INSIDE BOBKAT'S LAIR - Part Three

NO SPECIAL PICTURES FOR THIS ONE... if you want pictures go visit fellow blogger:

Truth For Angels - http://kellilaine.blogspot.com/

Her daughter was around 19, with a driver who was drunk. They died.

***

My first experience with alcohol was nearly the end of my life - at 16.

I lived approx. 30 miles away from my childhood friends... so on some weekends I would get on the city bus and go to town. I stayed over with my grandparents.

This particular night... my friend and I wanted to get drunk. Period. I really don't know why we thought that way, nor can I explain the logic behind it. Getting intoxicated was like becoming an adult.

We both planned this... yes, premeditated - 1970 - I, with my soda bottle filled half with H2O, and whiskey in the mix. My friend smart enough to use part 7-up and whiskey. We met at "the school"... not the place one or two would meet these days, but back then...

Both didn't do what we hoped... mine tasted terrible, and his wasn't much to go around.

The rest of the story - let's just say my first mixed drink was two tall glasses of a mixture of Morgan David Wine, Vermouth, Red Wine, Creme de Mint, maybe more. My friend couldn't touch it. I drank all of it. I became comatose, and for years later... until I turned 50, the most I could drink was two drinks or beers. No, I didn't end up in the hospital. I went back to my grandparents, went to bed... got sick... and blanked out... periodically I came to - saw my parents coming to get me, woke up at home in my bed... lied to my parents that it "must have been the hot-dogs my friend and I ate"... only to wake up again to their telling me my friend was fine and admitted everything.

Grounded for a week... and my new zillion option electronics designer kit came the next day. Grounded.

***

Next up... why legalizing cannabis would be good for this country.

2010 will be a year to look forwards to...

Until then...

Happy New Year :)

INSIDE BOBKAT'S LAIR - Part Two

Today's Headlines on MSNBC:

High expectations? States eye marijuana reform

Link here MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34607453/ns/politics/

and this quote by the -  head of the West Texas High Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area office in El Paso, Texas.:

There's no upside to it (marijuana) in any manner other than for those people who want to smoke pot... There's nothing for society in it, there's nothing good for the country in it, there's nothing for the good of the economy in it. Travis Kuykendall.

***

It's statements like this that concern me. I'd love to see any practical data to support this kind of statement. I've actually researched cannabis for 35 years. Some may say "wasted research", other's may wonder how could someone spend 35 years of their life researching something like "marijuana"?

I must admit... it's frustrating, not because it's a waste of time, it's not - as can be seen now that over a dozen states have legalized/legitimized it to some extent... but still frustrating because the propaganda  that made it a serious criminal offense in the first place was very well orchestrated - well done. What began as "Reefer Madness" took on a self-fulfilling prophesy of it's own. Yet millions of people use it regularly, otherwise law-abiding people... the underground culture of "pot-heads". 

Fact is... most "pot-heads" prefer peace to violence... so unlike the alcoholics of the alcohol prohibition era, "pot-heads" sit quietly in the "closet" and get stoned - often with others in quiet "speak-easy" type social settings. 

The statement by Mr. Travis Kuykendall, is ludicrous... unless used to describe tobacco, which it's only scientifically use is as a third rate pesticide. All tobacco does is kills 100's of thousands people. It's a legally available means to commit a slow, often painful type of suicide... a pretty sure cause of death if smokers wait awhile... they delude themselves often over the years that smoking tobacco is a relaxing, pleasurable activity and habit. As a smoker for over 35 years, having quit for as 3 years now and then, I can attest to the fact it SUCKS! I'd much rather play it safe and smoke a little pot everyday, not a pack or two of cigarettes. Now I buy Bugler's tobacco, and roll my own since the taxes doubled on cigarettes - an effort by the government to encourage us to quit. Yeah... sure thing... I'll do that!!!!!!!!

While I roll another cigarette... my topic for tonight:

***

This post as well as my next one, is about my 1st experiences with tobacco at 12 and alcohol at 16. Can't know me without knowing this.

It begins first around 1966, I was 12 or thereabouts. I lived in a typical post-war middle-class family home, with my sister, two brothers (who came along ten year later, so to speak), my mom and dad. I was the oldest.

At 12 I sneaked out a pack of my father's Pall Mall's, went behind the garage to smoke... I vaguely recall having a friend with me, but so vague I think it was just a magical friend, lol. I certainly didn't know how to smoke the friggin' things... I'd watched my father and saw smoke coming out. I have no idea what I thought he was doing... but he seemed into it. 

