A Thing is a Thing is a Thing is a Thing

A drug is a drug is a drug is a drug. Some drugs are herbal, some mineral, some chemical. You want this or that drug "legalized," for this, that or the other personal reason, that's fine, I guess, but legalization of any potent, behavior and/or mind altering substance doesn't make it any less of a drug. Likewise, the failure of Prohibition doesn't mean that alcohol was never a drug. The mere fact that Prohibition was implemented in the United States in the first place, shows that alcohol is very often a very harmful socially acceptable drug.

It also strongly suggests that most human beings don't exercise self control very well. That's people for ya!  If no one abused chemical or herbal substances, like nicotine, marijuana and alcohol, every damn thing would be totally legal!  Like shooting little kids and teachers.... Uh-huh. That would be legal, too, but... thank God, it isn't! Because, likewise, a gun is a gun is a gun is a gun. Though, sure... some guns are bigger or smaller than others. And some drugs are less beneficial or more harmful than others.

Either way, the sudden entry into the human body of a small lead projectile pretty much has the same effect on all human beings, see. Regardless of age, race, sex, nationality, etc, etc, ALL. Yes, the sudden introduction of a high velocity lead (or even rubber) projectile into the human body either seriously harms or even... kills the host. Bullets don't discriminate when entering human flesh, and neither do drugs. But at least drugs don't kill ya, right? Uh... some do. Sorry! Okay, but at least most drugs don't enter the human body at high velocity, right? And that's a plus, right? Yes, and... no.  The effects of some more or even less potent "recreational" drugs take literally years to fully manifest in the human body. Look it up! I'll wait.

But that's the world we live in, kids. Human beings do bad things with otherwise harmless stuff sometimes. Yes, as sad as it may in fact be, many people simply do not use things (and themselves, or even other people) in a very responsible way. Hence, the need for governmental regulation and sometimes, even the outright ban of certain things that people tend to so often misuse. And it's not good fodder for conspiracy theories, or anyone trying to poop your party. It's just bad old human beings doing things they really shouldn't do, with otherwise beneficial stuff.

Like rocks, for example. Rocks are just rocks. A rock is a rock is a rock is a rock. People build sturdy, beneficial things with rocks. Rocks are good for all mankind! That is, until... some nasty, emotional human or primate ('cause they have opposable thumbs, too) picks up a rock and uses it to suddenly and quite gruesomely and violently bludgeon someone else to death. Then... the freedom to use and abuse rocks suddenly becomes, not a rock problem, but a behavioral problem.

And I really wish all this talk about the abuse and misuse of otherwise good stuff, was a lot more conspiracy theory style entertaining, or damning of authority figures in general, than it honestly really is. But... sorry, it honestly really just... isn't.

And legal or illegal, alcohol and other potentially fun things that people really love to use and abuse, don't really cause any problems (as the age old argument goes). The people who consume large (or even sometimes small quantities of them - because the effect of ANY drug, including caffeine varies, based on individual body chemistry) is what gives any potentially beneficial drug a very bad name.  And likewise, yes, every single time some bad human shoots up (yes, shoots up - a little drug pun for ya there) a school full of little (or even big) kids, a lot of people are gonna seriously think real, real hard, yet again, about taking everyone's "rights" away from them. Go figure.

So I guess the moral of the story is: Control thyself, young man (or woman)! Or somebody else will.  And you can count on that.

It's Not the 80s Anymore, But... I STILL SAY, "HELL NO TO DRUGS!"

One thing that's been bugging the hell out of me recently is this whole "legalization" issue that's taking America by storm. Some dude from a country north of my own, who also has a Korean wife, who also lives in the same slummy, littered up Korean high rise my wife and I are on a loooong government waiting list to get out of, recently "friended" me on Facebook. And in person, unfortunately. But I didn't find out exactly what his agenda was until it was too late. Unfortunately.

It always seemed like every damn conversation was about hemp! Hemp, hemp, hemp, man! Hemp, hemp hooray! Grass. Pot. Pud! Okay. Yes, Mr. Canuck, I do know that George Washington, the father of my country, grew hemp. In fact, in all those years on his plantation, he probably oversaw the growth of all sorts of your beloved ("My precious!") hemp. Actually, he farmed it, see. So people could make cloth and rope and useful stuff like that, see.

But that doesn't fit snugly enough into our little agenda, now does it?

But maybe... just maybe... good old George didn't sit around toking up all damn day in his mother's basement. And maybe he never baked it in brownies and spent days or just hours laughing it up with Martha while they had a curious case of "the munchies." And it's not like pot smoking could really impair your driving skills in "the olden days," now could it? All you could really crash was a horse or two. And maybe the family buggy. But maybe... just maybe... there simply weren't as many people sitting around trying to get high in the late 18th century!

Ever think of any of that, dude?

Maybe people in British colonial times weren't trying to use "medicinal purposes" as an excuse to stick it to "the man." Whatever... man... that may be. I don't think, even since the drugged up glorious 60s, we've yet learned just exactly which man it was that all the hippies were sticking it to. Nixon?  Sorry. Nice try, but he resigned in disgrace. And he's been dead for a while, you know. Psst! Put the roach clip down and read a current newspaper. Maybe? Might help.

But damn! I mean, we were just getting to the point where a lot of people around the world are beginning to realize that it's just not fair to make everyone around you second hand smoke tobacco, just because, when you were maybe 10 to 12 years old, which research clearly shows is when people become addicted to this very toxic drug - when they are still children, for God's sake!

So now, you want to legalize something else that, when smoked, is harmful to the Ozone Layer?   Crikey! Is everybody dumber than ever these days? Crazier, maybe.

Okay. Sure, "legalize it!" Let chemists extract the beneficial, non stupidity inducing parts of good old Mary Jane and put it in pharmaceuticals, just like every other potent drug that should be regulated and used responsibly (as in, not recreationally).

I mean, come on, people! Tell all this happy hemp crap to some dummy who is buying. On the corner. Or in the alley. From the dude who's probably also been selling Crystal Meth for quite a while, too.