Recently, two young people in Hyde County lost their lives because of drug use.

This is a more common occurrence than one might think. In eastern North Carolina, people die daily because of drug overdoses — intentional or not.

As the Hyde County community mourns the loss of two of its own, it’s easy for outsiders to pass judgment.

“They knew better. Why did they do something so stupid?” “Didn’t they know the dangers?” “There’s no one to blame but the deceased.” “Drug overdoses? They were probably bad kids.”

That last statement is perhaps the harshest and most misinformed one of them all. Drug use is, unfortunately, rampant, and it has been for decades. Young people look around and see their peers doing it. Doing and/or selling drugs makes them feel tough; it makes them a part of the “in crowd.”

Not only that, many R-rated movies actually glorify drug use. Dramatic representations of drug use don’t show the full extent of what can happen, and they certainly don’t discourage people from using.

The takeaway is that a drug user does not necessarily equate to a “bad person.” Yes, there are people who continually use drugs and refuse to stop, even after experiencing negative consequences. There are people who are in and out of rehab and jail, but yet refuse to take full advantage of the second, third or 100^th chances.

But don’t pass judgment on a person before knowing the full story. Although the public will never know, perhaps those two young people in Hyde County weren’t aware of what they were purchasing and weren’t aware of the worst-case scenario. Either way, it was one mistake, and it ended up being a fatal one.

Now is a time for grief, and it’s a time for bringing the parties involved to justice. It is a time to ask what could be done to prevent this from happening again.

It is by no means a time for judgment.