Stuff You Won't Hear Much About

In the "I told you so" department, last year I did a post saying that it was probably not going to be a good time to have any major substance issues. Not that ANY time is, but with all the people being displaced by disasters A, B and C and whatnot, there were going to be a number of addicts included, and they were most likely going to have a bad time.
 I just finished smoking a cigarette and I'm drinking a cup of coffee and I've certainly tried stronger stuff, so I'm not one to judge. Back in the day I drank too much and I smoked a truckload of weed and I dabbled in a few things, but I never stuck a needle in my arm, and when it comes to the "stupid drugs" like crack, meth, heroin and whatever else, I never even saw those in person. Luckily I can't speak from experience about what it's like to be "dope sick," or to suddenly withdraw from drugs, but I hear it's a bitch.
 Right now there's a hell of a lot of people who are geeked out of their minds because they can't get dope. Don't get me wrong...it pales in comparison to all the people who've lost everything, and aren't addicts to begin with, but I'm guessing it's a bit of a problem for people at large shelters. Most addicts I imagine live dimebag-to-dimebag, so it's not like they were able to put away an emergency stash. All their shit's gone, so even if they could find some dope, they wouldn't have anything to trade for it except for sex, as usual, and that's probably much harder to arrange in a public shelter. And that's assuming they can even find a dope man to begin with, and that his stash didn't get wet. I do know enough about drugs to know that wet drugs are mostly useless. I also know that any dealer sitting on any quantity of anything is in the catbird seat right now.
 I did hear one thing a few days ago that was related. It was in Florida and they were talking about hospitals and mental-health facilities being open, but I can tell you right now that if things get bad, the druggies will be last in line for treatment. There's also quite a lot of the "You got what you deserve" mentality in the medical profession toward addicts. I think it's wrong, but it definitely exists. There's a bunch of bug-eyed people geeking out right now and they're pretty much up a creek...or a river or an ocean or whatever. Yeah, nobody's going to talk about this. It's a small percentage of the population anyway but they're there and it's something to consider. I wouldn't want to have to deal with them.
 On the bright side, in a week or two, if things don't change, those people will pretty much be over the physical part of the addiction, and maybe they can start working on the rest of the issue. It may be some time before they can rebuild their lives enough to the point where they can start buying dope again. We'll see I guess. Dopers are crafty. Their addictions become their primary relationships, and I'm sure it's no different in a shelter than on the street. Maybe better even. Who knows? Just for the record I also said in that post that ANYONE can quit substances. It's true. I'd recommend tapering off slowly...just the same as when they started, but there are many ways and it CAN be done. Sadly for many people right now that method looks like it's going to be cold turkey. Next time, just say no.