I have a perverse (can I say that) tendency to get dopers justifying their habit.
I always like the argument about alcohol being just as bad.
Of course no one thinks that MJ is a gateway drug for harder stuff–even if it seems to be, since the dopers never admit to going that way.
I take care of a jail so I am not familiar with the joys, just the problems of drugs.
William Murchison is just an old fart who probably thinks alcohol is the farthest out people should go, a man who doesn’t appreciate the drugs sex and rock and roll lifestyle choice–why not some hashish, mescaline, cocaine, heroine, LSD to punctuate your steady diet of marijuana?
Remember marijuana makes pain go away and improves appetite and hangs around so it can change your life. Toke anyone?
http://spectator.org/articles/57649/america-goes-pot
And then in the wake of the tragic heroin overdose of a great screen artist (I am told) Phillip Seymour Hoffman, we get a discussion of addiction by Mr. Ryan. He says some stupid things, like we are all addicted to something, nice relativistic BS, and heroin addicts can’t kick it, but I know different.
http://spectator.org/blog/57656/we-cant-solve-drug-addiction
May I remind you what Theodore Dalrymple says in his writings on opiates–he is an eloquent and knowledgeable prison and poverty neighborhood psychiatrist.
Dalrymple says that there is a nonsensical opiate mythological status in the arts. They aren’t what they are cracked up to be and the choice to use opiates is part of a lifestyle thing, criminality leads to opiates not the other way round.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/romancingopiates/
My experience is that the author of the Spectator piece on addiction is wrong on opiate addiction, most addicts quit before they hit late middle age–and cold turkey is not such a big deal as the movies and lit people say. I also am convinced there are weekend users, who dabble but don’t become addicts.
I trained at Harlem Hospital, 1000 beds at 135th and Lenox–1971-72 when heroin was still the drug of choice for street users, cocaine didn’t come along until the 80s for widespread use and I caught the cocaine thing when I was practicing in Florida and cocaine was all the rage.
I didn’t see as many medical complications from Cocaine as Heroin. The magnitude of cocaine use is not reflected in medical care records.
So at Harlem we did cold turkey all the time for our declared heroin users and they didn’t suffer like Frank Sinatra in Man with a Golden Arm, that’s nonsense. They get itchy, yawny and feel like they have a mild flu. That’s it except for missing the zoned out experience.
they’re =their
How embarrasing 🙂
The problem with the abuse of the word “addicted” is the implication that you can’t stop. I’m sure you could give up coffee if you really wanted to. Yes there would be real physiological withdrawal symptoms like headache, and sluggishness for maybe up to 9 days, but that’s a far cry from the extreme version sold by the media. It certainly doesn’t mean you’re incapable of stopping on your own.
The real reason most people don’t stop drinking coffee or smoking cigarettes or doing drugs is simply that they don’t want to. It’s no different from sticking to a reasonable diet or exercising three times a week. Psychological addiction is a convenient excuse for people to keep acting the way they want to act without feeling guilty. Changing brain chemicals is just what the physiological process of enjoying something is. If we use that definition then you can be addicted to watching sports or playing guitar.
The other side likes the addiction excuse because it allows them to imagine that most people agree with them and we would do what they say is best if we were capable. It justifies they’re need to force people to do “what’s best for us” against our will.
If you need anything to “feel normal”, you are addicted IMHO.
I am addicted to caffeine.
Something that alters your brain chemistry can alter it in permanent ways, especially if you use it while your brain is developing.
The increase in public and government acceptance of pot is leading to increased use by the young and this will increase the numbers that permanently alter their brains.
But think of the children!
The drug war has been a gateway war for so many more wars. Once it has been accepted that the federal government can regulate such things, they can regulate anything they want to. Like light bulbs. And washing machines. And medical care.
Good, bad, it doesn’t matter. It’s none of their business.
Addiction in general has been greatly exaggerated. When tobacco was vilified addiction became the excuse du jour for anyone who didn’t want to suffer through conversations about why they should quit. It’s so much easier to declare yourself physically incapable of doing what society wants than stand up for your decision to do what you want. The addiction myth makes you a victim. You can even sue the people who got you hooked. Addiction is a powerful weapon in the war on personal responsibility.
The concept of personal responsibility is one of the biggest obstacles to statism. That’s why the proponents of the war on drugs made such a big deal out of addiction. Druggies aren’t criminals; they’re the victims. They can’t help themselves. The real criminals are the distributors. That’s why the government needs millions of dollars to fund a militaristic executive agency to stop them. As usual, we are told to look at how noble the cause is rather than examine how effective, or not, the policies are.
Take a look at Marijuana, Gateway To Health a book by Clint Werner that reports on (mostly repressed) studies/reports on the positive aspects of Marijuana and/or THC (the one of the active ingredients). It also reports on its use at San Francisco General Hospital in treatment of Aids patients and others.
While the writer of “Doper Alert” states he works in a prison, he does not suggest that he might have a distorted view caused by that environment. One of my best friends was an officer with the California Highway Patrol — and his initial posting and with each promotion he was placed back in one of the worst areas of the Los Angeles basin. For several years, he seemed to have a rather negative view of people in general. But once he gained seniority — and moved to a more normal region — his outlook about his fellow humans improved considerably. The environment one works in, can distort the overall view.
FWIW, the prohibition on drugs has done considerable harm to the country over the years and it has cost billions with very little to show for the expense. I personally don’t use or recommend use of recreational drugs. But the efforts of the past 35 years have not accomplished a significant reduction in drug use, has cost a fortune, and has created massive organized crime gangs that will be a problem for decades to come — just like the alcohol prohibition of the 1920s.