I blew into the cigarette when I lit it, behind the garage. I didn't realize until over 40 years later that's the way you really should smoke tobacco. But I was caught... not too bright... my father caught me. To teach me a lesson he tried to get me to smoke a pack... early 60's now - remember, and I still remember, in the entryway to our house, my father thinking I was kidding when I blew into the cigarette, he told me to inhale. 

Next time... Alcohol at 16. A real eye-opener... if I could open them.

INSIDE BOBKAT'S LAIR...

An introduction to the person who is BobKat...

A Genuine Bobcat...

Looks a little like Kramer, my own avatar here and elsewhere... Kramer is a Maine Coon cat, apparently they are related to bobcats, but I don't know for sure.

Okay... you already know I'm 55, and other basics from reading my blog.... that I like cats. But  there's much more, and in time, I'll share...

To begin, the inside story at the moment on who I am...

I was born in 1954. Middle class family... my father was in the Navy, my mother a registered nurse.

I was an odd child... hyperactive, probably with some form of autism... loved to take things apart, play with things I shouldn't like aspirins and fuse boxes; was the class clown in school, loved nature and liked girls - hung out with my younger sister and her friends, until my mother, concerned it would make me gay, pushed me into friendships with neighborhood male friends. I never was good at sports... rather I liked drawing, liked childhood games, liked to write and dream...

In the early 1960's I got the first Beatles album as a Christmas present. I was home sick when President Kennedy was assassinated... alone, and it was traumatic. My friends and I used to play "space-ship" together, or my sister and friends and I played hop-scotch, mother may I, and sang songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat..."

I had a good childhood... but then things went crazy... like when I was around 6yo, in the cub-scouts, I had built a balsa-wood rocket - destroyed by our baby-sitters friend one evening during a drunken party...

Still, I was very naive... was most of my younger years, until around 16... I accepted the "establishment", without question. Everything from sex, drugs and me as my own person, were taboo. But fortunately, my father's side of the family was a lot more normal, and in a way, radical. So the turning point came at age 16 when my cousins were going to the Woodstock movie, and my mother absolutely forbid my going. So I didn't...

My public school years were not good... I was really into reading and science, but I was an oddball... so I got picked on a lot. My parents were there for me, and I am indebted to them for the help, but the downside was I became dependent on them to fight my battles... so when the "rite of passage" came to me, they were not going to let go... which setup a seriously flawed relationship with my family when I came of age in the early 70's.

Key to my success as an adult was my indoctrination into the virtues of cannabis... it opened my mind... I went gradually from a C student in education to and A+ student - my last degree in 1994 was a GPA of 3.9 in a Medical Assistant program from which I graduated - my 3rd degree.

During the age of 21 to 25 and beyond I was able to make friends and had very good relationships with women. I also had problems, medical problems starting in 1979. I moved briefly to Arizona. Then back again to my hometown in Western NY. I changed gears quickly and moved to Boston MA - lived there for almost 7 years until moving to NH where I've been ever since.

My own war against marijuana began in 1986.... I was living in Boston at the time and had gone for a week vacation for my sister's wedding. While there I did what I did often then, I metal detected a lot of the time. At a college park I found a brass pipe, intricately designed and beautiful, used no doubt to smoke cannabis, and after cleaning it up, it was used during my sister's wedding.

On my way home after the wedding, I took the back-roads through the Catskills, and around midnight in a drizzly rain came to a green light at a dark intersection of highways. A car was coming towards me, so although i could have made a left turn up a dark hill, I didn't... I was in no rush. The car passed by, and I made my left turn. At the same time the light changed to orange then red, and just as I made my legal turn, a State Trooper came over the top of the hill I was turning onto. To the trooper, it appeared I'd sped through a red light, which I hadn't. But he pulled me over.

What followed would affect and change my life forever!!!

At the time I drove a 1972 Saab 99... a great car, but prone to break-downs. My trunk was complete with tools to fix anything. On my dashboard were a box of old coins I brought to show my family of the things I found metal detecting. On my passenger seat was an ornate brass pipe so I wouldn't lose it. The state trooper saw it all... he called in back-up... two other state troopers showed up. I'm tired from the drive... i want to get home, but instead the trooper that pulled me over has now cited me for going through a red light and possession of marijuana, although all I had was that pipe on my front passenger seat. But he is also convinced the coins on my dashboard are stolen, the tools in my trunk are "burglary tools", and the mace in my glove-box I was licensed to have in MA was a dangerous weapon. And to top it off he was convinced I was DWI!!! So without any reading of my Miranda Rights, any notice I was under arrest, nothing formal that I was being charged of, I was put in handcuffs and taken to the station to meet with the captain.

