Before you unrec and snark at me, hear me out.

Anyone who uses drugs is a criminal. And it is in that sense I use that as my description of her.

Troubled soul might be more apt. Gifted talent is certainly a true description. Trend setter is, too. Quintuple Grammy winner fits. So does tragedy.

It is my firm belief that drug addiction is a personal choice only at the first experiment - and maybe not even then. Addiction is a disease, not a moral failing.

We all see the high profile addicts and we tend to laugh at them or treat them with scorn and derision.

We see local addicts in our everyday life and how many of us walk past them a little more quickly than we walk past others?

That is, until that addict is you. Or your kid. Or another family member. Or the family member of a close friend.

Instead of vigorously treating addiction as a disease, we casually, reluctantly, grudgingly make some grossly inadequate funding available for a few inadequate programs, all the while vigorously treating addicts as criminals.

The drugs take their toll. A felony conviction for a minor drug offense ruins a life just as surely as do the drugs. Maybe more so.

So yeah. Amy Winehouse was a criminal.

And *that* is the crime.

Rest well, great talent. Rest well. I'm glad your struggles are over.

When you're up there, sing a few with Janice. You two would have understood each other.

And when you meet them all, as you surely will, who have walked the path you've walked, celebrate your mutual peace.