by Mr. W
The lack of clarity in the public mind about what comprises responsible use or abuse of a drug is a perpetual problem for me and millions of others -- especially meek users who have been jailed with violent offenders because they had a plant that our Mighty Freedom-Loving Government disapproves off. We have wasted millions, maybe billions, telling kids to say "no" to drugs -- but we don't go another step to explain why Mom has to go to the drugstore every week. Or why Dad drinks so much coffee. Or why the cigarette industry proves to even the most strict libertarians that a little government oversight might help keep companies from pushing their powerful smokable stimulants on young people. No, Americans enjoy a strange type of hypocrisy whereby they can get downers and uppers from a commercial pharmacopeia that is larger than any in human history -- while we look down at the junkie or the stoner next door.
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ReplyDeleteIn your opening paragraph above you point out how at odds our society is with itself. On the one hand the Henny-Penny's of the world are running around terrorized of "addictions" (and "addicts"), but on the other hand nearly every advertisement tries to lead us into temptation and suck us into never-ending relationship with their product(s).
Just this past weekend I caught some cooking shows and was astounded at how much like "drug pushers" they sounded. Almost every cook extolled how great their preparation was and how us viewers would want to make it and eat it as often as we could.
We live in a society where even (mostly) innocuous activities and foods are promoted as life-changing, something we need to do constantly, something we should be "addicted" to and bring others in to the fold.
It's my belief that we really need to begin with young children to teach them to resist the onslaught of marketing. They need to be taught, from K-12th grade, to scrutinize the claims they are constantly bombarded with.
Then if upon graduating from HS they wish to go over to the dark side and become professional marketers in the incessant race to make everyone a slave to their pimp, at least society has tried to encourage them to market honestly.
Someone with power, like President Barack Obama, needs to give the self-righteous knee-jerk reactionaries a real public tongue lashing, like was delivered to Senator McCarthy. The drug warriors, their Draconian and Byzantine practices, and their millions of followers and profiteers need to be expunged from society.
Clearly marijuana has a myriad of uses, and if we could only get our act together it has the potential to be what whales and polar bears are to the Eskimos! We could benefit from the many aspects of the plant, using nearly every part of it, and what's left goes in the compost pile and is used for mulch.