Had to take the bus recently while the car was in the shop and then this happened:
Dude in front me, looks like a cross between Annie Lennox and Rick Astley. About 36 yrs old, 5ft 6 with beige khaki shorts and a light gray t-shirt.
Aviator sunglasses, full-sized retro headphones pulled off the ears a bit. But the best part is the shoes.
Regular looking ankle high tennis shoes with piano keys outlining the bottom and circling around it as trim and then add in some purple glitter that acts as the coloring of the shoes.
Thanks guy for making my morning totally gay.
-
Thursday, August 13
Addiction aside.. I guess I'm back
So apparently I renewed this domain name til August of 2010, so I guess I'll have to continue the posting?
Saturday, July 11
UNFILTERED THOUGHTS: A 15-year life of cigarettes, addiction & human behavior.
UNFILTERED THOUGHTS: A 15-year life of cigarettes, addiction & human behavior.
When I was nearly 15 years old and in high school, everyday I came home from school and checked the mail for my family. On one fateful day 16 years ago, a promotional package for my father containing two Camel cigarette packs was mixed in with the junk mail, a practice that has since been outlawed.
I certainly knew what cigarettes were and thanks to a proper education, the harmful effects were also clear, but ultimately everything comes down to a choice. And I chose to stuff those cigarettes into my pants pocket, effectively making a well-informed bad choice that I have regretted every day since.
During my 15 years of puffing away on many different varieties of cigarettes, ranging from name-brands like Camel & Marlboro (the latter being my personal brand for about 12 of those 15 years), to the cheap-o brands like Quality Smokes and even a Harley Davidson brand, which tasted like sour dirt, many people have asked me why I started smoking. My response was and still is the same: I was simply rebelling against authority. I was not impressed by famous people who smoked and was not influenced by other friends or family and I was not lured by cute camel characters or the dirty cowboys. That is an experience I’m sure many other smokers had, but not me…I was a rebel. To further drive the rebellious point forward, I recall many conversations with disapproving adults about the effects of smoking and my rebuttals were childish and rebellious, like “I wanna die with two cigarettes in my mouth!” or “On my tombstone, I want the words: ‘Died with a cigarette firmly in his hand’”.
Over the next few days, I smoked both packs in various locations with friends and even at Disneyland (before they added regulations), feeling sick after every one. But I was determined to smoke properly, and I needed to “get used to” the feeling of smoking so I wouldn’t get sick anymore. Oddly, I was ignorant to the fact that “getting used to it” meant “getting addicted”.
Over the first few years most of my closest friends also became smokers but our habit was sporadic at best, solely dependent on cash-on-hand, bummin’ off strangers or family members. At times, lack of cigarettes became a subject of contention, especially if certain friends had more money than others as they were encouraged to buy cigarettes for the group. Many times I received cigarette-shaped welts on my face after being pelted in response to my constant begging to bum another cigarette. When I did have cash-on-hand, I would recruit a friend to help purchase my cigarettes. She was underage like I was, but she had much more success buying from local gas stations. We quickly noted all the locations that would consistently feed our habit, mostly the places that stayed open late.
After high school, my habit increased in response to a growth in capital & legal status. I had a good job at age 18 that was double the minimum wage and I quickly used the extra cash to purchase more cigarettes. At this point in my habit I was strictly a Marlboro “Reds” smoker but soon found them too harsh and switched to Marlboro “Mediums” which I smoked for the next 6 years. During those 6 years, the weight of addiction fell heavy on my shoulders for the first time and I came to grips with the fact that I was addicted. Guilt started to jab me in the side more often during certain moments like refusing to let my brother have his first cigarette or talking to long-time smokers who still had that rebellious attitude towards smoking. They bragged about the infamous “smokers cough” and to relieve the pain, they would light up a smoke. So tough they were! It reminded me of the things I would say back when I first started smoking but now I was indifferent. At this point I was already an experienced, veteran smoker and the signs of addiction started to show and I wanted out.
With growing public distaste, tax increases, other regulations and my own disgust with the habit, I thought for the first time that I needed to quit. A year after my brother died, I quit for the first time. I was just shy of 24 years old but the cessation did not last till my next birthday and after about 4 months I was back to smoking again. I switched to Marlboro “Lights” at this time and continued with this variety for another 3 years.
I was the most conscience smoker I knew. I made sure when I smoked in public that I was away from others, so they weren’t inhaling my smoke too. I would constantly switch smoking hands to ensure I didn’t inadvertently burn a passer-by. I never moaned and groaned about new regulations that drove me further away from the public or cost me more money. And even though I smoked in my car, if someone was riding along with me, I made sure I directed all smoking activity as far away from them as possible. I never asked to smoke in a non-smokers car or place of residence. Out of my 15 year habit I lived in a half dozen locations but I only smoked inside one of them and stopped after a non-smoker moved in. Even in places that catered to smokers, like Las Vegas, I still kept my smoking profile low and away from others. This was my habit, not anyone else’s.
As my age increased, my health declined. Mostly due to a sedentary career, reduction in metabolism and activity, and some mental dissatisfactions. A few years after switching to my final variety of Marlboro, the “Ultra Light”, I had an utter meltdown with side of panic-attack after suffering a huge withdrawal episode after a simple outpatient surgery. Pressed partly by this episode and my looming career change, I was again fully committed to the idea of ridding myself of this habit once and for all.
Smoking is more than just a chemical dependence. Surely nicotine plays the biggest role in keeping the habit alive, but the fact that for over 10 years the routine of smoking every hour of every day without any adjustment in this behavior became a clear hurdle that was complicated to overcome. I ask you to imagine something that you do everyday that you do not give much thought to which is also part of your daily routine. Need help? Perhaps it’s running your hands through your hair, maybe it’s biting your fingernails, or drinking a glass of wine before bed. Perhaps your routine involves certain paths you take while driving to work, certain routes you walk while at work, maybe it’s a daily timed break, or a specific pocket you keep something in, maybe it’s a word or phrase you utter when greeting someone. Now, stop doing that one thing. No mess-ups and no excuses.
Humans are creatures of habit, and any routine can be a difficult one to break. Furthermore, when an addiction has reached its peak, more often than not it involves a psychological dependence as well, which in most cases becomes the most difficult pattern to break. Oxycontin, Ambien, marijuana, alcohol, and food can all be considered “addictive” and some of these addictive chemicals are certainly better for health than others, but lest us not forget that all of them are simply chemicals. Video games, reading, shopping, working, gambling, exercise and sex can all be considered “addictive” as well and some of these addictive behaviors are certainly better for health than others, but lest us not for forget that all of them are simply behaviors. And when an additive chemical is mixed with an addictive behavior or routine, it’s an explosive combination.
After 15 years of consistent, chronic and repetitive smoking, I now had to rid myself of the chemical dependence, the routine and the hidden factor, the mental dependence. In the past, my plan of attack for the chemical dependence focused on nicotine patches or gum, which didn’t work for me. So this time around, I decided to allow myself as many other substitutions as I wanted as long as they weren’t nicotine based. Mostly this meant a lot of food and weight gain, but I figured it was worth it and any new habits I acquired could quickly be resolved. For my routine, I fought fire with fire and made a schedule of times during the day when I allowed myself to smoke. At first I picked my favorite smoking times: in the morning, after a meal, after work and before bed. After a few days, I curbed the morning smoke and instead put it arbitrarily in the early afternoon to rid myself of the 15-year morning ritual. I moved the after-lunch cigarette to late afternoon and merged the after-work, after-dinner & before-bed cigarette into just one in the late night, to stop my habit of smoking after meals and before bed. And surprisingly to some, this worked very well.
I tried the more common methods in the past, but they didn’t work for me. So this around I was trying what I thought would work the best. But now, techniques aside, it was time to put down the cigarettes for good.
That day came nearly 16 years into smoking. I planned the event around a 4-day weekend so I could deal with the withdrawals alone, without added stressors like friends, work and other distractions. The majority of the first day was unremarkable and quite decent, but well into the second and third days I started to feel a bit odd. I felt buzzed, like after a few beers, or when I first started smoking. Objects and light had a shine to them and the sensation of fully functional smell was overwhelming. Was this remnants of the chemical and my brain was running on its reserves? Was I beginning to see and feel what normal life was all about? Is this what is feels like to be normal? Was I hallucinating or severely panicking? The first few days are always the hardest and my experience was no exception.
Whatever was occurring to me, I saw no reason to stop, so I plunged ahead, taking many long showers and eating lots of Skittles. I couldn’t tell if these withdrawals were real or imagined and the amount of new smells was difficult on my brain. Smells are pathways to different distinctive memories in our lives and they also unlock parts of the brain that otherwise go unnoticed. As I walked down the street, I looked like an excited puppy-dog out for his daily walk, stopping to smell flowers, newly paved asphalt, buildings, grocery stores and homeless people. None of the smells were necessarily new, but they were enhanced to the nth degree. Some smells would stop me dead in my tracks as they triggered memories from when I was a child, the biggest chunk of time I spent as a non-smoker. The improved smell of flowers reminded me of childhood playground activities, the smell of restaurants brought me back to my mother’s cooking, and even when I passed a smoker and smelled their smell, I was jolted back to a vivid memory of Christmas past at my step-families house, filled with cigarette smoke. And some smells were down right awful. The crack-head homeless man that I walked by everyday and lived 100 ft. from, smelled like sour milk mixed with vinegar. A smell that was so miserable and potent that I held back the urge to purge my breakfast, every morning as I passed by him. It was intense and no one was able to relate. They all thought I was going nuts.
And maybe I was. Over the next few weeks the odd feelings remained and I began to pace, to fill the empty minutes of new time. Smoking filled up nearly two hours per day, 15-20 cigarettes per day at 5-10 minutes each, but smoking wasn’t consecutive, it was 10 minutes here and 5 minutes there, and I found it surprisingly irritating as I struggled to fill these now vacant pockets of time. I did not expect this. I couldn’t rationalize these transitional moments that happen in life, where nothing particular is needed or done for a few moments here and there. These simple mental breaks that exist in regular life were an unforeseen obstacle. And I hurled probing questions at the non-smokers in my life in an attempt to understand what the hell normal people do during these down times. Stare at the f’ing wall? Do jumping jacks? Sing a song? Howl at the moon? I ended up filling most of this time by pacing like an impatient animal in a cage. Nutty indeed.
In addition to pacing, other abnormal things that helped me get through the day included reciting encouraging phrases or words like a basketball coach rallying his team at halftime. They included such gems as, “My brain is not smarter than me!” and “I want to be able to make the choice to smoke or not, my addiction makes the choice for me!” And I repeated words like, “control, control, control” over and over and over. At times, I felt like a possessed malfunctioning robot, stuck in crazy mode and there was little I could do to fix or satisfy what my faulty brain needed, except for use of nicotine of course.
But I persisted, Skittles in hand, Rain Man-like behavior exposed and a few non-smoker friends and family encouraging me to continue. But the cells in my body were not so accepting. They were deprived of their expected level of nicotine and they tried real hard to alert me of this deficit. And I felt them ache. Just like when rich people divorce, they still expect the life they’ve grown accustomed to, well, so did my cells. Like a chronic sore knee, the annoyance is always there, a low-grade daily pain that occasionally rises to the surface and requires attention but normally stays in the background just irritating you while you work to keep out of the forefront of your mind.
