This past Saturday, the long running late night satire machine known as “Saturday Night Live” ran a skit about heroin, and while many people laughed, others were extremely offended.

The two minute commercial parody depicting “Heroin AM” as if it were DayQuil even caught the attention of Dodge County Sheriff, Dale Schmidt, telling local television news organization Channel 3000 that he was “angered and frustrated that a national television network would allow SNL to use humor and diminish the importance of something that has been legitimately called an epidemic in our country.”

I know there are some of us who cannot stomach satire such as this, especially when we have lost so much at the expense of addiction. However, I also feel that sometimes we have to just laugh at the insanity in order to keep from going crazy. Is it just heroin that you think should be off limits? And if so, will that set a precedent for boycotting other forms of satire?

Media has been making light of human struggle since its inception. Some recent examples are “The Hangover”, “Trainspotting”, and any of the Cheech and Chong movies. After all, “The Hangover” made fun of a date rape drug. Did people seek to boycott that movie? If they did, they were quite quiet about it.

All I am saying is that it’s obviously satire, and should be taken with a grain of salt. I disagree that this skit is the problem. Believe me, I’m just as passionate about combating the effects of the opiate explosion, and I’m out there every day, seeing the same things you are, and feeling the same pains. Over the last 17 months, I have lost someone close to me an average of every six weeks, and I sometimes feel the fight against addiction is futile.

Sometimes, I need to laugh a little, and I actually welcome things like this, because it reminds me of the absurdity of it all.

If we really want to start getting at the problem, we need to NOT be calling and complaining to Lorne Michaels, but instead start rallying more to shut down the occupation of US forces in the Middle East, because that’s what’s fueling the opiate epidemic, both Big Pharma AND the excessive use of heroin by young people.

There is more to this war on drugs than meets the eye. I appreciate the severity of this epidemic more than most, surviving 13 ODs and losing 30+ friends, but do not mistake my sense of humor as a lack of sincere dedication to this fight.

If only people could get as upset about their government exploiting our young men and women enlisted in the military who work as labor in cultivating the dangerous drugs that they then ship here to fuel the mass sedation of our country, which then goes on to destroy lives, kill kids, and cost us billions, as they do the satire television show that makes fun of EVERYTHING, maybe then we could see some real change happen and more lives. saved