Drugs
Violence is a drug-- a bad drug:
On the other hand, interestingly, marijuana contains natural health promoting chemicals:
When you ingest the poison of violence, even in a just cause, it corrupts, deforms and perverts you. Violence is a drug, indeed it is the most potent narcotic known to humankind. Those most addicted to violence are those who have access to weapons and a penchant for force. And these killers rise to the surface of any armed movement and contaminate it with the intoxicating and seductive power that comes with the ability to destroy. I have seen it in war after war. When you go down that road you end up pitting your monsters against their monsters. And the sensitive, the humane and the gentle, those who have a propensity to nurture and protect life, are marginalized and often killed. The romantic vision of war and violence is as prevalent among anarchists and the hard left as it is in the mainstream culture. Those who resist with force will not defeat the corporate state or sustain the cultural values that must be sustained if we are to have a future worth living. From my many years as a war correspondent in El Salvador, Guatemala, Gaza and Bosnia, I have seen that armed resistance movements are always mutations of the violence that spawned them.
On the other hand, interestingly, marijuana contains natural health promoting chemicals:
Scientists have begun speculating that the root cause of disease conditions such as migraines and irritable bowel syndrome may be endocannabinoid deficiency.
posted by spooked at 9:31 AM
7 Comments:
Far more people die as the result of
taking legal drugs than people who use illegal drugs.
TV commercials for Rx drugs are much more scary than the old "this is your brain on drugs" commercials. It's difficult to understand why anyone would even NEED to ask their Dr. if drug "ABC" is "right" for them, once you hear the long list of side effects that often include death.
Illegal drugs are safe if used in moderation. LEGAL drugs can kill you even if used as prescribed.
For these and other reasons, it's easy to make a case for BANNING and criminalizing the use of most of the more heavily advertised drugs, but I challenge anyone who reads this comment to give a rational argument for maintaining the criminalization of drugs that are presently illegal.
I'll wait, but I won't hold my breath.
well i think some illegal drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy are better off remaining illegal - these drugs are made from poisonous substances in dangerous basement laboratories by half-assed "chemists".
the physical toll that "crank" (methamphetamine) takes on the human body after prolonged use is horrendous.
been there, done that, wish i could go back in time and undo it.
If meth and X aren't "right" for you,
leave 'em alone, and if you wish to preach to others not to do what you did, that's OK by me...but that's not a good reason to make them illegal.
Using that logic, one could argue for the criminalization of all kinds of things that people ingest - from the most dangerous intoxicant of all, demon alcohol, to tobacco, to red meat, fast food,
sodas etc.
If illegal drugs weren't -- they could be regulated so that they were less likely to contain truly harmful substances.
I agree with you that using Meth for prolonged periods of time can't be good for you. I don't know anything about Ecstacy, so all I can say about IT is that I've never heard or read a rational argument for criminalizing it.
People have always used intoxicants. It's only been in fairly recent history that governments have criminalized certain ones, and I'm sure most people here are familiar with lies and propaganda used to justify
laws and imprisonment penalties for those who are caught, prosecuted, and convicted for their use, possession, sale.
preaching huh. is that what i was doing?
i don't know anything about X either, other than doctors have stated that it is the most dangerous of illegal drugs by far.
there is legal clean amphetamine "speed" available as prescribed by a neurologist or psychiatrist but good luck obtaining that - my neurologist said no way.
anyway, they are already illegal so if you want them legalized then it falls on you to to give a rational argument for legalization, and not vice-versa.
i think marijuana should be legalized but i don't look forward to sharing the road with a bunch of pot-head drivers any more than i would with a bunch of speed-freak drivers, much less drivers under the influence of LSD.
What kind of medical condition do you have for which amphetamines are
prescribed? I know that people with brain damage are sometimes given amphetamines. I used to be a teacher at a school for brain-injured and emotionally disturbed children, and lots of them were taking amphetamines per prescription.
In your case, it sounds like your condition is not one left over from childhood. Was it something you ate or something that's eating YOU. Was there foul play afoot,
5:19 PM. Did you try to self-medicate yourself for a prolonged period of time?
I suspect there's quite a story there. Am I right about that?
i think that hyper-active kids are/were prescribed a mild form of speed but i really can't imagine any medical scenario that would be improved by such a powerful stimulant.
i have had Multiple Sclerosis for about 9 years now - most doctors think that MS is developed from a virus but i am positive that my MS is a result of my having taken the illegal meth-amphetamine very heavily and regularly for a good decade or so - i think that my immune system fought so hard against the constant invasion of the drug that when i stopped using the drug my immune system was still running full-tilt and had nothing to attack but my body (MS is when the immune system attacks the nervous system).
after i was diagnosed with MS i asked my neurologist if he would prescribe some legal over the counter speed for me, because honestly there is nothing quite as awesome as the physical feeling of speeding thru life, but he refused.
anyway, i am relatively fine now and will probably outlive my usefullness.
Glad you're okay, but the fact that you believe you acquired MS from having abused speed is not a good reason to make it illegal.
Plenty of people abuse all kinds of things, but what you choose to consume should be nobody's business but your own. You may recall something about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", yes?
Lots of people drive too fast for conditions. Should it therefore be illegal to possess, use, or sell an automobile that is capable of exceeding the highest posted speed limit?
In a free society, the citizens should be able to do pretty much what they want to do as long as they don't do harm to others.
I don't want anyone telling me what I can eat, drink, chew, snort,
or smoke. That's nobody's business but my own.
The government doesn't have the right to imprison ignorant, stupid, or even obnoxiously mean people. Nor should it have that right.
In a free society, the presumption should favor liberty, not repression...of actual self-abuse or even POTENTIAL self-abuse.
P.S. I might be willing to make an exception in your case, because it sounds like you may have been woefully lacking in self-discipline -- but would YOU or society have been better off if you had been locked up for many years and branded as a felon, forever...with all its devastating consequences to so many aspects of your life?
If you feel you should have been, fine. But, that doesn't give you or anyone else the right to say that because YOU had a monkey on your back, you and anyone else who does should be branded a criminal and locked up in a Gulag facility.
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