NOTHING infuriates me more than advocates for legalizing drugs who produce philosophical articles not rooted in ANY of the reality of what it's like to lose a child, the fight to save a child or the extreme life long collateral damage to families caused by drugs. @aftariak

2) Very few people have been on every side of the coin when speaking about these substances. After 4 spinal cord surgeries myself I used narcotic pain medication and went thru violent withdrawals when my medication wasn't available at the pharmacy.

3) I endured the long hours of suffering while ramping down off the narcotic medications I had used for years after my procedures. It was hell on earth. I understand the driving need of addicts to use to avoid being violently sick just to feel normal.

4) I got that phone call in the middle of the night that my daughter, my soul mate in this world, was taken from me by these substances that she would never have even thought of accepting prior to her injury.

5) On top of my grief I watched my son fall into addiction in his grief and struggle to survive. I endured the pain of removing all aid from him when all efforts to save him failed, waiting for him to hit his "rock bottom". Struggling every time he called begging me for money.

6) I hung up that phone crying more times than I can count. I didn't sleep, I couldn't function. Some days I would pray for death so I could be at peace but I simply couldn't abandon my son or my grandchildren they needed me.

7) When my son was arrested I would sleep peacefully comforted by the knowledge that I wasn't going to get that second phone call that another one of my children was dead. Most families enduring addiction live with the stress of dreading that call, waiting for it to come.

8) I held my 5 year old grandson while he wept after his mothers death his little life shattered forever when the person he was closest to in this world was taken from him. He still cries 5 years later.

9) I held and comforted my 3 year old granddaughter on countless nights as she wailed for her Mommy who could never come running to her cries or hold her again. Today 5 years later she cries for the memories she doesn't have of her mother.

10) I felt relief when my son was finally charged with a felony for possession and put into the drug court system which has finally motivated him to choose life. He completes his first real attempt at rehabilitation and moves into the sober living center this Sunday.

11) ANYONE advocating for any family to endure this level of suffering is either incredibly short sighted or a sadist, you can decide which one it is. Sadly what I have described is becoming the American norm not the exception and it has to change.

12) This was my beautiful family before illicit substances and one user/dealer started the chain of events that decimated my entire family for generations to come. The destruction of American families has to stop.

13) The battle to save American families starts at the head of the snake which are the cartels and the illicit substances doing the most harm and big pharma and it's advocates trying to continue this destruction by legalizing known highly addictive poisons.