Without giving too much away, here’s a short animation by Andreas Hykade that shows in a very simplistic way what drug addiction is sorta like.

The more the bird-like creature chases the high, the less he’s able to fly and the fall to earth gets bumpier each time. I’m not certain what the creature’s drug of choice is—it’s represented by a golden nugget—but I think it’s safe to say you can fill in the blank with anything addictive, even caffeine, gambling or an addiction to making money.

 
via reddit

 
As the vote-counting begins today in Afghanistan, I’m reminded that politics, by design, can often assume dimensions that are both abstract and confusing.  I think we can all agree, though, those qualities are completely missing from the accompanying photos and this description of the living conditions in Saba:

Open the door to Islam Beg’s house and the thick opium smoke rushes out into the cold mountain air, like steam from a bathhouse.  It’s just past 8 a.m. and the family of six—including a 1-year-old baby boy—is already curled up at the lip of the opium pipe.  Beg, 65, breathes in and exhales a cloud of smoke.  He passes the pipe to his wife.  She passes it to their daughter.  The daughter blows the opium smoke into the baby’s tiny mouth.  The baby’s eyes roll back into his head.  Their faces are gaunt.  Their hair is matted.  They smell.  In dozens of mountain hamlets in this remote corner of Afghanistan, opium addiction has become so entrenched that whole families—from toddlers to old men—are addicts.  The addiction moves from house to house, infecting entire communities cut off from the rest of the world by glacial streams.  From just one family years ago, at least half the people of Sarab, population 1,850, are now addicts.

 
From The Sacramento Bee: Afghanistan—Village of Addicts