Month after month passed and as my body began to adjust to new levels of chemicals, my 15-year daily routines were disappearing as well, but something more threatening began to emerge. Something more hidden, more harmful than any routine or chemical dependence, something that I had no answer or defense for: psychological reliance. This is the classic security blanket syndrome, when people use abnormal means as solutions to situations, problems or everyday behaviors. The object or substance used, has replaced the normal pathways people learn about life and are applied to situations that deal with adversity, harm and even normal human behavior. My solutions to mental concepts like anxiety, insecurity and even some social behavior were so intertwined with smoking cigarettes that at certain times during this year I thought this was an impossible challenge to overcome. With no capacity to deal with anxiety or insecurity, I was brought to my knees at around 5-6 months of this journey. Simple things like going to the grocery store or walking to the mailbox were a frightening reality that caused real physical pain and suffering, as well as huge mood swings. I would sweat profusely when in public or under the spotlight of others, my heart would race and I would panic. Adding fuel to the fire was my inability to properly cope with these feelings of despair. In the past, lighting up a cigarette to pace my anxiety was the solution. I could either reflect on the situation or calm my nerves to the irrational feelings I was having. I could spend a few minutes smoking a cigarette while preparing myself mentally for the task at hand. The act of smoking a cigarette allowed me precious moments to evaluate the issues I was faced with or better yet to escape from them. But now, there was no escape.
Even simple social behaviors like having conversations took getting used to. Without a break for a smoke or a pause in thought, I had to consciously stop talking even if it was in mid-sentence because I may have gone on forever. At work, anxiety over database code and concepts that required intense mental attention was commonplace, but now they had to be accomplished without a walk around the building puffing away on cigarettes, contemplating my next move. Surely part of that process is habit or routine, but for 15-years, I applied this behavior to every situation that required intense thought or mental processes, including feelings of depression or happiness.
The addiction was also my list maker, my idea man and a good listener. I puffed away on cigarettes while I developed the days’ events, I made mental notes of activities that needed accomplishment, I thought of new ideas to be further perused later, and I used it to evaluate past actions in order to make any necessary adjustments in future behavior. It was truly a focused event, rarely was I simply staring at the stars or enjoying the breeze. My smoking habit was how I got work done and life moving forward.
And now without cigarettes, my thoughts have no filters, I am raw to the touch and truly naked to the world. I am increasingly distracted, experiencing big mood swings, increasingly talkative, unfocused, and somewhat troubled. This is my new reality; an unfiltered reality.
But things are slowly getting better and I feel like I’m finally part of the normal world. A world that has little patience for addictive lifestyles and other complaints, which can make things a bit harder sometimes, as this addiction certainly isn’t anything that I can “get over” or “move on” from. This raw anxiety and panic is something that I must learn to accept and live with. It is the essence of being born again and I have to relearn how to live without my security blanket dragging behind me. Perhaps others in this “normal world” do have addictions but they just aren’t as noticeable as mine was…or maybe they have found better ways to hide it. And soon, my journey will be theirs.
I don’t have to tell anyone these days about the harm cigarettes do to people and that is a testament to constant research, science and a well-informed public. But the best thing about smoking is that it is one of the most regulated LEGAL substances ever. It was difficult to get until I was an adult, it is increasingly taxed every year, it is outlawed inside buildings and in public places, it is outlawed from advertising in TV, radio, magazines and newspapers, it must carry health warnings on every package (some countries have more effective warnings), hospitals are required to hand out health literature to smokers, some smokers have higher health care premiums, and even in films the MPAA may give a film a higher rating if it glamorizes or otherwise promotes smoking. Whew! But here's the point, it is still legal. Our government does so much to inform us how bad of a choice it is to smoke, but allows us to make the choice for ourselves. Then, if we still make the bad choice, they are right there by our side with more and more literature, guidance and assistance in order to get us to stop.
On issues that do not cause immediate or irreversible harm to ourselves or others (like murder, some drug use, rape, incest, arson, etc), a government should simply inform its citizens and educate them on decisions they will need to make. A government must not make the choice for the citizens. And if a citizen chooses unwisely, the government must continue to educate, inform, assist and guide a citizen.
I push back against some laws because until the government informs me why the rule exists, it’s like them saying: "Because I said so". (Repeat disclaimer: there are issues of immediate or irreversible harm to consider here and I’m fully aware that laws that are made in this respect are justified.) And once I’ve pressured them and the general public to explain certain laws, I’ve have found that most have been misinformed on what is actually harmful to them. These current half truths are similar to past mistakes pertaining to smoking cigarettes, yet our generation assumes too much about certain substances. I once read a governmental article from the 1950’s that claimed women were immune from heart disease and I’m sure many of you are privy to past claims about tobacco. When science and research are hijacked by political agendas, corporations, greed or other ideologies, people do not get the help they desperately need.
I’m rebellious against marijuana laws for this very reason because there is little to support the outrageous clams against it. Even charges of “gateway to immorality” are false. Everything I’ve read and researched, leads me to believe that marijuana should be treated the same as alcohol (and no, I am not a user of either), with the same disclaimers and guidance that is put upon cigarettes. But just like cigarettes, drugs or alcohol should not be glamorized and encouraged, period. People can get addicted to pretty much anything and without proper help, guidance and support from the government, friends or family; an addiction will be the least of a person’s worries.
If smoking cigarettes was illegal instead of regulated, I’m pretty sure my addiction would have cost me life or something equivalent. And I am forever grateful to those that made an impact.
-----
This is officially the last post of unfilteredthoughts.com - This site was mainly a gateway for my brain while I wen't through withdrawals and now a year in, it's time to move on from it. I may continue to post thoughts on dudekingme.blogspot.com - we'll see.
------
When I was nearly 15 years old and in high school, everyday I came home from school and checked the mail for my family. On one fateful day 16 years ago, a promotional package for my father containing two Camel cigarette packs was mixed in with the junk mail, a practice that has since been outlawed.
I certainly knew what cigarettes were and thanks to a proper education, the harmful effects were also clear, but ultimately everything comes down to a choice. And I chose to stuff those cigarettes into my pants pocket, effectively making a well-informed bad choice that I have regretted every day since.
During my 15 years of puffing away on many different varieties of cigarettes, ranging from name-brands like Camel & Marlboro (the latter being my personal brand for about 12 of those 15 years), to the cheap-o brands like Quality Smokes and even a Harley Davidson brand, which tasted like sour dirt, many people have asked me why I started smoking. My response was and still is the same: I was simply rebelling against authority. I was not impressed by famous people who smoked and was not influenced by other friends or family and I was not lured by cute camel characters or the dirty cowboys. That is an experience I’m sure many other smokers had, but not me…I was a rebel. To further drive the rebellious point forward, I recall many conversations with disapproving adults about the effects of smoking and my rebuttals were childish and rebellious, like “I wanna die with two cigarettes in my mouth!” or “On my tombstone, I want the words: ‘Died with a cigarette firmly in his hand’”.
Over the next few days, I smoked both packs in various locations with friends and even at Disneyland (before they added regulations), feeling sick after every one. But I was determined to smoke properly, and I needed to “get used to” the feeling of smoking so I wouldn’t get sick anymore. Oddly, I was ignorant to the fact that “getting used to it” meant “getting addicted”.
Over the first few years most of my closest friends also became smokers but our habit was sporadic at best, solely dependent on cash-on-hand, bummin’ off strangers or family members. At times, lack of cigarettes became a subject of contention, especially if certain friends had more money than others as they were encouraged to buy cigarettes for the group. Many times I received cigarette-shaped welts on my face after being pelted in response to my constant begging to bum another cigarette. When I did have cash-on-hand, I would recruit a friend to help purchase my cigarettes. She was underage like I was, but she had much more success buying from local gas stations. We quickly noted all the locations that would consistently feed our habit, mostly the places that stayed open late.
After high school, my habit increased in response to a growth in capital & legal status. I had a good job at age 18 that was double the minimum wage and I quickly used the extra cash to purchase more cigarettes. At this point in my habit I was strictly a Marlboro “Reds” smoker but soon found them too harsh and switched to Marlboro “Mediums” which I smoked for the next 6 years. During those 6 years, the weight of addiction fell heavy on my shoulders for the first time and I came to grips with the fact that I was addicted. Guilt started to jab me in the side more often during certain moments like refusing to let my brother have his first cigarette or talking to long-time smokers who still had that rebellious attitude towards smoking. They bragged about the infamous “smokers cough” and to relieve the pain, they would light up a smoke. So tough they were! It reminded me of the things I would say back when I first started smoking but now I was indifferent. At this point I was already an experienced, veteran smoker and the signs of addiction started to show and I wanted out.
With growing public distaste, tax increases, other regulations and my own disgust with the habit, I thought for the first time that I needed to quit. A year after my brother died, I quit for the first time. I was just shy of 24 years old but the cessation did not last till my next birthday and after about 4 months I was back to smoking again. I switched to Marlboro “Lights” at this time and continued with this variety for another 3 years.
I was the most conscience smoker I knew. I made sure when I smoked in public that I was away from others, so they weren’t inhaling my smoke too. I would constantly switch smoking hands to ensure I didn’t inadvertently burn a passer-by. I never moaned and groaned about new regulations that drove me further away from the public or cost me more money. And even though I smoked in my car, if someone was riding along with me, I made sure I directed all smoking activity as far away from them as possible. I never asked to smoke in a non-smokers car or place of residence. Out of my 15 year habit I lived in a half dozen locations but I only smoked inside one of them and stopped after a non-smoker moved in. Even in places that catered to smokers, like Las Vegas, I still kept my smoking profile low and away from others. This was my habit, not anyone else’s.
As my age increased, my health declined. Mostly due to a sedentary career, reduction in metabolism and activity, and some mental dissatisfactions. A few years after switching to my final variety of Marlboro, the “Ultra Light”, I had an utter meltdown with side of panic-attack after suffering a huge withdrawal episode after a simple outpatient surgery. Pressed partly by this episode and my looming career change, I was again fully committed to the idea of ridding myself of this habit once and for all.
Smoking is more than just a chemical dependence. Surely nicotine plays the biggest role in keeping the habit alive, but the fact that for over 10 years the routine of smoking every hour of every day without any adjustment in this behavior became a clear hurdle that was complicated to overcome. I ask you to imagine something that you do everyday that you do not give much thought to which is also part of your daily routine. Need help? Perhaps it’s running your hands through your hair, maybe it’s biting your fingernails, or drinking a glass of wine before bed. Perhaps your routine involves certain paths you take while driving to work, certain routes you walk while at work, maybe it’s a daily timed break, or a specific pocket you keep something in, maybe it’s a word or phrase you utter when greeting someone. Now, stop doing that one thing. No mess-ups and no excuses.
