Youth, Bath Salts & Terrorism

I watched a documentary on designer drugs using the name or term 'Bath Salts' and at first I was a little concerned that people were swallowing, smoking, snorting or injecting actual 'Bath Salts' and to be frank I'm still not sure but I had a look in Wikipedia for a little more information.

Now there are a ton of designer drugs, none of which are good I might add and there is ample evidence of this readily available to anyone who cares to check before consuming these party drugs but this documentary was focused on the families of 'Bath Salts' addicts.

What struck me was the anger by the families of these drug addicts directed at authorities. The anger was focused on two key points;

1. Authorities have been far too slow to act in banning 'Bath Salts' causing the acquisition of these drugs to be far too easy. (The primary issue that authorities have is defining the drug. No sooner is the pharmacology (chemical makeup) identified and listed and the pharmacology is altered by some enterprising low life chemist.)
2. Authorities are too tough on soft drugs. The thinking here is that if soft drugs were readily available there would be no market for the harder drugs. (This is as delusional as a drug abuser believing that they are in control of their addiction. This says "Let us make it easier for more youth to become drug addicts" and is plain stupid.)

At no point during the documentary did anyone take responsibility for the situation that they found their family in, nor did they lay any portion of blame on the addicted drug user. One father actively supported his daughter by driving her to drug buys because he believed that he could control her and minimise the addiction. The mother on the other hand preferred the tough love approach and would pay for rehabilitation through an approved centre. This divide had of course caused the family to break up with the mother retaining custody of the younger children.

At the same time we have a number of youth, not just here in Australia but worldwide who are off for a little adventure and are making their way to the Middle East to join ISIL. Listening to the multitude of talk shows with their interviewing of experts on this type of youthful behaviour. The number of excuses, primarily directed at low socio-economic members of society are quite astounding. 

There is no excuse (in my opinion) for anyone to get into a situation where they are taking these drugs. There is a plethora of information available through existing educational systems, the internet, social (and in fact all) media to warn of the risks involved. The bulk of responsibility lies squarely with the drug abuser!

As for any 17 year old with the romantic idea of heading off to join a group of desert dwellers and become a leader and martyr of world liberation. This is not a game, a fantasy or a dime store novel. This is life and death, there is no glory in war and certainly not in terrorism. One thing is certain and a fundamental lesson - it matters not the age of the finger on the trigger. Or the age of the hand holding the bomb, grenade or whatever. The devastation delivered by a younger hand will not be less catostrophic, nor will it be easier to bear.

People make their choices and must accept the consequences of those choices, the drug abuser is responsible for their addiction and the impact of this on their family as is the terrorist. If they are old enough to make the choice, they are old enough to accept responsibility for the consequence of that choice. No excuses!!