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“Yes, drug addiction is a choice but it’s a choice most young men would never be in the position to have to make if the factories hadn’t been off-shored. Of the five close friends my son had growing up here two are dead from drugs, two have decent jobs and one works in the underground economy. NONE of them were bad kids growing up.”

The relationship between drug addiction and the economics of certain areas is a two way street, in that yes, lack of job opportunity in a geographic area can cause higher rates of drug addition, but high rates of drug addiction in a geographic area leads to a lack of good workers and companies do not want to open up shops.

That same situation is true for the South Side of Chicago and the towns in West Virginia.

Speaking of WV did you see this piece?

Drug firms poured 780M painkillers into WV amid rise of overdoses - See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-health/20161217/drug-firms-poured-780m-painkillers-into-wv-amid-rise-of-overdoses#sthash.403EkXBB.dpuf

but high rates of drug addiction in a geographic area leads to a lack of good workers and companies do not want to open up shops.

It's not that companies don't want to move in, it's that they all left. When I moved to Huntington in '78 factory jobs and jobs on the river were plentiful. Huntington, a town of 50,000 went for years without a murder. Every street was safe to walk at any hour of the day or night. W.Va. had one of the country's lowest crime rates.

Then the factories started closing. The glass plant - gone, the bumper factory - gone, the Nickel plant cut way back, the metal fab shops serving the coal mines - mostly gone. All gone and we're in our second generation of jobless men now where women rule the roost. They get the govt check for doing nothing and it's bigger than the pittance a hard working man can bring in from a minimum wage job - tough on a man's pride to be in that situation and maybe it ain't right, but pride is one of the big things that keeps a man on the straight and narrow. I'm watching poor, white, ghetto culture take over this once beautiful area. Work a bit, deal a bit, drink, drug and screw as many woman as you can because there is little chance to go down the solid citizen route.

Speaking of WV did you see this piece?
Drug firms poured 780M painkillers into WV

I don't read the Charleston Gazette, but I do know a lot about the pill business in rural W.Va. Poverty and desperation and little chance for a good man to make a good life leads many to drugs. A man dealing drugs outside the city can make a lot of money, get plenty of respect (and women) and has a minuscule chance of getting caught (everyone knows everyone and nobody turns anybody in.)

This subject really depresses me and when I talk to young men around here I highly recommend they MOVE to where the JOBS are. And do it fast before you get hooked into the drug culture.