Humans are creatures of habit, and any routine can be a difficult one to break. Furthermore, when an addiction has reached its peak, more often than not it involves a psychological dependence as well, which in most cases becomes the most difficult pattern to break. Oxycontin, Ambien, marijuana, alcohol, and food can all be considered “addictive” and some of these addictive chemicals are certainly better for health than others, but lest us not forget that all of them are simply chemicals. Video games, reading, shopping, working, gambling, exercise and sex can all be considered “addictive” as well and some of these addictive behaviors are certainly better for health than others, but lest us not for forget that all of them are simply behaviors. And when an additive chemical is mixed with an addictive behavior or routine, it’s an explosive combination.
After 15 years of consistent, chronic and repetitive smoking, I now had to rid myself of the chemical dependence, the routine and the hidden factor, the mental dependence. In the past, my plan of attack for the chemical dependence focused on nicotine patches or gum, which didn’t work for me. So this time around, I decided to allow myself as many other substitutions as I wanted as long as they weren’t nicotine based. Mostly this meant a lot of food and weight gain, but I figured it was worth it and any new habits I acquired could quickly be resolved. For my routine, I fought fire with fire and made a schedule of times during the day when I allowed myself to smoke. At first I picked my favorite smoking times: in the morning, after a meal, after work and before bed. After a few days, I curbed the morning smoke and instead put it arbitrarily in the early afternoon to rid myself of the 15-year morning ritual. I moved the after-lunch cigarette to late afternoon and merged the after-work, after-dinner & before-bed cigarette into just one in the late night, to stop my habit of smoking after meals and before bed. And surprisingly to some, this worked very well.
I tried the more common methods in the past, but they didn’t work for me. So this around I was trying what I thought would work the best. But now, techniques aside, it was time to put down the cigarettes for good.
That day came nearly 16 years into smoking. I planned the event around a 4-day weekend so I could deal with the withdrawals alone, without added stressors like friends, work and other distractions. The majority of the first day was unremarkable and quite decent, but well into the second and third days I started to feel a bit odd. I felt buzzed, like after a few beers, or when I first started smoking. Objects and light had a shine to them and the sensation of fully functional smell was overwhelming. Was this remnants of the chemical and my brain was running on its reserves? Was I beginning to see and feel what normal life was all about? Is this what is feels like to be normal? Was I hallucinating or severely panicking? The first few days are always the hardest and my experience was no exception.
Whatever was occurring to me, I saw no reason to stop, so I plunged ahead, taking many long showers and eating lots of Skittles. I couldn’t tell if these withdrawals were real or imagined and the amount of new smells was difficult on my brain. Smells are pathways to different distinctive memories in our lives and they also unlock parts of the brain that otherwise go unnoticed. As I walked down the street, I looked like an excited puppy-dog out for his daily walk, stopping to smell flowers, newly paved asphalt, buildings, grocery stores and homeless people. None of the smells were necessarily new, but they were enhanced to the nth degree. Some smells would stop me dead in my tracks as they triggered memories from when I was a child, the biggest chunk of time I spent as a non-smoker. The improved smell of flowers reminded me of childhood playground activities, the smell of restaurants brought me back to my mother’s cooking, and even when I passed a smoker and smelled their smell, I was jolted back to a vivid memory of Christmas past at my step-families house, filled with cigarette smoke. And some smells were down right awful. The crack-head homeless man that I walked by everyday and lived 100 ft. from, smelled like sour milk mixed with vinegar. A smell that was so miserable and potent that I held back the urge to purge my breakfast, every morning as I passed by him. It was intense and no one was able to relate. They all thought I was going nuts.
And maybe I was. Over the next few weeks the odd feelings remained and I began to pace, to fill the empty minutes of new time. Smoking filled up nearly two hours per day, 15-20 cigarettes per day at 5-10 minutes each, but smoking wasn’t consecutive, it was 10 minutes here and 5 minutes there, and I found it surprisingly irritating as I struggled to fill these now vacant pockets of time. I did not expect this. I couldn’t rationalize these transitional moments that happen in life, where nothing particular is needed or done for a few moments here and there. These simple mental breaks that exist in regular life were an unforeseen obstacle. And I hurled probing questions at the non-smokers in my life in an attempt to understand what the hell normal people do during these down times. Stare at the f’ing wall? Do jumping jacks? Sing a song? Howl at the moon? I ended up filling most of this time by pacing like an impatient animal in a cage. Nutty indeed.
In addition to pacing, other abnormal things that helped me get through the day included reciting encouraging phrases or words like a basketball coach rallying his team at halftime. They included such gems as, “My brain is not smarter than me!” and “I want to be able to make the choice to smoke or not, my addiction makes the choice for me!” And I repeated words like, “control, control, control” over and over and over. At times, I felt like a possessed malfunctioning robot, stuck in crazy mode and there was little I could do to fix or satisfy what my faulty brain needed, except for use of nicotine of course.
But I persisted, Skittles in hand, Rain Man-like behavior exposed and a few non-smoker friends and family encouraging me to continue. But the cells in my body were not so accepting. They were deprived of their expected level of nicotine and they tried real hard to alert me of this deficit. And I felt them ache. Just like when rich people divorce, they still expect the life they’ve grown accustomed to, well, so did my cells. Like a chronic sore knee, the annoyance is always there, a low-grade daily pain that occasionally rises to the surface and requires attention but normally stays in the background just irritating you while you work to keep out of the forefront of your mind.
Month after month passed and as my body began to adjust to new levels of chemicals, my 15-year daily routines were disappearing as well, but something more threatening began to emerge. Something more hidden, more harmful than any routine or chemical dependence, something that I had no answer or defense for: psychological reliance. This is the classic security blanket syndrome, when people use abnormal means as solutions to situations, problems or everyday behaviors. The object or substance used, has replaced the normal pathways people learn about life and are applied to situations that deal with adversity, harm and even normal human behavior. My solutions to mental concepts like anxiety, insecurity and even some social behavior were so intertwined with smoking cigarettes that at certain times during this year I thought this was an impossible challenge to overcome. With no capacity to deal with anxiety or insecurity, I was brought to my knees at around 5-6 months of this journey. Simple things like going to the grocery store or walking to the mailbox were a frightening reality that caused real physical pain and suffering, as well as huge mood swings. I would sweat profusely when in public or under the spotlight of others, my heart would race and I would panic. Adding fuel to the fire was my inability to properly cope with these feelings of despair. In the past, lighting up a cigarette to pace my anxiety was the solution. I could either reflect on the situation or calm my nerves to the irrational feelings I was having. I could spend a few minutes smoking a cigarette while preparing myself mentally for the task at hand. The act of smoking a cigarette allowed me precious moments to evaluate the issues I was faced with or better yet to escape from them. But now, there was no escape.
Even simple social behaviors like having conversations took getting used to. Without a break for a smoke or a pause in thought, I had to consciously stop talking even if it was in mid-sentence because I may have gone on forever. At work, anxiety over database code and concepts that required intense mental attention was commonplace, but now they had to be accomplished without a walk around the building puffing away on cigarettes, contemplating my next move. Surely part of that process is habit or routine, but for 15-years, I applied this behavior to every situation that required intense thought or mental processes, including feelings of depression or happiness.
The addiction was also my list maker, my idea man and a good listener. I puffed away on cigarettes while I developed the days’ events, I made mental notes of activities that needed accomplishment, I thought of new ideas to be further perused later, and I used it to evaluate past actions in order to make any necessary adjustments in future behavior. It was truly a focused event, rarely was I simply staring at the stars or enjoying the breeze. My smoking habit was how I got work done and life moving forward.
And now without cigarettes, my thoughts have no filters, I am raw to the touch and truly naked to the world. I am increasingly distracted, experiencing big mood swings, increasingly talkative, unfocused, and somewhat troubled. This is my new reality; an unfiltered reality.
But things are slowly getting better and I feel like I’m finally part of the normal world. A world that has little patience for addictive lifestyles and other complaints, which can make things a bit harder sometimes, as this addiction certainly isn’t anything that I can “get over” or “move on” from. This raw anxiety and panic is something that I must learn to accept and live with. It is the essence of being born again and I have to relearn how to live without my security blanket dragging behind me. Perhaps others in this “normal world” do have addictions but they just aren’t as noticeable as mine was…or maybe they have found better ways to hide it. And soon, my journey will be theirs.
I don’t have to tell anyone these days about the harm cigarettes do to people and that is a testament to constant research, science and a well-informed public. But the best thing about smoking is that it is one of the most regulated LEGAL substances ever. It was difficult to get until I was an adult, it is increasingly taxed every year, it is outlawed inside buildings and in public places, it is outlawed from advertising in TV, radio, magazines and newspapers, it must carry health warnings on every package (some countries have more effective warnings), hospitals are required to hand out health literature to smokers, some smokers have higher health care premiums, and even in films the MPAA may give a film a higher rating if it glamorizes or otherwise promotes smoking. Whew! But here's the point, it is still legal. Our government does so much to inform us how bad of a choice it is to smoke, but allows us to make the choice for ourselves. Then, if we still make the bad choice, they are right there by our side with more and more literature, guidance and assistance in order to get us to stop.
On issues that do not cause immediate or irreversible harm to ourselves or others (like murder, some drug use, rape, incest, arson, etc), a government should simply inform its citizens and educate them on decisions they will need to make. A government must not make the choice for the citizens. And if a citizen chooses unwisely, the government must continue to educate, inform, assist and guide a citizen.
I push back against some laws because until the government informs me why the rule exists, it’s like them saying: "Because I said so". (Repeat disclaimer: there are issues of immediate or irreversible harm to consider here and I’m fully aware that laws that are made in this respect are justified.) And once I’ve pressured them and the general public to explain certain laws, I’ve have found that most have been misinformed on what is actually harmful to them. These current half truths are similar to past mistakes pertaining to smoking cigarettes, yet our generation assumes too much about certain substances. I once read a governmental article from the 1950’s that claimed women were immune from heart disease and I’m sure many of you are privy to past claims about tobacco. When science and research are hijacked by political agendas, corporations, greed or other ideologies, people do not get the help they desperately need.
I’m rebellious against marijuana laws for this very reason because there is little to support the outrageous clams against it. Even charges of “gateway to immorality” are false. Everything I’ve read and researched, leads me to believe that marijuana should be treated the same as alcohol (and no, I am not a user of either), with the same disclaimers and guidance that is put upon cigarettes. But just like cigarettes, drugs or alcohol should not be glamorized and encouraged, period. People can get addicted to pretty much anything and without proper help, guidance and support from the government, friends or family; an addiction will be the least of a person’s worries.
If smoking cigarettes was illegal instead of regulated, I’m pretty sure my addiction would have cost me life or something equivalent. And I am forever grateful to those that made an impact.
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This is officially the last post of unfilteredthoughts.com - This site was mainly a gateway for my brain while I wen't through withdrawals and now a year in, it's time to move on from it. I may continue to post thoughts on dudekingme.blogspot.com - we'll see.
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Monday, June 15
UPDATE: The End of the World? But I've got summer school.
My first post about this 1995ish-style website said the end of the world was gonna happen starting in JUNE 09.. Well, since June is upon us, they've changed their website to "AUGUST 09" and in one "open letter" from a visitor asking people to "email him if nothing happens in June" has been changed to "if nothing happens by August" - comical....
