Outskirts Press, INC.

So you thought “crack heads” and “dope fiends” were the problem! Now look in the mirror: Wow! Scary huh!

“This book challenges the consciousness of Americans as it relates to drugs and other addictive behaviors. Other sources have presented the incidence of said behaviors in a fragmented format, thereby fostering denial and condemnation of a few. In contrast the following material concisely connects seemingly unrelated realities which illuminate our destructive patterns which are insidiously destroying our spirits.” —Dr. Fernando Cabrera, New York City Councilman The hypocrisy of the American psyche will surely reap the seeds of their destruction. We condemn drug lords but at the same time stand by as pharmaceutical companies recruit unscrupulous doctors to peddle new drugs. Both prescribe by the profit motive: Business 101, supply and demand, the first one is always free; with little regard for safety or life. The tobacco industry, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, kills more Americans than the sum total of all drugs. Our children are inundated with drug innuendoes through mediums of indoctrination such as music, movies, and the media. Our daughters and sons are inserting vodka soaked tampons into their vagina and rectum, and DWI’s continue to soar at alarming rates, yet we deny that alcohol is a drug. Powder cocaine is glamorized and sniffing heroin is sheik, but if we smoke crack and shoot dope we are a “crack head” or a “dope fiend.” Condemnation of some equals the inevitable destruction of all. Miseducation: Like a Trojan horse it stands before us; consuming us, spewing invisible rays of destruction and death. We are at war America: It appears to be a war against drugs. In reality it’s a war not against, but for our spirits. We are loosing our ground because we have become disconnected from our inner strength. We are so comfortable with the immediate gratification of the here and now: we have become so allured by the anesthetization of the pain of our past and of our present, that we have resigned ourselves to self defeating behavior. America is plagued with a pandemic of addictive behaviors. The only way we will win the war is to reclaim our spirit and hold steady to our natural inclination of self preservation. The countless souls who are lost share a commonality in spirit and grace. “There is No Such Thing as a ‘Crack Head’ or a ‘Dope Fiend’:” only your mother, my father, his son, their daughter. We are all in some way interconnected. Our spirits bind us to a power greater than ourselves. Americans must get honest: We must take a stance. Enough is enough: Stop the madness. From this day forward our mantra will be,” I will no longer allow the ill promises of drugs and other self defeating behaviors that allow me to transcend this place and time consume me. I reclaim my spirit; right here, right now.”