I should add another officer on the scene told me - " "sorry, if it were up to me I'd throw the pipe in the woods and let you go on your way". But he said "I'm not the officer in charge".

So I meet with the captain who is being breathlessly told by the "officer in charge" I'm drunk, a pothead, a weapons carrier, and a thief...

The chief tells him to remove the handcuffs, that "yes", they could apply a sobriety test, but after talking to me the chief says - "we could calibrate our machine to sober, with this guy", which is the truth... I wasn't at all intoxicated nor high on drugs...

They drove me back to my car and I was on my way home with two tickets... one for the red light and another for pot possession, none of which was true. But I paid the fines, and until 2001, it wasn't an issue. The fine at the time was $125. The true penalty - a life sentence without parole - forever a Druggie... since 2001, background databases and histories are who we are. Ironically, since males are prone to violence, acts of violence are mostly ignored. Not so with any history with drugs. Most job applications ask if you've ever been convicted of a misdemeanor. There are thousands of different infractions and misdemeanor crimes... most are ignored. But that beautiful pipe that I found, that I shared with friends, that won't be ignored - I paid my fine and honestly know little of the actual infraction/crime I paid for, but it'll haunt me the rest of my life, I know that. 


Just say "NO"? Why bother. Drug arrests are a huge benefit to law enforcement and the legal system. They make millions of dollars a year on drugs... spawns development of super secret spy technology and creates lots of jobs, is an excellent way to train law enforcement in covert ops, with a goal, that will (or should) serve and protect the public...  it's a lucrative crime for all involved, it seems. It's the bogeyman in the closet that we will spend trillions of dollars to protect society from.

So what you'll find in my blogs is a lot of reference to cannabis/marijuana reform. It is, I truly believe, the most ludicrous prohibition our society has ever had to endure - and the consequences to so many people caught up in the "crime" is way beyond acceptable...

There are TOO MANY VICTIMS of the laws against cannabis/marijuana... this doesn't serve the public good.

***

Happy New Year... and may you find your own destiny and enjoy true love in 2010...

Check out Tom Petty Wildflowers - "You Don't Know How It Feels", c1994, Warner Brothers. See my last post for why... it's all in the lyrics, the words... Tom Petty sings: "...just roll another joint."

IMPORTANT RESEARCH STUDY - Eat More Broccoli or Go to Pot?

I've had enough of the way they do things in other countries, so back to the USA.

I have to say, I consider myself to be very fortunate to be an American. I've had opportunities, freedoms, and a great education. I've experienced things that only a country like ours could provide.

But there are problems...  but of course there are. There are natural problems and those we create ourselves..

Like research projects. The following one got me wondering:

The project was supported by some big names, although I think the first one is familiar, the others are not...   the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Maurice Falk Foundation. The online, MSNBC news story that inspired this post is here:.

"...Music and Marijuana" - A link to the article on MSNBC, Dec. 23, 2009

My opinion?

They found a way to get your kid to bush their teeth, eat their broccoli, not have sex until marriage, be home by nine, and obey me? It's so simple really... all in the music... the lyrics in a song.

The study focused on the role music had in enabling cannabinoid vampires, like blood to a mythical vampire, naturally focusing on the population under 18 years of age. Forget us old folks... keep studying the kids.

What they found, and this is so exciting, is that when teens listened to music with reference to the word marijuana in it, they had a craving. Just using the word marijuana in music was I took from the article, "a stepping stone to drug addiction".

Whew...

Just think what this means??? All you starving advertisers out there, musicians who could link up and add single words to their songs... it would be a music revolution... ! And if you remember me on the way up the golden ladder, throw a little of your bonus $$ my way. I'd appreciate it.

But seriously... what is a study like this accomplishing? If you're under 18 or 21 you're not old enough to legally use these drugs. Adults use drugs, currently one's prescribed, alcohol, and tobacco, though not all adults I have to add.

So what about us adults, and what about all the other words we hear in music? I'm thinking I should burn all my CDs, DVDs, books, video games, and anything else that issues words.

Think about all those TV ads for ED...