I truly hope these guys don't end up doing something like McVeigh, the racist holocast museum killer, or the abortionist killer - (wow I've already added two more people to that list this year alone.)
Sorry guys, but I've got an old sock drawer to sort out. I'll catch you at the next rapture.
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I truly hope these guys don't end up doing something like McVeigh, the racist holocast museum killer, or the abortionist killer - (wow I've already added two more people to that list this year alone.)
Sorry guys, but I've got an old sock drawer to sort out. I'll catch you at the next rapture.
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Thursday, June 11
Formula for Legality
The federal government categorizes substances like alcohol, nicotine and heroine into what it calls "schedules" and each schedule has a set of criteria. For instance marijuana is in the same schedule as heroine. Which meets the following guidelines:
1. The drug or other substance has high potential for abuse.
2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.
Without mentioning the obvious, almost laughable categorization of marijuana into this schedule, I'd like to propose a whole different way to look at substances, certain acts and items. Now the disclaimer here is that the below spew has yet to be thoroughly thought out, so pardon the mess.
THE FORMULA FOR LEGALITY:
“The level of physical or mental harm that an act, substance, or item causes to an adult individual or their community, and if any benefit to self or community may be gained by its legalization, in which the benefit of legalization must clearly outweigh the reasons for illegality.”
Criteria involved in deciphering physical and mental harm:
Harm Rule #1: No immediate or irreversible harm to self or community.
Harm Rule #2: No level of the substance, item or act can be properly regulated in order to comply with Rule #1.
For substances, items or acts that would break the Harm Rules only at increased or improper levels of use must be further regulated.
Inform Rule #1: No encouragement of overuse, long-term use and other abuses.
Inform Rule #2: Clear warnings, regulations with possible need for licensing, training or other tactics to ensure public safety and that a citizen can make a well-informed decision.
Note:
Spiritually cannot play a role in this debate as it cannot be measured in the physical world. What effects these acts, items or substances have on spiritual things such as the soul, are invalid to the physical, measurable world. Religion can certainly set its own rules and give its flock the choice to abide by those rules, and if not, well then the rule-breakers are not part of that religion anymore. And since there are so many religions and non-religions, the Formula for Legality must be a physical declaration, not a spiritual one.
Note 2:
The idea of community can be taken many ways. Some may say, “What’s best for the community is not to have a bunch of drug addicts roaming the streets”. And I couldn’t agree more. My disagreements are mainly with the current methods we use to reduce the abuse, long-term and over use. And propose this “Formula of Legality”, not to condone, but to safely inform and protect citizens from organized crime, unsupportive jail time, and long-term addiction. Morality based laws do little to enlighten the public to the ill effect of their choices and offers little support the addict in their time of need. I say, in many circumstances it makes the problem worse.
Examples:
Crystal meth, heroine, PCP, & nitrous cause too much harm to an individual or its community, mentally or physically (usually do to a prevalence of addiction, even from one or two uses) and it cannot be safely regulated or legal at any level. It remains illegal to protect the individual or others from immediate or irreversible harm, especially citizens that have no such knowledge of its ill effects. It does not fit the Formula for Legality and remains illegal.
Guns can cause immediate and irreversible harm to self or others, but only at improper levels of use. So they must be further regulated by the Inform Rules, which include proper training, licensing and no encouragement of abuse. These steps ensure that under proper regulations, guns can be used recreationally or in defense of one right of the Harm Rules. The Formula for Legality is true.
Alcohol at proper levels of consumption does not break the Harm Rules. But must also abide by the Inform Rules, to ensure the public is aware of ill effects caused by overuse or long-term use. However, the Harm Rules are broken if the person gets behind the wheel of a car, operates heavy machinery, etc. Even so, the Formula for Legality remains true.
Nuclear weapons at any level are harmful to self or others. They cannot be properly regulated to exist at any level, for any citizen to try and make themselves, anywhere. The Formula for Legality is false.
Marijuana has been shown to be addictive with long-term usage, mostly do to routine or psychological need, but not a chemical one. Yet no more addictive than alcohol and in terms of the health effects of marijuana, they are along the same lines as cigarettes. But the drug is not immediately, nor irreversibly harmful to self or others (unless used improperly like alcohol, while driving, etc). It does not break the Harm Rules, but still must abide by the Inform Rules, as heavy or chronic use is not encouraged. And since the benefits of legalization, in terms of monetary savings, proper regulations and a well-informed public outweighs the reasons why it’s illegal AND since illegality actually cause more problems, then the Formula for Legality is true.
Cocaine is probably one of the more difficult substances to apply this formula and rules to. At low levels of potency, the effects are mild and almost identical to caffeine, simply crush up and snort a couple NoDoz and you’re there. And if low levels are similar to caffeine usage, then Harm Rule #2 applies, which states that if levels of a substance can properly be regulated to ensure no immediate or irreversible harm then it should be legal. I’m still not convinced though. It certainly must follow the Inform Rules, as overuse, long-term use or other types of abuse causes harm to self or others. But in terms of immediate or irreversible harm to self or others at recreational levels is debatable. But remember the Formula for Legality also asks the question of "benefit" to self or community over the effects of illegality and like with "instant reply" in sports, there must be clear evidence and reasons to overturn a current "on the field" call. And with cocaine, the current "on the field" call that it is illegal. And for now, it should probably stay that way, until further research and discussion can be made.
Lets throw this formula some curveballs:
Sex. The act of sex under proper safety guidelines and protection isn't immediately harmful to self or community. Furthermore, at recreational levels, it does not break the Harm Rules and fits within the Formula for Legality. But using sex improperly, just like with guns, can break the Harm Rules. As such, regulations on sex like in the act of rape, incest or pedophilia is strictly prohibited. But sex, in general, is still legal if used properly.
Free Speech. The act of Free speech does not break the Harm Rules. But yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre (when there is no fire) does. Therefore Free Speech is still protected under the Formula for Legality, but using it improperly isn’t.
Skydiving can cause immediate and irreversible physical harm to others, but only if used improperly used or abused. Not following strict safely guidelines or following current regulations on safety and training can lead to irreversible effects. Additionally, if only measured on a recreational level, the rush of skydiving is said to meet or exceed the effects of certain illegal drugs. And since the entire point in all of this is to show the parallels between material things like skydiving and snorting cocaine, I’ll get to my final point.
If the legality of substances, acts and items are only measured and quantified in ways they can be misused or abused, than I expect skydiving, sex, driving cars and the internet to become illegal soon as well.
1. The drug or other substance has high potential for abuse.
2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.
Without mentioning the obvious, almost laughable categorization of marijuana into this schedule, I'd like to propose a whole different way to look at substances, certain acts and items. Now the disclaimer here is that the below spew has yet to be thoroughly thought out, so pardon the mess.
THE FORMULA FOR LEGALITY:
“The level of physical or mental harm that an act, substance, or item causes to an adult individual or their community, and if any benefit to self or community may be gained by its legalization, in which the benefit of legalization must clearly outweigh the reasons for illegality.”
Criteria involved in deciphering physical and mental harm:
Harm Rule #1: No immediate or irreversible harm to self or community.
Harm Rule #2: No level of the substance, item or act can be properly regulated in order to comply with Rule #1.
For substances, items or acts that would break the Harm Rules only at increased or improper levels of use must be further regulated.
Inform Rule #1: No encouragement of overuse, long-term use and other abuses.
Inform Rule #2: Clear warnings, regulations with possible need for licensing, training or other tactics to ensure public safety and that a citizen can make a well-informed decision.
Note:
Spiritually cannot play a role in this debate as it cannot be measured in the physical world. What effects these acts, items or substances have on spiritual things such as the soul, are invalid to the physical, measurable world. Religion can certainly set its own rules and give its flock the choice to abide by those rules, and if not, well then the rule-breakers are not part of that religion anymore. And since there are so many religions and non-religions, the Formula for Legality must be a physical declaration, not a spiritual one.
Note 2:
The idea of community can be taken many ways. Some may say, “What’s best for the community is not to have a bunch of drug addicts roaming the streets”. And I couldn’t agree more. My disagreements are mainly with the current methods we use to reduce the abuse, long-term and over use. And propose this “Formula of Legality”, not to condone, but to safely inform and protect citizens from organized crime, unsupportive jail time, and long-term addiction. Morality based laws do little to enlighten the public to the ill effect of their choices and offers little support the addict in their time of need. I say, in many circumstances it makes the problem worse.
Examples:
Crystal meth, heroine, PCP, & nitrous cause too much harm to an individual or its community, mentally or physically (usually do to a prevalence of addiction, even from one or two uses) and it cannot be safely regulated or legal at any level. It remains illegal to protect the individual or others from immediate or irreversible harm, especially citizens that have no such knowledge of its ill effects. It does not fit the Formula for Legality and remains illegal.
Guns can cause immediate and irreversible harm to self or others, but only at improper levels of use. So they must be further regulated by the Inform Rules, which include proper training, licensing and no encouragement of abuse. These steps ensure that under proper regulations, guns can be used recreationally or in defense of one right of the Harm Rules. The Formula for Legality is true.
Alcohol at proper levels of consumption does not break the Harm Rules. But must also abide by the Inform Rules, to ensure the public is aware of ill effects caused by overuse or long-term use. However, the Harm Rules are broken if the person gets behind the wheel of a car, operates heavy machinery, etc. Even so, the Formula for Legality remains true.
Nuclear weapons at any level are harmful to self or others. They cannot be properly regulated to exist at any level, for any citizen to try and make themselves, anywhere. The Formula for Legality is false.
Marijuana has been shown to be addictive with long-term usage, mostly do to routine or psychological need, but not a chemical one. Yet no more addictive than alcohol and in terms of the health effects of marijuana, they are along the same lines as cigarettes. But the drug is not immediately, nor irreversibly harmful to self or others (unless used improperly like alcohol, while driving, etc). It does not break the Harm Rules, but still must abide by the Inform Rules, as heavy or chronic use is not encouraged. And since the benefits of legalization, in terms of monetary savings, proper regulations and a well-informed public outweighs the reasons why it’s illegal AND since illegality actually cause more problems, then the Formula for Legality is true.
Cocaine is probably one of the more difficult substances to apply this formula and rules to. At low levels of potency, the effects are mild and almost identical to caffeine, simply crush up and snort a couple NoDoz and you’re there. And if low levels are similar to caffeine usage, then Harm Rule #2 applies, which states that if levels of a substance can properly be regulated to ensure no immediate or irreversible harm then it should be legal. I’m still not convinced though. It certainly must follow the Inform Rules, as overuse, long-term use or other types of abuse causes harm to self or others. But in terms of immediate or irreversible harm to self or others at recreational levels is debatable. But remember the Formula for Legality also asks the question of "benefit" to self or community over the effects of illegality and like with "instant reply" in sports, there must be clear evidence and reasons to overturn a current "on the field" call. And with cocaine, the current "on the field" call that it is illegal. And for now, it should probably stay that way, until further research and discussion can be made.
Lets throw this formula some curveballs:
Sex. The act of sex under proper safety guidelines and protection isn't immediately harmful to self or community. Furthermore, at recreational levels, it does not break the Harm Rules and fits within the Formula for Legality. But using sex improperly, just like with guns, can break the Harm Rules. As such, regulations on sex like in the act of rape, incest or pedophilia is strictly prohibited. But sex, in general, is still legal if used properly.
