Prescription drug abuse baffling leaders, health workers

Dear Editor,
Today, in our homes, in our communities, our leaders and frontline workers are baffled.
How did we get to this state?
What do we do?
I am not a leader, nor am I frontline worker, but have seen what pills can do, how they affect the children.
Everything begins at home, it all starts when we are babies,
As a child, we see our parents.
How do they begin their days? Our parents ensure their child(ren) are fed, clothed, have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies and all the other basics.
If the parents fail, the grandparents step in. Why? Simple, koo-patch-e-yah noosh-uk! Parents claim they’re not hiding their addiction, but yet they tell a child, shhhhh don’t tell if someone asks you.
In most cases, this is when most of the troubles begin without our knowing or realizing it.
Communication is the key; our parent’s actions are a groove in the key, our grandparents are another groove in the key, our teachers are a groove, our community leaders are another groove and our peers are another groove in the key.
But nothing or no one will convince a child to go against his/her parents. That loyalty is something else. No one wants to be a rat. There is an unwritten code among friends that goes “shhhhhh don’t say anything or else ... .”
It has been an eye-opening experience to deal with pill addictions, my family and/or friends have taken their turn in asking for help or assistance, playing on my heart strings/emotions, playing me for a fool, only to turn around and steal from my home.
They sell what they’ve stolen to feed their addiction.
They’ll tell lies, they’ll make up excuses, think up some grand scheme or other to obtain a way to feed their addiction. They eventually start abusing or taking away from their own children, if they have children. Pretty soon, the child tax is spent on pills, any money coming in is spent on pills.
It’s happening. Elders are being abused, taken advantage of, lied too, emotional blackmailed. It is all for pills.
Another new one, grandchildren even grown children, are stealing groceries out of the cupboard to be sold for a fix.
Pills are affecting all walks of life, the youth, mid-life, parents, grandparents, Elders and professionals.
Symptoms are what we see, yet no one wants to talk about the elephant in the room, in our houses, in our closets, in our lives, probably because we’ve always been told “shhhhh don’t tell or else.”
Our skeletons are becoming our symptoms. We are a hurting nation, individually we are hurting, always the fear of what will happen if we start to open up and talk?
Too many times we cover up the real issues. We’re told to “shhhhhh” or shush our fears.
Sexual abuse comes in all walks of life, from your own family member, whether it be a father (a man who lost his identity, a man who lost his meaning of what a father’s role is = to protect and serve), a mother (a woman who lost her self-respect, a woman who’s role is to nurture) a brother (a man who too is lost, a man who lost his role) a daughter (a woman who is lost as well) and a grandmother or grandfather. The list goes on, no longer taught or spoken in our homes.
Sexual abuse happens when we’re growing up, in the safety of our homes, in the safety of our communities.
To each individual, pills provide or produce a different effect or reason why it’s used or snorted or transported.
We live in a world where every nation is losing identity or losing our vision in life. We need everyone to wake up. Do you honestly want your son or daughter, or granddaughter or grandson addicted to pills? 
I see too many times, a child is born, as the child grows, parents complain the child is bad or spoiled. I tell the parents, that child wasn’t born bad or spoiled. He was raised that way. Too many times we as parents, forget our children are the way they are because of those around them.
I feel I can go on talking, telling what I see, how there is a consequence for everything we do and say.
If we don’t live the life of example, there’s a consequence. 
We have the answers, we are a strong nation, we just need strong, educated, supportive caring leaders.
I pray for our leaders; I pray for our Elders; I pray for all parents; I pray for all drug users, I pray for everyone affected by drugs.
Stand together, support one another, believe in one another, always put yourself in their shoes before judging them.
Name and community withheld at request of writer