Zach Hunnicutt

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT-1102-034
18 March 2015

Reese, Charley. "People Use Drugs To Escape 'Reality': Life Is Hard And Then You Die."
Tribunedigital-orlandosentinel. Orlando Sentinel, 10 Sept. 1986. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
Summary
Charley Reese, a journalist for the Orlando Sentinel, shared her opinions on drug abuse in
America through an article titled: People Use Drugs To Escape 'Reality': Life Is Hard And Then
You Die. Though the article is from 1986, the arguments Reese makes could still be considered
valid. She gives a few reasons as to why people would turn to drugs in the first place. One
reason is because those that use drugs are trying to escape the pain of their own existence. The
other argument she makes is that the drug crisis in America is a spiritual crisis, and seems to be
convinced that drug abuse was started by people who dont believe in God. However, both of
her arguments seem to be based around the idea of humanities happiness, and what it really
means for a person to be happy. Reese uses examples such as Buddha, and teachings from
Judaism and Christianity to help support her arguments.
Here are a couple quotes from the article that stood out to me the most:

A miserable rich person is just as miserable as a miserable poor person. A happy poor
person is just as happy as a happy rich person. I'm using poor in the American context,

not in the Third World context, where poverty can mean starvation.
The euphoric state produced by the drugs is deemed better than the real situation.
Analysis
This article was fairly easy to read, however her opinion was a little difficult to

understand. I understood her first argument about the reason people do drugs is to escape the
pain of their own existence, but her second argument was a bit of a stretch in my opinion. Its
interesting how she was able to connect drug abuse to religion, but it isnt something I could
have done. Other than that, this article helped me start forming an answer to my inquiry
question. Drugs seem to be a method that people use to escape reality. Unfortunately, such a
method can be fatal to ones health.