Free Speech. The act of Free speech does not break the Harm Rules. But yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre (when there is no fire) does. Therefore Free Speech is still protected under the Formula for Legality, but using it improperly isn’t.
Skydiving can cause immediate and irreversible physical harm to others, but only if used improperly used or abused. Not following strict safely guidelines or following current regulations on safety and training can lead to irreversible effects. Additionally, if only measured on a recreational level, the rush of skydiving is said to meet or exceed the effects of certain illegal drugs. And since the entire point in all of this is to show the parallels between material things like skydiving and snorting cocaine, I’ll get to my final point.
If the legality of substances, acts and items are only measured and quantified in ways they can be misused or abused, than I expect skydiving, sex, driving cars and the internet to become illegal soon as well.
-
Sunday, May 24
The Great Regulators
Imagine a world where nothing is illegal, equality reigns over freedom and justice is more important than order. A humanity where people can do or say whatever they please, as long as it does not impede on the liberty and choices of others. People are treated with dignity and respect and the only laws are a set of guidelines to maintain equity: the freedom to posses, the freedom of choice, the freedom of expression and the freedom to survive. This may sound familiar—it is our past. A citizen of today can only be free in their minds and even that is adjustable by a few hours in a dark cell, force fed distortions of the law and inequality of punishment. Ignorance’s medicine, in the guise of abuse, solitude and confinement, is shoved down our throats and forced into our unconscious mind in the feeble attempt to heal the “evildoer”. But a proper democracy is not one bloated with incredible laws of oppression, but one where a society, created by the people, can flourish and live in harmony free from the armed tormenters whom act as defenders of our great civilization. Those freedom fighters are only here to elicit fear and alter our minds to be obedient of the corrupted elite that govern our nation.
In a game played by money and greed, humans are merely pawns. The great regulators reign supreme, uneducated with guns at their sides, carelessly moving the pieces around the board, unaware of the chaos they create with every move. As the money pours in and the uncontested power charges their egos, society cracks and turns on itself, cannibalizing the freedoms they once could not live without. The oppressors view human culture as something to control, like a puppet at a show or a careless ship captain navigating iceberg-infested waters. “If not manipulated,” say the regulators, “humans will create an anarchist, immoral state and the Gods will surely hold us and the world responsible and wreck havoc on our souls”. The oppressors certainly know of an end and act in haste to sacrifice the evildoers to their Gods, in order to prove their allegiance and to set aside a place in the utopian afterlife. They have no concern of the present chaos, nor worry about the current fate of freedom.
Our history speaks of legality and morality not prevention or treatment. Marijuana has been used as far back as 3000BC, mostly in religious ceremonies but also for medicinal treatment of such ailments as glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, and influenza. The Virginia assembly in 1619 required every household to grow it and even some states allowed hemp to be used as legal tender. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp at their homes. Cocaine was also used for thousands of years as an aesthesia in dentistry, an ingredient in wine and in the original formula for Coca-Cola. Cocaine was also sold in neighborhood drugstores for five or ten cents. Nicotine was viewed as non-addictive, harmless and smoking was advertised as “good for digestion”[1]. The 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act changed many drug laws, but even after that law was passed, it was still legal for registered companies and individuals.
As our ethical leaders became increasingly frightened by the influx of immigrants as well as the liberties gained by African-Americans, thus began the first “war on drugs” and they focused their attention squarely on marijuana. The so-called marijuana-induced “sex-crazed teenager” and the “violent” culture played a huge role in the creation of new laws, as the poorer society tends to lean on drugs more than the upper-class. FBI director J. Edward Hoover and certain lawmakers attributed all sinful acts of the youth to the effects of drugs and marijuana and wanted to purge the country of this “immoral behavior”. They dismissed treatment clinics as “barrooms for addicts” and said the only proper response to illegal drug use was to “jail offenders, then throw away the key”. Amid the prejudices, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937[2] criminalized marijuana for the first time. Businesses and casual smokers of previous years were lectured and sentenced to long prison terms. Our Great Regulators even dismissed a study in 1944 by the New York Academy of Medicine which concluded: “marijuana did not cause violent behavior, provoke insanity, lead to addiction, or promote opiate use”. But they could not deny the useful nature of the hemp plant, as showcased by the 1943 video “Hemp for Victory” created by the U.S. government during WWII, in which farmers were encouraged to grow hemp for the war effort. (Hemp was used in rope, cloth and other products). Hemp also outgrows most plants and thrives in almost any climate, it’s good for the environment, and was used as fuel, paper, fiber, and medicine. But after World War II and near the height of anti-communism furor in the 1950’s, The Boggs Act and our ethical leaders raised marijuana penalties to the same level as heroin.
The inconsistency of our laws did not stop with the Boggs Act. By 1962 in Louisiana, a simple drug possession conviction ranged from five to ninety-nine years in prison. In Missouri, a second drug offense could result in a life sentence. And in Georgia, a second conviction for selling marijuana to a minor could bring the death penalty. But in the late 1960s as marijuana usage grew within the white middle-class, there was a re-evaluation of laws that for decades had imprisoned poor immigrants and African Americans. In 1970, the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act set apart marijuana from other narcotics and reduced federal penalties for possession. In the same year, President Richard Nixon chose a bipartisan commission to study the health effects, legal status and social impact of marijuana. Two years later, the 1972 National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse arrived at a conclusion: “marijuana should be decriminalized under state and federal law. Possessing small amounts of marijuana in the home should no longer be a crime, growing or selling marijuana for profit, using it in public, or driving under the influence would remain strictly forbidden and society should strongly discourage marijuana use while devoting more resources to preventing and treating heavy use.” Led by these findings, eleven states decriminalized marijuana and most other states weakened their laws against it. But President Nixon rejected the findings and privately blamed “the Jews” for the new drug law reorganizations.
However, decriminalization was still supported in the late 1970’s by The American Medical Association, National Council of Churches, President Jimmy Carter and other lawmakers. The 1974 case of Ravin v. State of Alaska, led the Alaska Supreme Court to rule that “growing and smoking Cannabis was protected in home and yard by the State Constitution’s right to privacy”. But in the 1979 case National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws v. Gain, which argued for the right to have marijuana in a private location such as a home, the California Supreme Court decided “not to guarantee adult Californians the privilege of smoking a possibly harmful drug, even in the privacy of their homes”. Less than twenty years later, a portion of the Violence against Women Act of 1994 was declared unconstitutional, “Because the federal government has no right to regulate a private act, such as rape, that is neither part of interstate commerce nor caused by state officials.” In other words, a citizen can send the police into their neighbor’s home to bust down the door and haul away the non-violent over-user under full protection of the law, but if the same neighbor was raped, police have no right to enter the premises. Even though the federal government and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) approved decriminalization of marijuana, individual battles of consistency and equality raged on.
Only a few years after the DEA proposed decriminalization, an entirely new administration, led by Ronald Regan, called marijuana “the most urgent drug problem facing the U.S.” In 1982, President Reagan created a drug czar—Carton Turner, a chemist who disregarded any previous research, believed marijuana linked youth to anti-military, anti-nuclear power, anti-big business, and thought smoking it could turn young men into homosexuals. Under President Reagan, the U.S. started the second “war on drugs” by increasing federal penalties with three new acts: The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, Anti-Drug Abuse Amendment of 1984 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Marijuana was now (and still is) classified as a Schedule I drug, which requires the following findings[3]:
1. The drug or other substance has high potential for abuse.
2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.
President Regan considered marijuana as “the most dangerous drug in America” and placed it on the same level as heroin, LSD and peyote. Yet almost all previous scientific research suggested that marijuana is less addictive than heroin, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol and caffeine and can also be used in numerous medical treatments. Cocaine and PCP were (and still are) on a “lower” level, Schedule II, which allowed doctors to prescribe them to citizens. Once again drug use was depicted as a moral problem not a medical one.
President Bush Sr. continued Regan’s moral push and raised drug enforcement spending by 83 percent and under President Clinton, not to be outdone by the republicans, also increased federal spending on drug enforcement with little or no increase on prevention or treatment. Under Clinton, drug possession arrests hit a record high and jails became increasingly overcrowded. To ring in the new millennium, President Bush Jr., along with the USA Patriot Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, made drugs “more” illegal than ever before.
This—was yesterday.
We are conditioned to trust our moral regulators. But these leaders simply place their friends and others, sympathetic to their message, in power to create the laws for the “Great Moral Society” without consideration to science, research and other accepted studies. One such study by the accredited British Journal of Psychiatry states: "The Dutch experience, together with those of a few other countries with more modest policy changes, provides a moderately good empirical case that removal of criminal prohibitions on cannabis possession (decriminalization) will not increase the prevalence of marijuana or any other illicit drug; the argument for decriminalization is thus strong."[4] But we again ignore clear information gained by observation, experience, science and experiment for the sensationalized rhetoric of the moral majority. Our leaders continue to spew their message of protectionism for the Great Society as noted in the complete blockade of scientific research due to marijuana’s drug classification.
Our “Great Moral Society” is one where four billion dollars a year of tax money is spent combating mostly addicts and non-violent criminals. An addict defined by the FDA is: “any individual who habitually uses any narcotic drug so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare, or who is so far addicted to the use of narcotic drugs as to have lost the power of self-control with reference to his addiction.” This is a good definition for someone who needs rehab, not a jail cell.
Alcoholics, for instance, go through an intense sobering process that requires the efforts of family, friends, the government and their community. But most of them endure this detoxification within the safety of loved ones, not near the violent criminals of the prison system. The treatment of alcoholism without jail time is viewed as normal in American society. Also with other addictions, like prescription drugs, no jail time is required for overuse. As a matter of fact, citizens can overuse alcohol, prescription drugs, food, nicotine, and sex and not receive one day of jail time as long as they stay within the boundaries of regulation. The mere use or overuse of a certain drug is not cause for imprisonment.
But the 400,000 police officers specifically assigned to the drug war, ensure that over-users and drugs possessors have a long stay behind bars. Federal law states: possession for any amount of cocaine is a felony, punishable by a year or longer in prison. In fact, most first time offenders of federal possession laws spend a minimum of one-to-three years in prison and in California, three possessions of cocaine (with similar chemical reactions of another psychoactive but legal drug, caffeine) can lead to a lifetime behind bars. Actually, caffeine has no regulations by the federal government at all and has no limits to the amount placed in soda, Excedrin, chocolate, coffee, tea, and so-called “energy drinks”. If caffeine could be snorted or injected directly into the blood stream and involve the same sensations of cocaine, would caffeine become illegal? Caffeine has proven to be as addictive as cocaine but for now, caffeine has no limits to its use and the 400,000 armed tormentors are ready for the next drug over-user to place into the revolving door of the prison system.
