Attention Deficit, by Matthew Dexter

I witnessed the most gifted and brilliant children from the richest families in America reduced to penniless addicted degenerates,
sniffing white miles, pink piles of crushed up Ritalin through hollowed out Bic pens, into congested crimson nostrils,
up bloody noses, hemorrhaging copiously like demented rats in
the most hopelessly twisted of sadistic experiments, always searching for that endless line of cheese at the end of the maze, they roamed the nation’s greatest
campuses alone and despondent, relentlessly yearning for that next fix,
spinning razorblades in rapid circles on the tips of their tongues they cut through cartilage pharmaceuticals
with meticulous purpose, driven by intricate precision,
aspiring plastic surgeons performing emergency rhinoplasty on deviated septa,
forging prescriptions, stealing skillfully from friends and family, buying pills from neighbors,
breaking into pharmacies in the middle of the night,
we watched white clouds of residual powdered prescription smoke flow freely from greedy mouths before expelling the chronic cough induced from flooding the lungs with millions of milligrams of this unknown concoction,
this golden new gateway drug of the 21st century,
affluent sons and daughters of the planet’s future reduced to junkie rubble,
through the pervasive abuse of medications their parents happily supplied,
all in the pursuit of perfect grades, and that infamous admissions letter to that famous college,
to produce the ideal image of the picturesque American family in the eyes of indispensable social circles,
they had actually destroyed everything for nothing,
leaving their sacred heirs and heiresses nameless, blind, naked, desecrated,
forgotten,
arrogant sons and daughters of prominent United States senators, lawyers, doctors, and presidents of the
world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have turned their own grandchildren into nothing better
than convenient test dummies
for the next generation of fortunate delinquents,
I watched as this experiment went terribly wrong, and the catastrophic damages spread beyond control,
inevitably these innocent privileged children eventually graduated from legal American prescription stimulants to Brazilian cocaine and Mexican amphetamines,
as the companies and politicians got richer in the name of pills, powder, and blood,
showering downward from the ones who could have made the most difference,
if they were only given the decision to survive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matthew Dexter is an American anomaly living in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He writes novels, memoirs, poetry, journalism articles, and short stories. When Matthew is not writing he enjoys life by the ocean; beautiful beaches, breathtaking views, reading, and being inspired. But never candlelit dinners on the beach. He’s afraid of Pirates.