There are many ways to accomplish an accident that ends one's life, but there is no surer way than narcotics. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his apartment amidst packets of heroin, used needles, and an admitted recent relapse to drug addiction that apparently was not under any sort of control despite treatment. Such a shame. He was quite a talented artist, and in particular he did an excellent job portraying morally complex characters, many of whom had significant good and significant struggles--perhaps his personal challenges with drugs and alcohol gave him insight into the thoughts, fears, and motivation of the characters he played, but with so much going for him, it is painful to see such a bad outcome.
The resurgence of heroin use has been written about more and more frequently in recent years, as has the rise in the use of prescriptions drugs by children. The study referenced and pictured here is but one of several that show abuse of prescription opiates in students leaving high school to be over 10%. The access to these drugs have been thought to be largely their parent's medicine cabinets, at least to start out, and so there is a take home message for all of us. I had been careful to not leave abusable medications in the location that would be most convenient to keep them for just this reason. One never knows which guest in your home will take it upon themselves to search your bathroom to find what you might have in the way of something to get high. Think of these like firearms--you would never leave a loaded weapon behind a cabinet door, these medications need to have the same level of security given to them. Preventing addiction, escpecially when it comes to narcotics, is so much better than stopping it once it's started.
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