Marijuana laws are even worse with broad, inconsistent “deterrents” ranging from state to state. In New York State for instance, an ounce of marijuana brings a fine of $100, whereas the same amount in Louisiana could lead to twenty years-to-life. In Idaho, selling water pipes is nine years behind bars. In Kentucky, products made from hemp fibers are illegal. Certain counties in Ohio hand out a fine for the possession of three ounces of marijuana but a drive to Indiana one hour away can lead to three years in prison. Indiana laws are particularly inconsistent and offenses range from armed robbery at six years, rape at eight years, murder at twenty-five and selling marijuana—a life sentence (as in the case of Mark Young, a marijuana “activist”). Federal law also states that convicted murderers, rapists and child molesters can get welfare payments, but those with marijuana felonies cannot. Twenty states have laws that say: if a citizen is caught smoking marijuana, even in a private location like a home, can lead to a harsher punishment than being arrested for driving drunk. And in one of the most restrictive states, Oklahoma, any amount of marijuana including paraphernalia, is a mandatory one year behind bars, every subsequent offense is two-to-ten years and the sale of marijuana is two years-to-life behind bars. Lawmakers continue to make drugs “more” illegal everyday and the irregularity of past mistakes, with little attention to treatment, is still echoed today.
California’s recent proposition 5 stated: “California’s corrections system does not provide meaningful rehabilitation services to most inmates and parolees. Nonviolent offenders can languish for years behind bars without education, vocational training, or rehabilitation programs of any kind.”[5] So even though we house these non-violent criminals in prison, the system does not provide enough alternatives to their addiction besides jail time. Non-violent criminals get the same jail time as violent offenders and according to the laws, a casual user is no different than an addict. Very little rehabilitation is used; it’s currently a policy of: “It’s the users fault for doing it, so they must be punished and shoved into jail for treatment.” The ineffective laws of today that focus on possession need to change to protect the drug user from the drug dealer and to protect the addict from gaining a foothold in the underground of the American black market. A non-violent drug user is not the same as a brutal drug kingpin and the laws should be changed to reflect that.
Most of the non-violent addicts in prison gain an extraordinary study on how to truly become an elite drug user or worse: a drug dealer. This is good news for the addicts as about seventy-seven billion dollars a year is made in the illegal drug trade, most of which fuels terrorism and kingpins from foreign countries. Imagine what seventy-seven billion dollars and 400,000 workers could do to rebuild New Orleans or rid our country of foreign oil dependency. We believe more in the values of the moral majority and their message of global security with a heavenly afterlife than in society’s duty to listen and respond to rational science and practical research.
This—is today.
Organized crime runs the illegal drug culture, instead of what it should be: the taxpayer. California’s NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) estimates that the state could net some 1.5 to 2.5 billion dollars per year by legalizing marijuana for general adult use, as well as accumulate a savings of over 160 million in taxpayer dollars per year that is currently spent on arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment of drug users. As the Journal of Public Health stated in 1989 (counter to the message by the moral leaders of “abstinence” and prohibition): "The available evidence indicates that the decriminalization of marijuana possession had little or no impact on rates of use. On the other hand, the so-called 'decriminalization' measures did result in substantial savings in the criminal justice system."[6] Imagine that savings going back to the taxpayer.
The taxpayers should focus on treatment centers, twelve step programs, and prisons should focus on drug abuse management. "Fear of apprehension, fear of being imprisoned, the cost of cannabis or the difficulty in obtaining cannabis do not appear to exert a strong influence on decisions about cannabis consumption. ... Those factors may limit cannabis use among frequent cannabis users, but there is no evidence, as of yet, to support this conjecture."[7] Deterrents like long prison sentences do little to discourage drug users and these laws end up hurting the addict by using punishment as treatment. Rehabilitation and treatment centers actually saves society money as stated by the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES) from the Center from Substance Abuse Treatment[8], and every dollar spent on treatment saves society three dollars in crime-related costs, increased earnings and reduced health costs.
Society also needs a wake-up call that a world in which drugs are decriminalized does not mean a world full of drug addicts and pushers. A study by the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine stated: "In sum, there is little evidence that decriminalization of marijuana use necessarily leads to a substantial increase in marijuana use."[9] Another study by the Journal of Public Health states: "The available data indicate that decriminalization measures substantially reduced enforcement costs, yet had little or no impact on rates of use in the United States. In the South Australian community, none of the studies have found an impact in cannabis use which is attributable to the introduction of the Cannabis Expiation Scheme [decriminalization.]"[10] And in the same spirit, Dr. Charles Schuster, head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse during the 1980s, said “To the best of my knowledge, no one has died because they’ve smoke too much marijuana.” According to a recent study published in the Journal of Substance Use, adolescent drug use is tied more to “sensation seeking”, rather than impulsive decision making[11]. Skydiving, which can cause similar euphoric sensations to certain illegal drugs, causes more deaths than marijuana, yet jumping out of a plane remains completely legal and we certainly do not live in a world overrun by skydivers.
Society tends to blame marijuana as well when addicts upgrade to harsher drugs. In fact, more cocaine users smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol before using cocaine than used marijuana, so the so-called "gateway" argument applies more to beer, whiskey and cigarettes than it does to marijuana. When marijuana usage increased in the 1960s and 1970s, heroin use declined rapidly and when cocaine use increased in the 1980s, marijuana use declined. There is no correlation between a cocaine user and a marijuana user; they are like wine drinkers versus beer drinkers, but our society continues to trust their moral leaders over statistics and data.
Addiction to any drug is a very serious issue which should not be taken lightly but it shouldn’t be treated as an immoral choice that only elicits jail time. Problematic drug use should be dealt with like any other addiction—with treatment. We should not spend billions of dollars on prisons to simply accommodate addicts. Governmental licensing practices and regulations used currently for alcohol and prescription drugs should be used on narcotics as well. Alcohol has many regulations: the legal age to drink is 21, citizens cannot drive while drunk, citizens cannot be in public places while intoxicated and citizens cannot operate heavy machinery, to name a few. To sell alcohol, a business must meet certain preconditions before applying for a license and must renew their license every year to ensure compliance with any new regulations. Prescription drugs have similar regulations and so do cigarettes. The “legalize-it” portion of the world will also be faced with the sad truth that drugs are addictive and harmful when overused, but the fight is not legality—the fight is regulation.
The ultimate goal of the Great Regulators should not be on personal economic gains or other egotistical, selfish possessions but equality for all humans. The freedom to posses will guide humanity towards a safer, more humane world, not one led by confinement and punishment. Better education can lead to an improved perception of addiction and its problems, lending an ear to the addict and their freedom of choice. Humans must also rise out of the shadows of the moral oppressors and use the freedom of expression to take back the civil liberties society once held so dear. And the ultimate freedom, the freedom to survive, will be a right born into every citizen regardless of background. The Great Regulators of the future will pass laws based on science while providing safer alternatives to the expensive, violent and corrupted, valued-based system currently in use.
This is tomorrow—and I imagine that next week will look even better.
------------------------------------------------------
[1] Nolan, Hamilton. “Five Way Camel Cigarettes Are Good For You.” Gawker.com. 19 Jun. 2008. Gawker Media. 7 Dec. 2008
[2] Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937)
[3] “Schedules of Controlled Substances.” Title 21 U.S. Code, Sec. 812 Chapter 13. Subchapter I. Part B. Sec. 812
[4] R. MacCoun and P. Reuter. “Evaluating alternative cannabis regimes.” British Journal of Psychiatry 178 (2001): 123-128.
[5] Abrahamson, Daniel. “Request for Title and Summary from Propsed Initiative” 7 Dec. 2008
[6] E. Single. “The Impact of Marijuana Decriminalization: An Update.” Journal of Public Health 10 (1989): 456-466.
[7] D. Weatherburn and C. Jones. 2001. “Does prohibition deter cannabis use?” New South Wales (Australia) Bureau of Crime Statistics: Sydney.
[8] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, National Evaluation Data Services, The Cost and Benefits of Substance Abuse Treatment: Findings From the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study, August 1999.
[9] National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (IOM). 1999. “Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base.” National Academy Press: Washington, D.C., 102.
[10] E. Single et al. “The Impact of Cannabis Decriminalisation in Australia and the United States. “ Journal of Public Health Policy 21 (2000): 157-186.
[11] Z. Xiao. “Addiction & Treatment” Journal of Substance Use 13.6 (2008): 415-33
-
In a game played by money and greed, humans are merely pawns. The great regulators reign supreme, uneducated with guns at their sides, carelessly moving the pieces around the board, unaware of the chaos they create with every move. As the money pours in and the uncontested power charges their egos, society cracks and turns on itself, cannibalizing the freedoms they once could not live without. The oppressors view human culture as something to control, like a puppet at a show or a careless ship captain navigating iceberg-infested waters. “If not manipulated,” say the regulators, “humans will create an anarchist, immoral state and the Gods will surely hold us and the world responsible and wreck havoc on our souls”. The oppressors certainly know of an end and act in haste to sacrifice the evildoers to their Gods, in order to prove their allegiance and to set aside a place in the utopian afterlife. They have no concern of the present chaos, nor worry about the current fate of freedom.
Our history speaks of legality and morality not prevention or treatment. Marijuana has been used as far back as 3000BC, mostly in religious ceremonies but also for medicinal treatment of such ailments as glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, and influenza. The Virginia assembly in 1619 required every household to grow it and even some states allowed hemp to be used as legal tender. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp at their homes. Cocaine was also used for thousands of years as an aesthesia in dentistry, an ingredient in wine and in the original formula for Coca-Cola. Cocaine was also sold in neighborhood drugstores for five or ten cents. Nicotine was viewed as non-addictive, harmless and smoking was advertised as “good for digestion”[1]. The 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act changed many drug laws, but even after that law was passed, it was still legal for registered companies and individuals.
As our ethical leaders became increasingly frightened by the influx of immigrants as well as the liberties gained by African-Americans, thus began the first “war on drugs” and they focused their attention squarely on marijuana. The so-called marijuana-induced “sex-crazed teenager” and the “violent” culture played a huge role in the creation of new laws, as the poorer society tends to lean on drugs more than the upper-class. FBI director J. Edward Hoover and certain lawmakers attributed all sinful acts of the youth to the effects of drugs and marijuana and wanted to purge the country of this “immoral behavior”. They dismissed treatment clinics as “barrooms for addicts” and said the only proper response to illegal drug use was to “jail offenders, then throw away the key”. Amid the prejudices, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937[2] criminalized marijuana for the first time. Businesses and casual smokers of previous years were lectured and sentenced to long prison terms. Our Great Regulators even dismissed a study in 1944 by the New York Academy of Medicine which concluded: “marijuana did not cause violent behavior, provoke insanity, lead to addiction, or promote opiate use”. But they could not deny the useful nature of the hemp plant, as showcased by the 1943 video “Hemp for Victory” created by the U.S. government during WWII, in which farmers were encouraged to grow hemp for the war effort. (Hemp was used in rope, cloth and other products). Hemp also outgrows most plants and thrives in almost any climate, it’s good for the environment, and was used as fuel, paper, fiber, and medicine. But after World War II and near the height of anti-communism furor in the 1950’s, The Boggs Act and our ethical leaders raised marijuana penalties to the same level as heroin.
