she’d said no to the first sniff, whiff, ingestion or whatever of drugs. And my heart goes out to her husband Bobby and daughter Bobby Kristina, who themselves have struggled/are struggling with drug abuse. And for her mother who at some point forced her into rehab, I pray God in his infinite mercies comforts you.

To everyone else, “the things we have seen are for our instruction”. Almost in succession, legends have killed themselves, by themselves. Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston; I found a pretty long list on a blog of celebrities who have passed thanks to drugs. How many more deaths do we need? Won’t even start on our leaders who are drug users, especially since I plan to visit Nigeria soon (yes this is fear).

What else happened? Err, so Zambia beat Ivory Coast with eight goals to seven (penalties o, was goalless at full-time) to clinch the African Cup of Nations. Yay them! Can’t be bothered, I do not like football. Apart from the fact that footballers make vulgar, almost insane amounts of money (yes, this is beef), I don’t see how the sport that ‘united the world’ is one in which 22 grown men chase a ball. And spit on the pitch. And then fall in that same pitch. Yuck! Triple yuck!

Finally, Serikae Dickson was returned as Governor of Bayelsa State on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. Dickson was adjudged the winner of the votes having polled a total of 417, 500 votes out of the 467,004 votes cast, representing 89% of total votes cast in the elections that held on Saturday.

That’s it, pretty much the things that interested me this past week! What’s your story?

Related articles

• Oprah’s Whitney Houston Interview Reairing Thursday (wirk.radio.com)
• Whitney Houston’s Funeral Will Be Streamed Online (rollingstone.com)
• MATT SORUM Blasts Media For ‘Negative And Disrespectful’ Coverage Of WHITNEY HOUSTON’s Death (roadrunnerrecords.com)