We Need to Continue Drug and Natural Health Education for Everyone

Here’s a quick piece about an observation I made at work a couple of weeks ago:

I work in the film industry—visual effects post-production, to be specific. It’s hard work with long hours, but we’re really computer-geek artists (technical wizards is a term we like a little better), so the hardcore rave scene isn’t too much a part of our work culture. As far as drugs are concerned, it’s not something that’s done openly by people at work or talked about much. I do know a few coworkers who have mentioned that they smoke pot on occasion, so I do what I can to discourage it when it does come up in conversation. Generally, it’s not a common topic to encounter at work.

But, I was caught off-guard last week when a coworker popped pills right in front of me, at work while we were having a meeting. He’s a very respectable guy, good at his job, and I always considered him a very “clean” guy. We were talking about a work task when he abruptly stopped and complained about muscle soreness in his legs from playing football. He gestured to a coworker across the room, who tossed him a foil-backed set of pills. He popped out 4 of them and downed them like they were air. These were strong painkillers and that was quite a dose to be so casually throwing back.

Fittingly, this happened right as I was becoming aware of the opiate crisis in the USA, and suddenly I was much more aware, from personal experience, of how “acceptable” drugs are treated as a “solution” for even the smallest “issues,” even by very normal and upstanding people. Muscle soreness from playing sports. Instead of taking a magnesium supplement, or stretching, or getting a massage—all things that are known to naturally help such a common, even healthy situation as muscle soreness—this person was inclined to pop painkillers to simply mask the pain.

This is just one example of why we need to continue drug and natural health education for everyone, not just those traditionally deemed as “at-risk.”