But okay... so kids listen to music containing the word "marijuana". What kind of study is that? Other than Bob Dylan's "everyone must get stoned" lyrics, I don't much recall much use of the word, nor do I see the significance of their finding other than to cause undo concern and panic. Of all the other things the money for that study could have gone towards.

To all a good night...

Merry Christmas and try to remember: "Everybody must get stoned..." Bob Dylan. Also, please check out my post back on Dec. 07, 2009, and "Play Safe".

On The Other Hand - Pakistani Justice...

In my last post I described a situation in Saudi Arabia... a modern day witch-hunt that is truly mind boggling!

But on the other hand... in Pakistan, two brothers were recently sentenced and found guilty of a crime that is equally upsetting. According to the news - I can't remember which one since the whole thing was so disgusting - the cousin of a young woman in Pakistan wanted to marry this girl, but the family said "no". This upset the cousin. A lot! So much so he got together with his brother and kidnapped the girl. They cut off her nose and ears as revenge towards the family. Obviously no love involved in this story, just principle.

And I hate to admit it but the brothers were found guilty, and sentenced to 50 years in prison, and to have their own noses and ears cut off. I find myself in agreement... how the young woman suffered and will suffer the rest of her life.

Unfortunately, whereas in Saudi Arabia where sorcery is pretty much a crime with no appeals, the brothers in Pakistan will most likely appeal, and get off with a much lighter sentence. In other words... they'll be able to keep their body parts, and may only pay a fine.

After all... women in many countries of the world are considered subservient to men. They merely have to say, "it was a misunderstanding". The "girl's family was dishonorable in refusing the daughter's hand in marriage" to the cousin.

Hey, I'm open-minded, but I have a great deal of difficulty understanding all this... the story is a bad one, but that's the way it is.

How long before human beings become civilized?

SORCERY IN SAUDI ARABIA - The Punishment? DEATH!

The news today on my long commute back home... on NPR (National Public Radio), this tidbit of news:

The Religious Police in Saudi Arabia are rounding up sorcerers. You know, those who talk to spirits, read books about spirits, witchcraft, anything supernatural. It's a serious modern day witch-hunt, and if you get caught, and sentenced, which is pretty much a sure thing, just as it was in this country and Europe in the 1600's, the sentence is death. An Egyptian doctor was recently executed, and that was just the beginning.

The law applies to anyone. I wouldn't plan my vacation there if you have the latest vampire novel, books on the occult, or even a Bible, the way it seems, Christianity could be construed as a belief in a false god. Because what it comes down to... is forcibly enforcing the believe in a god. I think it's time the UN sent Crusaders.

WIKIPEDIA: The Christian Crusaders: 1095AD - 1291AD

Why do we work with these governments? Like Saudi Arabia? Witch-hunts and executions? We don't work with Cuba... in my entire life we haven't... the answer...

OIL.

Pet's death leads to drug bust in Boscawen, NH

Information courtesy of the NH Union Leader, DEC. 16, 2009: Click the title of this post for a link to the Union Leader, at the upper left select DEC. 16, 2009.

** In my own words my take on this story:

Two citizen residents of the town of Boscawen, NH had a very sad start to their day.  Their dog, was outside, strayed into the road and was hit and killed by a motorist. The police arrived, appeantly called by the motorist, and apparently came to the dog's owner informing them of the bad news. The officers entered the dog owner's house, and after the fact, according to the news article, say they smelled marijuana.

The short news is the two citizens are now under arrest, felony charges of "manufacturing marijuana" and "possession of firearms while committing a crime".

The police, having said "they smelled marijuana" got a judge to issue a search warrant, and so later that day the police returned to the house, en masse' no doubt, and searched the house. They found what appeared to be a personal growing operation - a refrigerator made into a grow lab, and other assorted personal growing equipment. They found 9 bags of marijuana, which could have been 9 bags containing a gram each, or 9 lbs, they don't say. Nor do they say the couple was in the act of selling drugs, but rather claim they suspect they were. They also found the owners had legal firearms - a shotgun and two handguns.

I suppose the same is true, given our fair legal system, that if a firearm is found during any criminal offense, be it DWI, an underage drinking party where parents of teens own guns, that guns are treated by the law as a criminal offense since they are in the area of the crime that has allegedly been committed.

This would be good, no?

I'm told every second someone in the US is a victim of a violent crime, and police are often strapped as to finding sufficient resources in giving such crimes the attention they need, so when I read about the time and the resources spent on this petty marijuana bust, I have to ask how does this pot bust make us safer and more secure?

