Drugs do not just affect the person who is addicted. They affect everyone around that person. They even affect perfect strangers as the U.S. consulate murders this week can attest to. So who are the innocents?

The innocents include unborn children with mothers hooked on drugs. They often end up with birth defects if they even survive the womb. If they do survive, CPS is usually called in at the hospital because of a newborn coming into the world hooked on illicit drugs before he or she has ever drawn that first birth. 

The innocents include children of a closet alcoholic who spends all his or her time drinking instead of cheering on the child at a soccer or football game and misses Parent/Teacher night because, well, drinking comes first.

The innocents include the neighbors who worry about their property values and who is going into the house next door, just feet away from their own innocent children. They wake up to arguments during the night, possibly even shootings over a drug deal gone bad.

The innocents include the parents who did their best to raise their children, always being there and never pushing their kids aside, only to be told how horrible they were as parents by an adult kid who uses drugs as an excuse to blame the world for his or her problems.

The innocents include the students walking the halls of a school or the people going to their jobs to make a living for their families while someone reeking of alcoholic courage or doped up on prescription meds or illicit drugs decides to take out a large group of people because of some paranoid notion that everyone is out to get him.

The innocents include a family coming back from the movies or high schoolers returning from an out of town game and being hit head on by a drunk driver who walked away unscathed. Someone who might be an absolutely wonderful person except for the addiction to alcohol.

The innocents include U.S. consulates who seek to make the world a better place only to be gunned down by suspected drug cartel associates, as well as family members who support their dreams. The innocents include people living in border towns who just want to live a normal life yet live in terror of the drug wars.

The innocents are all around us.  They want to live free of  fear.  They don’t want drug offenders hurt. They want them clean. Living a good, honest and clean life can make the world a better place for all of us. For Texas, for Mexico, for all the border states and for the world around us. We owe it to the innocents. We owe it to ourselves.