I am beginning a book called The Myth of Insanity. I will report on this, how we define insanity–which is attached to the way we treat drug addiction.

Am

In Holland they have been able to wean people off of herion by helping them to get a financial handle on their lives. They do not have to carry the additional financial monkey on their back.

I don’t know–I did not know LSD is addictive, but they say Cocaine really grabs ya (I heard Richard Prior talk about that one). Heroin? I don’t know about that one either. Maybe the myth is that drug addicts can function normally?

Bruce

“yet it is impossible for a person to start a Heroin, LSD or Cocaine habit and not become critically addicted”

There is much evidence at hand to debunk this myth. The addiction is not usually related to the substance but is more due to a psychogical or emotional problem for the addict. It also can be environmental. I’ll have to look it up, but I believe it was Dartmouth medical school who conducted a ground breaking study on this in the eighties.

As far as impacting society, alcoholism and tobacco addictions take a far greater toll. It depends upon what currency we are talking about.

“I believe this has nothing to do with worries about making Meth, but to track those who buy the drugs–another fascist move.”

I agree… It’s a known fact that people with allergies are a menace to society.

To group Heroin, LSD and Cocaine in the same category as alcohol exhibits a lack of understanding of these drugs. While certianly some folks have a propensity toward alcholism, the majority of people do not; yet it is impossible for a person to start a Heroin, LSD or Cocaine habit and not become critically addicted. Those addictions have implications that hurt far more than the addict or even the addicts family. These addictions impact all of society, the economy, crime, etc.

I have never been stoned (I have to qualify that–but I did inhale) so I wouldn’t know if it incites anger. I was well-acquainted with a person who smoked, and he had a temper
(whether pot induced or not, I don’t know).

Bruce

Why not legalize hemp based drugs? What are the issues at stake here? Have you ever heard of anyone getting stoned on pot and then beating there wife or kids? Pot doesn’t incite someone to anger like alcohol does. How many victims of rape or spousal abuse can be thankful that it is good Mexican weed that is illegal and not Smirnoff or Miller Lite?

What are we afraid of… terminal munchies?

(For the record, I don’t use marijuana.)

I watched a program on one of the historic channels. The program discussed the way in which drugs were placed on the categories–Marijuana, LSD, and Heroin are class 1 drugs–prescription drugs are class 2, and OTC are class 3.

Other than LSD and Heroin, the placing of the Class 1 drugs can be interpreted as arbitrary. There are scads of substances, not only alcohol, that are legal and easily obtained.

The new thing is to pull ampetamine based OTCs such as Sudafed behind the counter. I believe this has nothing to do with worries about making Meth, but to track those who buy the drugs–another fascist move.

All of this goes back to Nixon pronouncing a War on Drugs as we fought in Vietnam.

My solution? I’m not sure about totally legalizing hemp based drugs, but this needs to be looked at seriously. We have been victims of confiscation of a vehicle under relatively minor circumstances (we may or may not lose the car). What offends me, beyond the car being seized without due process, is the attitude of the state police–they simply took the car Because they Could.

Bruce

Is this “war” on drugs even constitutional?

Seriously, Fascism is Fascism. Terrorists, as we label them, are not after the formation of a police state. They are after disrupting our free societies. BTW–Our friends in the Muslim world–Turkey, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malasia, fit the definitions of Fascism more than any of those to whom GWB confers the title.

I heard the ridiculous things that are illegal in Singapore–where some prostitution is legal–such as gum chewing in public. We scoff, yet they scoff at our relative lawlessness.

Anyway, GWB and Cheney’s speech writers try and play on fear through certain buzz terms, like fascism. They know that Joe Average won’t check his Webster’s or his history to see this distinction. Fortunately, only about 35% of the public buys the rhetoric.

Bruce