It is because an addict has a little more trouble doing things that slow him down

to the extent that he cannot cope with the inadequacies that bequeath him.

He proceeds and thrusts himself to reach that plateau of success he had seen so

much of referred commonly as, “The Other Half.”

His actions are of desperate impulse as he fails to measure the consequences

of the end result.

With inner knowledge of emptiness and monetary gains as his immediate gratification,

it is his mirage and ultimate goal along with the mysteries of the drug world that consumes

him in jumbled thoughts.

A world he felt compelled to test. And without foreseeing the tragic ending, flunks the course

in norms and values.

A social reject he already was, the loss of respect is inevitable.

The respect he tried so hard to gain consumes him to the point of inner hostility.

Hatred, lashed out towards people of respectability.

For release of his inner hatred and hostility, he lavishes the drug

for the purpose of self indulgence.

Thoughts of relief from the pains of loneliness, in the company of other addicts,

each in his or her own world of despair.

His death is termed and “Overdose.”

In that an addict may feel alone in a private hell hole he created.

When he dies, it is not from the drug itself, but of sheer loneliness.

written by Joan Farley Nyobe