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The CDC just announced that 107,941 people died from drug overdose in the United States in 2022. This continues a two-decade increase of drug overdoses. Most of these deaths involved illegal drugs such as opioids (fentanyl) or stimulants (methamphetamines).

An illicit drug transaction is simple: it involves, first, a choice by someone who wants to purchase the drugs, and, second, a willingness by someone to sell the drugs.

That choice/willingness is a crime.

The crime entails inevitable consequences for both parties. The user succumbs to a failed, miserable life that impacts everyone in their orbit with each swallow or injection of the drug which has the potential for fatal overdose. The seller lives in a world of constant stress and anxiety trying to maintain supply and demand knowing that death or prison are inevitable.

It is a sick marriage (much like incest, I suppose) between two individuals incapable of understanding the values it takes to live a decent, responsible life.

Will I shed a tear over the loss of those 107,941 drug-related deaths?

I think not … at least not at this point in our human existence.

The World Counts reports that a one child in this world dies every 10 seconds from hunger while another 13 million live in hunger each day.

I will shed countless tears for those lost lives and that human suffering.

The Catholic Connect Foundation reports 40 million people in the U.S. are hungry; that 3 million children don’t have breakfast before or at school.

With innocent babies and defenseless children—none of whom caused one ounce of harm in this life—dying from bombs, bullets, and starvation in Gaza, don’t expect any tears from me because some junkie in the dark side of a city or some rich suburban mom OD on illicit drugs.

Humans have just so many tears to shed in this life. The children among us should have the first—and perhaps the exclusive—shot at those tears. If there’s any left, I may shed one or two for that junkie and mom.