Oct. 27, 2003 - 17:23 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Reality

For a time the current philosophy of the young folks was plainly put, "Question authority," by Golly, I think maybe that philosophy was in existence in 1776 too. We not only questioned authority we rebelled against it then.

At this late age I won't even try to question it, but suspect its motives and operational procedures I will.

I guess as a country we have been building prisons, staffing them to hold those who were caught with a bit of Maryjane. Hah, I remember a film way back when I was a kid that depicted a person who used marijauna turning into a violent, raving, maniac. That tack didn't work either.

But you know, we gotta keep the politicians at work and appoint "Czars" (sheesh what a media term), to fight the battle of drug control, and train and hire more and more law enforcement folk as well as all the extra paper shuffling people to "keep track" of what is going on. And the numerous prisons that have been expanded and new ones built are super multiple just to house said people, pot houses one might say !

So there are x number of people in prison who are not working for a living, paying taxes and helping to raise their children because they were potted by the law.

In many ways, I have been there, done that addiction bit. I was a rank alcoholic who with help, dried out and came back to the life of the living. A coffeeholic, one pot after another. And then I was a member of the most addicted class in the world from what I have read many places, a nicotine addict. Hard and fast I was. On a gurney in the emergency room with a broken neck and wearing a halo and open air hospital skivvies and nothing else I hopped down and headed for the street to try to bum a cigarette from a pedestrian.

But, you know, I didn't serve time for being a nicotine addict, nor do people serve time for being alcoholic (other than those who harm some one else), prison time isn't imposed on those who are food addicts, those who are sweets addicts, the coffeeholics, addictive gamblers and the rest.

Remembering the reading I have done at various times, I read where Coca Cola had cocaine in it, where many women's medications like Lydia Pinkham's were loaded with alcohol and other drugs and other things were allowed too, back then. The days back when, and not too long ago on the time line, a person was allowed to go to hell by their own method, and material readily at hand.

I don't think the number of addicted was ever extremely high, or even high. I do however believe that the Chicken Littles of the country sqawked loud and long citing "x" numbers of people afflicted, "x" numbers of people dead and "x" crimes of violence done by those under the influence of whatever.

I agree with some measure of control, such as the mandatory control of the age to consume alcoholic beverages, blood alcohol level testing in regard to driving a car. Things like that. I know not whether the information on crack cocaine is for true or another propagandistic ploy. But I do know from personal experience that marijuana is not addictive, at least not to me it wasn't. I did not make a practice of using it frequently but did ingest it in one way or another, smoking, in brownies and in iced tea, several times close together and never became the raving maniac as depicted nor worse off than a person who had a few beers nor did I become addicted.

Sure there are health hazards just as there are health hazards in over eating, overdrinking, over using over the counter medicines and practicing the very addictive habit of being a couch potato.

So, now, beware actors and retired actors who once played a villain or law breaker of any kind, from pirates on down and up. You may have to serve time because of the roles you once played.

A columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, Deroy Murdock has a column October 27th 2003 titled, Drug war has gone to pot

I will only quote some of the column, but I think it points out the idiocy of some of our policies. He starts the column out, "Comedian Tommy Chong began a nine-month federal prison sentence on October 7 for operating a glass-blowing shop that sold pipes to marijuana smokers. Prosecutors were not impressed that his Nice Dreams Enterprises marketed a morally neutral product. Chong's pipes, after all, could be used with loose-leaf tobacco, just as any stoner in an Armani suit can smoke pot in a lawful Dunhill Meerschaum."

The column goes on, "In fact, as the Los Angeles Times reported October 10, Assistant U.S. Attorner Mary Houghton's court pleadings sought Chong's harsh punishment because he got rich "glamorizing the illegal distribution and use of marijuana" in films that "trivialize law enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking and use."

The article although dealing with serious things has come up with some hilarious comments. "Chong must have wondered when such activities became criminal. Perhaps the FBI now will arrest Sean Penn for hilariously smoking grass in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Then they can handcuff Denzel Washington for portraying a crooked narcotics officer in Training Day".

There is more, "At last the Homeland is secure from Chong, a 65-year-old comic whose merchandie spared potheads from fumbling with rolling papers. Could there be any greater triumph for public safety than that ? And in this peaceful world and placid nation, taxpayers can rest assured that officials are using their hard-earned cash as wisely as possible."

My words here, I was smoking and was rolling my own for years as I couldn't see spending my money for commercial tailor made cigarettes. Then suddenly the little devices for rolling cigarettes disappeared from supermarket shelves, the aprons were no longer available to replace the worn ones in the device. Cigarette papers all but vanished.

Back to the column of Deroy Murdock, "Recall that Chong and 54 others were busted in Operation Pipe Dreams, a February 24 crackdown on the drug paraphernalia industry. That project involved 1200 local, state and federal authorities, the Drug Enforcement Administration estimates. These professional sleuths could have pursued al-Qaida instead, but what would that have accomplished ?

Then Mr. Murdock gets serious. He says, "It is neither compassionate nor conservative for the Bush Administration to use government force to stop cancer and AIDS sufferers, among others, from smoking marijuana to make their final days on Earth less excruciating. The U.S. Supreme Court evidently agrees. On October 14, the Supremes let stand a 9th Circuit Court decision blocking federal efforts to yank the prescription-writing licenses of doctors who recommend medical marijuana to patients."

In the column Mr. Murdock quotes, "All seriousness aside, as funnyman Steve Allen often said, 'federal drug warriors keep embarrassing themselves by enforcing pointless, oppressive policies that merely ignite tax dollars as if with a Zippo lighter'."

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Not just drugs but in other areas things have been tightened up for years. Here in Denver, car dealers cannot be open on Sundays. Drinking of alcoholic beverages cuts off early on Sunday night, wonder why ? Is it because the commercial entities fear that maybe folks would come into work hung over ? I guess for the same reason liquor stores must not be open on Sunday. Most any adult who wishes to can skirt those liquor things, just lay in a supply of booze to last the entire weekend. Car dealers have a Sabbath to rest, but those private individuals who advertise cars for sale in the classified sections of the newspapers go ahead and make their deals any time, whether it is Sunday or a holiday or both together.

Are we a paranoid nation ? Or a schizophrenic one ? On one hand people are encouraged to slip across our borders by the rich and commercial elements and the immigration laws are flaunted because of that I think. It is rather obvious to me that we are a nation in conflict with itself.

There is maybe hope yet, in recent years Hospice care will use whatever drugs will give relief from pain in quantites sufficient to actually relieve it, whenever it is needed. No more is the use proscribed because "they might be addictive." Still there are people dying in other lands because no longer can people from this country counsel on planned parenthood, nor can condoms be recommended, things like that which indicate that we are trying to go in two or more directions simutaneously. I don't think that the "morning after drug" can be used, even here, yet -- you know folks, that is called abortion.

So as mixed up as I am and we are, in my delirium - my question is, what is Reality ? . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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