Associated Press reports that Senior Citizens in the impoverished regions of Appalachia are turning to dealing drugs to make ends meet. And it looks from the comments made by Rev. Doug Abner, of Community Church in Manchester, a local man of Christ, they'll get no sympathy for their lawlessness.
"They justify it because they're having a hard time financially," he said. "Left to ourselves, we can justify anything, but they're really part of the problem."
If he meant that they were victims of a far bigger problem, poverty among our Seniors, then I'd be compelled to agree. But it seems that he's more concerned with the fact that given the choice to have food or heat or do without much needed pain medication, that they chose the former over the latter.
Since April 2004, Operation UNITE, a Kentucky anti-drug task force crated largely in response to rampant abuse of the powerful and sometimes lethal painkiller OxyContin, has charged more than 40 people 60 or older with selling primarily prescription drugs in the mountains.
A growing problem indeed as the economy worsens for these individuals and their families.
There was once a promise that families would be able to look after their aging parents and grandparents. That promise is fading, and if left to the Republicans will be just a mere memory for most Americans. The youth of this nation can't find work. The middle-aged are having their pensions stripped from them as they reach for their retirement. And our Seniors are forced to sell their prescription drugs to the highest bidder so they may eat and stay warm this winter.
What a sad social commentary.