A Grateful Nation

“BOOOOOOOOM!!!”

In the span of less than a second, he'd gone from an enlisted soldier, to a civilian with an Honorable Discharge and a Purple Heart. That was only a few years ago...

Now he sits on his couch, heating a piece of aluminum foil with a lighter, chasing the wispy trails of heroin smoke through the air with a fast food straw. As he exhales, the smoke is illuminated by the flickering light of the television.

He folds up the foil and places it and his lighter on the coffee table, and sits back on his couch. His eyes, barely open enough to tell he's conscious. For the next few hours, he sits there; occasionally animating momentarily to cheer on the star of an action movie exuberantly for about two seconds, before collapsing back onto the couch and zoning out again.

A few hours later, he'll come down enough to realize that he's been watching the title screen from the DVD for quite some time... how long had it been playing the same ten second sequence over and over?

He's become a heroin addict. The once proud soldier and hero, reduced to a 105 lb, quivering skeleton of a man.

How did THAT happen?

People see him as a junky... the refuse of society... they don't consider the story of how he got here; nor do they know it. Some people just don't care at all. They just see the guy who can barely get off his couch anymore, and has to get high just to feel “normal”.

The people pointing fingers of disgust don't realize, though, that they helped put him there.

The accident had happened a few years ago, while overseas in the Army. The pain he now felt was chronic; unyielding.

The V.A. says he might need surgery for his injury, but they want to exhaust all the other options first. After all, surgery can be risky... and if it doesn't go right, they might have to amputate. “But until then, here's a prescription for Oxycontin... just take this when the pain feels unmanageable...”

“Wow! That's an expensive medication... how long will I be on it?”

“Hopefully, not long.”

“Ok.”

It's medicine, after all... it couldn't POSSIBLY be bad for him, could it?

A doctor wouldn't give this to him if it would hurt him, would he? After all, “First, do no harm...”

Right?

… but what other viable pain management options did the doctor have at his disposal?  What choices did he have to treat this debilitating pain?

A month goes by... nothing.

… 6 months go by... they've tried a few massage and chiropractic techniques... no real result.

… a year goes by... still, nothing has worked...

The pain is still as bad as it ever was.

“We still have a few more things to try... do you need your prescription refilled again?”

“Do you need your prescription filled again?”

“Do you need your prescription filled again?”

“Do you need your prescription filled again?”

“You're going through your prescriptions pretty fast, now... are you ok?”

“I just want this pain to stop... are there any other options?”

“No... not really...”

“... then I need my prescription filled.”

Another month passes...

“I just lost my job... it's getting harder to afford this prescription... we need to do something soon!”

“We just have a few more things to try. But maybe we'll also keep trying the massage and chiropractic treatments. Do you need your prescription filled again?”

“Ok. Yes, I do.”

Another month passes...

“--hey, man... the doctor gave me these after I had my wisdom teeth removed... I don't need the rest of them... do you wanna buy them from me?”

“Ok. Yes, I do.”

Another month passes...

“--hey, man... I can get you pills for less than the pharmacy... and I won't ask questions and make you feel bad for taking them... I know how badly you need them... my brother was in the Army, too...”

Another month passes...

“--hey, man... I can't front you pills without cash... but there are options...”

“---wait a minute... I can get heroin for HOW much??? … and it's the same thing???”

Meanwhile, high up in the pharmaceutical company's top floors, the board meeting commences...

“How have profits been in the pain-management sector?”

“Sir, our numbers are SOARING! People have a lot of pain to manage... and boy, are they managing!”

“Excellent!”

“-- Sir, there's a problem, though...”

“What problem?”

“Addiction, sir. Lots of people are getting addicted to our painkillers...”

“Well, as long as they're paying for them, that's their own problem... they should have known what they were getting into when they started... I mean, this stuff is heroin, after all.”

… later, on the evening news...

“...will we need boots on the ground in the fight against ISIL? Let me introduce our Armed Services Correspondent...”