As always - I don't encourage nor endorse the use of any drugs, be it cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, etc. I just wanted to share my friend John's message.


John Miller responded to the Union Leader story where I read this story and I wanted to share with you his comments:

If growing a plant like cannabis is considered "manufacturing drugs", then God is in big trouble. Ironically a certain Brig. General in Afghanistan admitted on the news tonight he's growing (aka, manufacturing) an opium poppy plant right in his office. I assume it's in a US military base, and like everything else, if you've got the power or money - you too can do it. Talk about guns!!! Lots of those around! He even laughed about it... and another generl asked if he dould take it to the states... so I have to ask, what kind of message is that sending for children?

Yes, as one commenter pointed out, cannabis/aka, marijuana is illegal because it's illegal, not because it's dangerous if used responsibly, which is much easier to accomplish than it is to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco responsibly.

Just like not everyone who uses cannabis are good, neither are all cops bad or to be mistrusted. Check out LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

My condolences for the death of your pet dog, and the consequences. I'm told there is a leash law in that town, so you might want to adopt a cat.

The politics of cannabis prohibition are ludicrous!
- John Miller, Bristol

Let's Party!!! Let's Play Safe!!!

The season to "party hardy" is upon us! Myself, honestly, I don't party like you might think. My partying is in front of a computer... as boring as that may sound, but I have had my life of partying and I wish to encourage all of you out there to party safe!

I don't encourage excessive drinking, or drugs, but realistically speaking, let's accept the fact they're out there. The customer's are lining up with shopping carts of alcoholic spirits and beverages, the cannabinoid vampires are getting their weed, and the hard drug users - well, maybe they'll consider backing off a bit and even maybe recognizing there is a limit to what us human beings can endure physically and seek help.

Over the years I've met pretty much all kinds of "drug users", from those who have self-control to those who have lost it. As I've said before, drunks scare me the most, but mostly because they feel free to terrorize the towns and highways.

The following are BobKat's harm reduction suggestions... maybe if just one person reads this and a injury is avoided/a life saved, it'll mean something, and make this post worthy of my efforts.

1) Don't drink alcohol or use recreational drugs and drive. Period!

I have a dear family friend who got in trouble! In a sense she was fortunate, in that, she and her new husband went to a party one night and they both got blind drunk. Although it was her husband's truck they left in, my friend decided to drive because HE was too drunk; but she was too! Being drunk causes stupidity, plain and simple. She was always the responsible one in the family... but that night, she made a BIG mistake thinking she'd be a better driver than her husband.

My friend was in school to be a registered nurse, and now she has a record: "aggravated DWI. He wasn't charged. Now she has no driver's license, has spent time in jail, and more.

Why didn't they call a cab??? Because they were drunk, and they felt fearless. That's alcohol, feeling fearless.

2) Cannabis use may seem safe - and I believe in many ways it is. But if you use cannabis, the opposite can happen... you can feel fearful, especially on the highway. Someone who has never used cannabis prior to the day they do, are especially vulnerable, as they have no experience with the effects of cannabis. Stay put if you're high... take a long walk, unless it's dangerous outside. But just because you may have experience doesn't mean you're prepared for the unexpected. Cannabis is a herb to use when you're safe indoors, if you go out, a straight person drives. It's common sense, and unlike alcohol users, cannabis users seem to retain most of their common sense.

3) This is important - this is the time of year often hardest on people who, for whatever reason, are feeling lonesome, alone or abandoned... I've been there and in some ways i'm still doing that! I've come to an understanding though, about my existence, and that is, the planet itself is not safe, but I am, or seem to be, at present (knocked on wood:). 

There is a lot of uncertainty, yes. I've experienced it. Drives me nuts, internally. So I write. And do other things. I accept it somehow... 

Sometimes Life gets hard to take in - breathe in...

I know.

***

If you use drugs - alcohol, cannabis, and others, don't drive... until the effects have had hours to wear off... call a cab, designate a person to drive who doesn't use intoxicants and euphorics, or stay put. If you're at a party and you must get home, have no money for a cab, and there is no designated driver... make a PLAN - let family or friends know you're going to a party and may not be able to drive... ask them ahead of time if they'd be willing to come get you, rather than the worst case - post your bail or ID your dead body (along with other, often innocent persons) at the morgue!

I want you around in one piece next year to follow my blog and the blogs of my friends, like Slam Dunk.

So please... Be Safe this Christmas, Ho Ho ;> And Not SORRY!!!