In case you have missed this, in the last forty years, today's "news" wants to keep you informed. Heroin is bad for you. It causes crime and sickness and junkies. There are even clinics for treatment and halfway houses and all sorts of stuff.
None that any of us want in our neighborhoods, but, hey, that's where the heroin is.
I don't want or mean to minimize the issue of heroin, addiction, and treatments. This IS stuff people should know about. Be aware of it -- yes, right in your backyard.
But it does annoy me that all this is being treated as brand new news.
It isn't.
The issues and concerns are exactly the same as in the 90s, when "heroin chic" brought the addiction back into the headlines. The issues of treatment, and theft and sharing needles -- it's all old news.
Most of it -- there have been some changes in treatments -- in the 90s was recycled news from the 70s. If you can find old newspapers, pull up a few articles on the subject. Word for word, they could be written today and called news.
Epidemic, the reporters emphasize. (Even though the word epidemic has been discredited in relation to actual illnesses)
Epidemic, they said in the 90s.
Epidemic, they said in the 70s.
If this is new news, maybe instead of recycling the same old news about the issue, someone (like an investigative reporter?) should look into why this may be a 20-year cycle epidemic. What makes any issue or illness or addiction repeat in the same pattern, over and over again.
If this is a cyclical issue, why is no one looking to break the cycle?
Why are they only wanting to treat it?
Why is something 20 or 40 years old being touted as "news"? It's pretty old, don't you think?
If only they would report something that has changed.
That would be news.
None that any of us want in our neighborhoods, but, hey, that's where the heroin is.
I don't want or mean to minimize the issue of heroin, addiction, and treatments. This IS stuff people should know about. Be aware of it -- yes, right in your backyard.
But it does annoy me that all this is being treated as brand new news.
It isn't.
The issues and concerns are exactly the same as in the 90s, when "heroin chic" brought the addiction back into the headlines. The issues of treatment, and theft and sharing needles -- it's all old news.
Most of it -- there have been some changes in treatments -- in the 90s was recycled news from the 70s. If you can find old newspapers, pull up a few articles on the subject. Word for word, they could be written today and called news.
Epidemic, the reporters emphasize. (Even though the word epidemic has been discredited in relation to actual illnesses)
Epidemic, they said in the 90s.
Epidemic, they said in the 70s.
If this is new news, maybe instead of recycling the same old news about the issue, someone (like an investigative reporter?) should look into why this may be a 20-year cycle epidemic. What makes any issue or illness or addiction repeat in the same pattern, over and over again.
If this is a cyclical issue, why is no one looking to break the cycle?
Why are they only wanting to treat it?
Why is something 20 or 40 years old being touted as "news"? It's pretty old, don't you think?
If only they would report something that has changed.
That would be news.