The inconsistency of our laws did not stop with the Boggs Act. By 1962 in Louisiana, a simple drug possession conviction ranged from five to ninety-nine years in prison. In Missouri, a second drug offense could result in a life sentence. And in Georgia, a second conviction for selling marijuana to a minor could bring the death penalty. But in the late 1960s as marijuana usage grew within the white middle-class, there was a re-evaluation of laws that for decades had imprisoned poor immigrants and African Americans. In 1970, the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act set apart marijuana from other narcotics and reduced federal penalties for possession. In the same year, President Richard Nixon chose a bipartisan commission to study the health effects, legal status and social impact of marijuana. Two years later, the 1972 National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse arrived at a conclusion: “marijuana should be decriminalized under state and federal law. Possessing small amounts of marijuana in the home should no longer be a crime, growing or selling marijuana for profit, using it in public, or driving under the influence would remain strictly forbidden and society should strongly discourage marijuana use while devoting more resources to preventing and treating heavy use.” Led by these findings, eleven states decriminalized marijuana and most other states weakened their laws against it. But President Nixon rejected the findings and privately blamed “the Jews” for the new drug law reorganizations.
However, decriminalization was still supported in the late 1970’s by The American Medical Association, National Council of Churches, President Jimmy Carter and other lawmakers. The 1974 case of Ravin v. State of Alaska, led the Alaska Supreme Court to rule that “growing and smoking Cannabis was protected in home and yard by the State Constitution’s right to privacy”. But in the 1979 case National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws v. Gain, which argued for the right to have marijuana in a private location such as a home, the California Supreme Court decided “not to guarantee adult Californians the privilege of smoking a possibly harmful drug, even in the privacy of their homes”. Less than twenty years later, a portion of the Violence against Women Act of 1994 was declared unconstitutional, “Because the federal government has no right to regulate a private act, such as rape, that is neither part of interstate commerce nor caused by state officials.” In other words, a citizen can send the police into their neighbor’s home to bust down the door and haul away the non-violent over-user under full protection of the law, but if the same neighbor was raped, police have no right to enter the premises. Even though the federal government and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) approved decriminalization of marijuana, individual battles of consistency and equality raged on.
Only a few years after the DEA proposed decriminalization, an entirely new administration, led by Ronald Regan, called marijuana “the most urgent drug problem facing the U.S.” In 1982, President Reagan created a drug czar—Carton Turner, a chemist who disregarded any previous research, believed marijuana linked youth to anti-military, anti-nuclear power, anti-big business, and thought smoking it could turn young men into homosexuals. Under President Reagan, the U.S. started the second “war on drugs” by increasing federal penalties with three new acts: The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, Anti-Drug Abuse Amendment of 1984 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Marijuana was now (and still is) classified as a Schedule I drug, which requires the following findings[3]:
1. The drug or other substance has high potential for abuse.
2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.
President Regan considered marijuana as “the most dangerous drug in America” and placed it on the same level as heroin, LSD and peyote. Yet almost all previous scientific research suggested that marijuana is less addictive than heroin, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol and caffeine and can also be used in numerous medical treatments. Cocaine and PCP were (and still are) on a “lower” level, Schedule II, which allowed doctors to prescribe them to citizens. Once again drug use was depicted as a moral problem not a medical one.
President Bush Sr. continued Regan’s moral push and raised drug enforcement spending by 83 percent and under President Clinton, not to be outdone by the republicans, also increased federal spending on drug enforcement with little or no increase on prevention or treatment. Under Clinton, drug possession arrests hit a record high and jails became increasingly overcrowded. To ring in the new millennium, President Bush Jr., along with the USA Patriot Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, made drugs “more” illegal than ever before.
This—was yesterday.
We are conditioned to trust our moral regulators. But these leaders simply place their friends and others, sympathetic to their message, in power to create the laws for the “Great Moral Society” without consideration to science, research and other accepted studies. One such study by the accredited British Journal of Psychiatry states: "The Dutch experience, together with those of a few other countries with more modest policy changes, provides a moderately good empirical case that removal of criminal prohibitions on cannabis possession (decriminalization) will not increase the prevalence of marijuana or any other illicit drug; the argument for decriminalization is thus strong."[4] But we again ignore clear information gained by observation, experience, science and experiment for the sensationalized rhetoric of the moral majority. Our leaders continue to spew their message of protectionism for the Great Society as noted in the complete blockade of scientific research due to marijuana’s drug classification.
Our “Great Moral Society” is one where four billion dollars a year of tax money is spent combating mostly addicts and non-violent criminals. An addict defined by the FDA is: “any individual who habitually uses any narcotic drug so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare, or who is so far addicted to the use of narcotic drugs as to have lost the power of self-control with reference to his addiction.” This is a good definition for someone who needs rehab, not a jail cell.
Alcoholics, for instance, go through an intense sobering process that requires the efforts of family, friends, the government and their community. But most of them endure this detoxification within the safety of loved ones, not near the violent criminals of the prison system. The treatment of alcoholism without jail time is viewed as normal in American society. Also with other addictions, like prescription drugs, no jail time is required for overuse. As a matter of fact, citizens can overuse alcohol, prescription drugs, food, nicotine, and sex and not receive one day of jail time as long as they stay within the boundaries of regulation. The mere use or overuse of a certain drug is not cause for imprisonment.
But the 400,000 police officers specifically assigned to the drug war, ensure that over-users and drugs possessors have a long stay behind bars. Federal law states: possession for any amount of cocaine is a felony, punishable by a year or longer in prison. In fact, most first time offenders of federal possession laws spend a minimum of one-to-three years in prison and in California, three possessions of cocaine (with similar chemical reactions of another psychoactive but legal drug, caffeine) can lead to a lifetime behind bars. Actually, caffeine has no regulations by the federal government at all and has no limits to the amount placed in soda, Excedrin, chocolate, coffee, tea, and so-called “energy drinks”. If caffeine could be snorted or injected directly into the blood stream and involve the same sensations of cocaine, would caffeine become illegal? Caffeine has proven to be as addictive as cocaine but for now, caffeine has no limits to its use and the 400,000 armed tormentors are ready for the next drug over-user to place into the revolving door of the prison system.
Marijuana laws are even worse with broad, inconsistent “deterrents” ranging from state to state. In New York State for instance, an ounce of marijuana brings a fine of $100, whereas the same amount in Louisiana could lead to twenty years-to-life. In Idaho, selling water pipes is nine years behind bars. In Kentucky, products made from hemp fibers are illegal. Certain counties in Ohio hand out a fine for the possession of three ounces of marijuana but a drive to Indiana one hour away can lead to three years in prison. Indiana laws are particularly inconsistent and offenses range from armed robbery at six years, rape at eight years, murder at twenty-five and selling marijuana—a life sentence (as in the case of Mark Young, a marijuana “activist”). Federal law also states that convicted murderers, rapists and child molesters can get welfare payments, but those with marijuana felonies cannot. Twenty states have laws that say: if a citizen is caught smoking marijuana, even in a private location like a home, can lead to a harsher punishment than being arrested for driving drunk. And in one of the most restrictive states, Oklahoma, any amount of marijuana including paraphernalia, is a mandatory one year behind bars, every subsequent offense is two-to-ten years and the sale of marijuana is two years-to-life behind bars. Lawmakers continue to make drugs “more” illegal everyday and the irregularity of past mistakes, with little attention to treatment, is still echoed today.
California’s recent proposition 5 stated: “California’s corrections system does not provide meaningful rehabilitation services to most inmates and parolees. Nonviolent offenders can languish for years behind bars without education, vocational training, or rehabilitation programs of any kind.”[5] So even though we house these non-violent criminals in prison, the system does not provide enough alternatives to their addiction besides jail time. Non-violent criminals get the same jail time as violent offenders and according to the laws, a casual user is no different than an addict. Very little rehabilitation is used; it’s currently a policy of: “It’s the users fault for doing it, so they must be punished and shoved into jail for treatment.” The ineffective laws of today that focus on possession need to change to protect the drug user from the drug dealer and to protect the addict from gaining a foothold in the underground of the American black market. A non-violent drug user is not the same as a brutal drug kingpin and the laws should be changed to reflect that.
Most of the non-violent addicts in prison gain an extraordinary study on how to truly become an elite drug user or worse: a drug dealer. This is good news for the addicts as about seventy-seven billion dollars a year is made in the illegal drug trade, most of which fuels terrorism and kingpins from foreign countries. Imagine what seventy-seven billion dollars and 400,000 workers could do to rebuild New Orleans or rid our country of foreign oil dependency. We believe more in the values of the moral majority and their message of global security with a heavenly afterlife than in society’s duty to listen and respond to rational science and practical research.
This—is today.
Organized crime runs the illegal drug culture, instead of what it should be: the taxpayer. California’s NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) estimates that the state could net some 1.5 to 2.5 billion dollars per year by legalizing marijuana for general adult use, as well as accumulate a savings of over 160 million in taxpayer dollars per year that is currently spent on arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment of drug users. As the Journal of Public Health stated in 1989 (counter to the message by the moral leaders of “abstinence” and prohibition): "The available evidence indicates that the decriminalization of marijuana possession had little or no impact on rates of use. On the other hand, the so-called 'decriminalization' measures did result in substantial savings in the criminal justice system."[6] Imagine that savings going back to the taxpayer.
The taxpayers should focus on treatment centers, twelve step programs, and prisons should focus on drug abuse management. "Fear of apprehension, fear of being imprisoned, the cost of cannabis or the difficulty in obtaining cannabis do not appear to exert a strong influence on decisions about cannabis consumption. ... Those factors may limit cannabis use among frequent cannabis users, but there is no evidence, as of yet, to support this conjecture."[7] Deterrents like long prison sentences do little to discourage drug users and these laws end up hurting the addict by using punishment as treatment. Rehabilitation and treatment centers actually saves society money as stated by the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES) from the Center from Substance Abuse Treatment[8], and every dollar spent on treatment saves society three dollars in crime-related costs, increased earnings and reduced health costs.
Society also needs a wake-up call that a world in which drugs are decriminalized does not mean a world full of drug addicts and pushers. A study by the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine stated: "In sum, there is little evidence that decriminalization of marijuana use necessarily leads to a substantial increase in marijuana use."[9] Another study by the Journal of Public Health states: "The available data indicate that decriminalization measures substantially reduced enforcement costs, yet had little or no impact on rates of use in the United States. In the South Australian community, none of the studies have found an impact in cannabis use which is attributable to the introduction of the Cannabis Expiation Scheme [decriminalization.]"[10] And in the same spirit, Dr. Charles Schuster, head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse during the 1980s, said “To the best of my knowledge, no one has died because they’ve smoke too much marijuana.” According to a recent study published in the Journal of Substance Use, adolescent drug use is tied more to “sensation seeking”, rather than impulsive decision making[11]. Skydiving, which can cause similar euphoric sensations to certain illegal drugs, causes more deaths than marijuana, yet jumping out of a plane remains completely legal and we certainly do not live in a world overrun by skydivers.
Society tends to blame marijuana as well when addicts upgrade to harsher drugs. In fact, more cocaine users smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol before using cocaine than used marijuana, so the so-called "gateway" argument applies more to beer, whiskey and cigarettes than it does to marijuana. When marijuana usage increased in the 1960s and 1970s, heroin use declined rapidly and when cocaine use increased in the 1980s, marijuana use declined. There is no correlation between a cocaine user and a marijuana user; they are like wine drinkers versus beer drinkers, but our society continues to trust their moral leaders over statistics and data.
