The media tends to report on drug use as an isolated problem of addicts, dealers and crime. In so doing they don’t deal with the fact that America is a nation of addicts and that addictive behavior informs so many bad decisions. Corporate executives, legislators, Wall Street brokers and cops are among the professions where abuse of alcohol, prescription drugs and high end recreational medications shape the days and nights of so many people who decide what does and doesn’t happen in this country. Which is why it strikes me that one of the under reported aspects of COVID-19 in the United States is alcoholism and recreational drug use. It's no surprise that the recent surge in California is in areas with beach and bar culture, as well as lots of folks smoking herb and doing coke. The more you drink, smoke, and snort the less likely you are to wear masks, social distance and be responsible. I'd love to see a graph comparing the reopening of bars and to the rise infection rates in Cali, Texas and Florida, three states where people take pride in getting lifted. When I look at the conversation about of young, asymptomatic people spreading the virus i think of how popular cocaine is among that demo. Though meth addiction among whites working class fiolks has been a focus for much reporting during the Trump years, the amount of coke being consumed at clubs and parties I've seen on both coasts suggest that any stigma died in the '90s and that coke, which never really went out of style, is doing its thing. The cautionary tales if generations past seem to mean nothing to folks who’ve come of age in the 21st century. I've heard of underground parties in both New York and Los Angeles where the young, pretty and rebellious are partying like its 1999. Where there are drinks and drugs there is reckless behavior. The U.S. has been the number one market for coke since the days of Pablo Escobar and that hasn’t changed despite “the war on drugs.” The beat goes on and the blow still flows.
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