Another One Bites The Dust

Sometime yesterday, Whitney Houston died in a hotel room in Hollywood. We don’t know exactly what killed her yet, but we are all assuming it was drug related. Whitney took illegal substances, that’s not a secret. She started out a singer but became a joke, and now she’s gone. Like so many before her, a beautiful voice and talent has died at his or her own hand. I could make a list of dozens of brilliant singers, musicians, and actors and athletes that have killed themselves with drugs and alcohol, whether intentionally or accidentally, too young. You know who they are, so I won’t make a list.

Whitney was born into musical royalty, had the voice of an angel, and an exceptional career, and then she did drugs and lost it all, and then she died. All the money and love and fans couldn’t save her. Not even having a child who depended on her was enough to make her stop and clean it up.

Sadly she won’t be the last famous or super-talented person to waste away and die from substance abuse. But if Whitney couldn’t make it back, or any of the others who had fame and fortune and died anyway, what chance does the average addict have of making it back?

Many people don’t have sympathy for addicts, me included. You knew that taking drugs was bad, but you did it anyway, and now you’re addicted. You want help, you say you have a disease and you need a cure.

I think you should have known better to begin with. NO ONE thrives in addiction for long, it all falls apart, sooner rather than later. Millions of people have died from substance abuse and addiction; millions more have ruined their lives if it didn’t kill them. So what made YOU think that YOUR story would be different? Drugs are a dead end, period.

I was looking forward to Whitney’s comeback, her triumphant return to music, her voice clear and strong just like back when she started, but a little bit stronger for what she’d been through. That’s not going to happen now, and that makes me sad and a little bit angry. Whitney should have known better.