According to the latest statistics for the 12 months ending in April 2022, 81,692 people in this country died from opioid drug use. For a man who grew up in a small town in southeast Arkansas and has never had a beer, this is hard for me to believe. But I know it’s true, and it saddens me to know that thousands and thousands of my fellow citizens are going down this dead-end road. When I heard a report on television about drug use in our country, I asked myself this question: What can I do about it?
While I am not sure if I can do anything, I am sure going to try. As I look back over my life and realize how blessed I am, I think most of the credit goes to my father, who passed away back in 1974. He told me that when he was young he bought enough whiskey to float a battleship, and all that did was keep him broke and the talk of the town. However, when I was born, he swore off it, and I never saw him take another drink as long as he lived. What he did was “preach” to me about not doing it. This was long before drugs became the “in thing” and so many people got addicted to them, and in more ways than one, it has killed them.
Now, back to the subject at hand: First, I want to say that the one sure way to beat drug use is to never start it. Now, that may be easier said than done, but there are some ways I may be able to help those who are not already involved. My first suggestion is to be very careful who you choose for your friends. Any person you believe to be your friend who tries to sell you drugs, or encourages you to use them, is NOT your friend. If you even suspect this is the case, run the other way and immediately end your relationship with them.
What I am going to say next concerns my latest book “Your Future Begins Today.” Nothing I will say is for profit or personal gain, because all the profits from the book sales is going to Kiwanis Clubs across the nation to begin “Bookcase for Every Child” literacy projects that help young children being reared in low-income families learn to read. A good education is really the key to success and living a good life.
In the first chapter of my new book, I give a very clear way to avoid death by an overdose of drugs. The title of the chapter is “Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot.” It is here that I go into considerable detail about the law of “Cause and Effect.” This is the universal natural law that controls everything in the universe, meaning that for every effect there is a cause, and for every cause there is an effect.
The natural law that most of us know about is the law of gravity. If we jump or fall from a tall building we will always go down and never go up — and that is 100 percent of the time. This means that when we do good things, we get good things back in return. The same thing is true when we do bad things — we get bad things back in return. This is the law that also controls drug use. I promise you: nothing good will come from it.
We must teach this concept to children when they are very young where they understand and believe it. When we can do that, our children won’t get involved with drugs because they will know both intellectually and emotionally what it will do to them.
Please don’t ever use drugs. They could kill you.
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(Jim Davidson is an author, public speaker, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. Since its inception in the Log Cabin Democrat in 1995, Jim’s column has been self-syndicated in over 375 newspapers in 35 states. For a personalized copy of “Your Future Begins Today” send $20, which includes postage and handling, to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)