I'm really unfamiliar with the tragically late Ms. Winehouse, outside the tabloid stories about her drug use and wildly erratic behaviors.

That said, I agree that the pissing match that went on in the Obit thread was uncalled for and deeply disrespectful.

On the other hand, I do feel that too many people excuse drug addicts and only start worrying about them when they are already too far gone.

No one in my family would get involved in any sort of drugs without a serious ass-kicking and some "scared straight" tactics, which thing I excel at. I'm a former youth worker at a church and spent some years living in a ghetto, so I know the real dangers and terrors of what the addict's world can look like.

One has to wonder how much begging and pleading went on in Ms. Winehouse's life AFTER the demons already had her locked away.

No one can afford to be naive in this day and age when it comes to the effects of drugs and drink.

Hallucinogenic drugs and drinks and so on in centuries and millenia past were organic, made from natural compounds and were often used in controlled, spiritual/religious/philosophical contexts (peyote and such). These days, the almost limitless number of totally- or near-totally synthetic drugs and the compromised quality and contents of even things like pot and hash is terrifying.

I feel terrible that she died so tragically, and I feel worse that there are those in her family and spheres of influence who will have to live forever with the knowledge that they might have waited a minute too long to start giving a shit about her and her impending destruction.

I agree with Charlie Daniels about what to do with the drug dealers:

(From "Simple Man")

We tell our kids to just say no
Then some panty waist judge lets a drug dealer go
Slaps him on the wrist and then he turns him back out on the town.

Now if I had my way with people sellin' dope
I'd take a big tall tree and a short piece of rope
I'd hang 'em up high and let 'em swing 'til the sun goes down.