Addiction to any drug is a very serious issue which should not be taken lightly but it shouldn’t be treated as an immoral choice that only elicits jail time. Problematic drug use should be dealt with like any other addiction—with treatment. We should not spend billions of dollars on prisons to simply accommodate addicts. Governmental licensing practices and regulations used currently for alcohol and prescription drugs should be used on narcotics as well. Alcohol has many regulations: the legal age to drink is 21, citizens cannot drive while drunk, citizens cannot be in public places while intoxicated and citizens cannot operate heavy machinery, to name a few. To sell alcohol, a business must meet certain preconditions before applying for a license and must renew their license every year to ensure compliance with any new regulations. Prescription drugs have similar regulations and so do cigarettes. The “legalize-it” portion of the world will also be faced with the sad truth that drugs are addictive and harmful when overused, but the fight is not legality—the fight is regulation.
The ultimate goal of the Great Regulators should not be on personal economic gains or other egotistical, selfish possessions but equality for all humans. The freedom to posses will guide humanity towards a safer, more humane world, not one led by confinement and punishment. Better education can lead to an improved perception of addiction and its problems, lending an ear to the addict and their freedom of choice. Humans must also rise out of the shadows of the moral oppressors and use the freedom of expression to take back the civil liberties society once held so dear. And the ultimate freedom, the freedom to survive, will be a right born into every citizen regardless of background. The Great Regulators of the future will pass laws based on science while providing safer alternatives to the expensive, violent and corrupted, valued-based system currently in use.
This is tomorrow—and I imagine that next week will look even better.
------------------------------------------------------
[1] Nolan, Hamilton. “Five Way Camel Cigarettes Are Good For You.” Gawker.com. 19 Jun. 2008. Gawker Media. 7 Dec. 2008
[2] Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937)
[3] “Schedules of Controlled Substances.” Title 21 U.S. Code, Sec. 812 Chapter 13. Subchapter I. Part B. Sec. 812
[4] R. MacCoun and P. Reuter. “Evaluating alternative cannabis regimes.” British Journal of Psychiatry 178 (2001): 123-128.
[5] Abrahamson, Daniel. “Request for Title and Summary from Propsed Initiative” 7 Dec. 2008
[6] E. Single. “The Impact of Marijuana Decriminalization: An Update.” Journal of Public Health 10 (1989): 456-466.
[7] D. Weatherburn and C. Jones. 2001. “Does prohibition deter cannabis use?” New South Wales (Australia) Bureau of Crime Statistics: Sydney.
[8] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, National Evaluation Data Services, The Cost and Benefits of Substance Abuse Treatment: Findings From the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study, August 1999.
[9] National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (IOM). 1999. “Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base.” National Academy Press: Washington, D.C., 102.
[10] E. Single et al. “The Impact of Cannabis Decriminalisation in Australia and the United States. “ Journal of Public Health Policy 21 (2000): 157-186.
[11] Z. Xiao. “Addiction & Treatment” Journal of Substance Use 13.6 (2008): 415-33
-
Saturday, May 23
Velodrome Field in 1994
Here's a summary I wrote for an English class about my Lollapollaza trip in 1994. Please keep in mind that I was under strict guidelines on what "style" the piece had to be. So this summary is a bit over-the-top and dramatic.
At Velodrome Field in Los Angeles, a vast open space in California’s Dominguez Hills, at the height of the grunge rock movement in music in 1994 was held a concert featuring a plethora of alternative rock bands.
Cars and people packed the parking lot. Groups of fans wandered through the dirt and grass lot, smoked cigarettes and chatted about which bands they were exited to see and what events they wanted to attend. Most people dressed in ripped jeans with flannel shirts wrapped around their waists and most people proudly wore dirty T-shirts with the name of their favorite band on the front.
We arrived to Velodrome Field in the early morning of a very hot, sunny day and walked to the entrance. While we waited in line near the gated entrance, a security guard asked everyone to unload and throw out any weapons, opened alcohol containers, illegal drugs and water bottles. We had no choice and threw out all of our water.
We then entered Velodrome Field. Hundreds of fans walked around the field, looking at the different booths filled with artwork, stickers, tobacco pipes, and food. The aroma of burnt animal flesh was intense. Chicken, beef, and pork were all cooked in small smoky huts, served and consumed by the hungry masses. As we entered the main stage area, people played hacky-sack, smoked cigarettes and waited for the music to start. We settled in about a hundred yards from the main stage in the middle of the field. Everyone laid or sat on the field, some came prepared with towels to protect their exposed skin from the prickly grass.
We waited anxiously for the show to start. On the main stage a few people checked the equipment and mumbled into the microphones checking sound levels. The sun beat down on the crowd of thousands for hours. Many people, frustrated at the delays, threw beer cans on the stage and other fans smoked marijuana or drank alcohol they smuggled in their clothes to help pass the time.
As we continued to talk amongst ourselves, the first band arrived on stage and the crowd erupted. Fans hurriedly rose off the grass and rushed the stage, ran through groups of people still gathering their items and knocked over coolers, food and children as they hurried to the front. I just barely let go hold of my friends arm and I found myself in the middle of a body slamming violent mosh-pit. I was pushed and slammed in every way and thrown towards people, even young children. I tried desperately to escape but the louder the band played the more violent and aggressive the crowd became.
As the crowd screamed and roared along with the band, I was a helpless ragdoll being pummeled by the crowd. As I hit the ground face first into a pile of dust and dirt, I saw children being dragged away from the roaring masses, through the legs of the raucous crowd, screaming and yelling for the mayhem to cease long enough so they could escape. Mothers clutched their children tightly in their arms; heads protected and ran towards the back of the field for safety.
I finally found an open grass area and escaped from the crazy mob. I couldn’t see my friends anymore; I lost her in the crowd. I searched for my friends for hours. As each band rose to the stage I became more and more dehydrated. I found a place to rest on a covered bench next to a free water station and napped. I awoke to the sound of loud fans whizzing by me at lightning speed as the headline band of the night loaded the stage. After the show, I headed toward the entrance of the field and waited for my friends to show. Finally my group of friends emerged from out of the crowd, angry that I “left” them in the morning.
They had a completely different experience than I did. They enjoyed the entire concert, bellies full of water and food as I struggled to survive the heat, of the grunge rock movement.
-
At Velodrome Field in Los Angeles, a vast open space in California’s Dominguez Hills, at the height of the grunge rock movement in music in 1994 was held a concert featuring a plethora of alternative rock bands.
Cars and people packed the parking lot. Groups of fans wandered through the dirt and grass lot, smoked cigarettes and chatted about which bands they were exited to see and what events they wanted to attend. Most people dressed in ripped jeans with flannel shirts wrapped around their waists and most people proudly wore dirty T-shirts with the name of their favorite band on the front.
We arrived to Velodrome Field in the early morning of a very hot, sunny day and walked to the entrance. While we waited in line near the gated entrance, a security guard asked everyone to unload and throw out any weapons, opened alcohol containers, illegal drugs and water bottles. We had no choice and threw out all of our water.
We then entered Velodrome Field. Hundreds of fans walked around the field, looking at the different booths filled with artwork, stickers, tobacco pipes, and food. The aroma of burnt animal flesh was intense. Chicken, beef, and pork were all cooked in small smoky huts, served and consumed by the hungry masses. As we entered the main stage area, people played hacky-sack, smoked cigarettes and waited for the music to start. We settled in about a hundred yards from the main stage in the middle of the field. Everyone laid or sat on the field, some came prepared with towels to protect their exposed skin from the prickly grass.
We waited anxiously for the show to start. On the main stage a few people checked the equipment and mumbled into the microphones checking sound levels. The sun beat down on the crowd of thousands for hours. Many people, frustrated at the delays, threw beer cans on the stage and other fans smoked marijuana or drank alcohol they smuggled in their clothes to help pass the time.
As we continued to talk amongst ourselves, the first band arrived on stage and the crowd erupted. Fans hurriedly rose off the grass and rushed the stage, ran through groups of people still gathering their items and knocked over coolers, food and children as they hurried to the front. I just barely let go hold of my friends arm and I found myself in the middle of a body slamming violent mosh-pit. I was pushed and slammed in every way and thrown towards people, even young children. I tried desperately to escape but the louder the band played the more violent and aggressive the crowd became.
As the crowd screamed and roared along with the band, I was a helpless ragdoll being pummeled by the crowd. As I hit the ground face first into a pile of dust and dirt, I saw children being dragged away from the roaring masses, through the legs of the raucous crowd, screaming and yelling for the mayhem to cease long enough so they could escape. Mothers clutched their children tightly in their arms; heads protected and ran towards the back of the field for safety.
I finally found an open grass area and escaped from the crazy mob. I couldn’t see my friends anymore; I lost her in the crowd. I searched for my friends for hours. As each band rose to the stage I became more and more dehydrated. I found a place to rest on a covered bench next to a free water station and napped. I awoke to the sound of loud fans whizzing by me at lightning speed as the headline band of the night loaded the stage. After the show, I headed toward the entrance of the field and waited for my friends to show. Finally my group of friends emerged from out of the crowd, angry that I “left” them in the morning.
They had a completely different experience than I did. They enjoyed the entire concert, bellies full of water and food as I struggled to survive the heat, of the grunge rock movement.
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Friday, May 22
And now random thoughts...
- Instead of stating falsities about gay marriage, the Republican chief wants to change the message to: "Gay marriage would burden small businesses with extra insurance, health care costs." Even though I think whatever burden it may cause is worth the freedom it gains, I like this type of speech better than any others I've heard.
- "People don't elect Presidents who tell them to sacrifice, they elect Presidents who solve problems so they don't have to sacrifice." - Newt Gingrich, soon-be-front runner for a republican congressional seat. -- Since when did Republicans think government, especially a President, is the answer (savior, if you will) for all citizens? I thought they wanted personal individual responsibility and a communal effort?
- Here's a list of the top ten movie misquotes that we all continue to say. I've got a friend with the name Luke, and I wonder if the Darth Vader misquote ever gets to him.
- People who say "lighten up" to ones that are offended by racial comments need to shut up. Certainly some take "offense" too far, but little is solved if you don't atleast engage in a conversation. The Washington "RedSkins" has always bothered American Indians, but people just told them to shut up and they had no majority backing to properly handle their complaints (yes, bigots are mostly in the majority). Now some in the majority are starting to realize that we wouldn't have a Washington "Blackskins" or a Washington "Brownskins" team would we? And the term "brave" or "warrior" or "Chief" to an American Indian is similar to using terms like "deacon", "priest" or "pope"... So here's to the next Los Angeles football team: "The L.A. Blackskin Priests"
- The "freedom" that our men and women are fighting will mostly go to the corporations. The individual gets the scraps of freedom that are left.
- U.S. defense chief lauds soldier in pink boxers. Cue every gay-in-the-military joke possible. Jay Leno will have many and all of them will suck.
- I worship principles not people.
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