CRITICAL THINKING 101 - The Death Of Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse was a performer, singer, artist. I admit, I am unfamiliar with her work, her songs, but I am keenly aware of her death; she, like myself, are fellow artists. The death of any artist effects me deeply.

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In particular, Amy Winehouse's most poignant act might just be her death - a song she performed while dying. With all due respects... to Amy Winehouse, her family and friends, permit me, to continue. I do believe Amy sang us a final song in passing on.

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WIKIPEDIA LINK: AMY WINEHOUSE

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"Amy Jade Winehouse... an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British female to win five Grammys, including three of the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year."

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"On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for "Stronger Than Me", one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for "Rehab", and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Love Is a Losing Game", among other distinctions. The album is the biggest seller of the 2000s in the United Kingdom. Winehouse is credited as an influence in the rise in popularity of female musicians and soul music, and also for revitalising British music."

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Wow!

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How many people can claim the success she'd achieved?

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Amy Winehouse died, July 23, 2011 at age 27. Speculation was she died of a drug overdose. After her death, the rumors began circulating. The irony is toxicology found no illegal drugs in her system; she died from consuming too much alcohol, vodka. Still, she gained a sort of notoriety in her latest album when she ranted against "Rehab"...

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"They tried to make me go to rehab / I said, 'No, no, no.' " --Amy Winehouse, "Rehab"

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She sang about her experiences in, "Back to Black": "released in the UK on 30 October 2006. It went to number one on the UK Albums Chart numerous times, and entered at number seven on the Billboard 200 in the US. It was the best-selling album in the UK of 2007, selling 1.85 million copies over the course of the year."

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Critical Thinking 101 is about common-sense. About how maybe "Rehab" isn't all it's cranked up to be. It's true, in my opinion, that rehab itself is an oft abused sentence of society towards an individual. Same with "community service". The question comes down to when is it appropriate to sentence an individual to either? And does it help? The individual that is.

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It's okay to drink alcohol and smoke tobacco (you wouldn't want to eat it), but it's not okay to use cannabis, aka, marijuana, although you can eat it, and most scientific research suggests it's not only not harmful, but beneficial too. Still, don't try to convince the ONDCP or Drug Czar of those studies, their job, by law, is to lie and do everything possible to create the worst possible scenario.

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Drugs are a class of substances in 3 categories. 1) Over-the-counter drugs: aspirin, vitamins, cough medicine, etc. 2) prescription drugs: those your doctor prescribes that you fill at a pharmacy. 3) illegal drugs, recreational drugs, prescription drugs given to you by someone else.

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Alcohol and tobacco are "drugs", but are never described as such, and the government makes a point of never linking those tow substances to the classification of a drug. The truth is, they are, drugs. Both have the potential to kill or cause injury, and do. Both are considered as being "regulated" by the law, and therefore, legal for adult consumption and any harmful effects or even deaths are written off as normal causes of death or in Amy Winehouse's death - "Death by Experimentation".

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But not so with cannabis/marijuana. It is classified as a "dangerous drug" and users or local home-growers are targeted by the federal government, state governments and local gov'ts as an imminent threat to society, and actually, so dangerous to society that billions of dollars are spent every day on cannabis prohibition enforcement, eradication, and arrests of persons found to violate those laws. Yet no one dies from using cannabis, nor is any cognitive impairment equal to the danger of a few drinks. So why the prejudice?

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Critical Thinking 101 is about looking at the law... the laws... and how they impact society.

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In Amy Winehouses's final song she sings about injustice, about hypocrisy, about right and wrong. About freedom, pursuit of happiness and the obstacles to attaining happiness. Our government prides itself on our supposed constitutional freedoms. On adherence to the laws because our laws are constitutional and just.

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The reality is not so simple, as laws are passed all the time that are not constitutional. Or federal laws trump state laws, where state laws - or their constitutions, are violated. An example is in NH, and it's Constitution, look at Article 83, and how it relates to agriculture, educational freedom, and how no law shall be passed that makes a commodity such as cannabis illegal.

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When news of the death of Amy Winehouse was first released, the former Whitehouse Drug Czar, William Bennett, Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute and special commentator for CNN news, promptly jumped on-board to scrutinize Amy's death as drug related. He went even further in criticizing her latest Grammy Award, suggesting that because of her out-spoken criticism of rehab, and suspicions of recurrent drug use, she didn't deserve such an award.

William J. Bennett... an outspoken opponent against legalizing any plants/recreational drugs such as cannabis/marijuana.

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He commented the following on CNN:

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CNN "With those awards, a message was sent: Mock addiction, create a rallying cry for those in its grip, blow your life up in every aspect other than financial success and name recognition, and you will be rewarded with the industry's gold medals. Today, at age 27, she is dead. The cause of death is unknown, but drugs took a toll on her life even if they did not they cause her death."

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He continues:

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CNN: "It now looks like Amy Winehouse joins the sad list of other talented entertainers whose lives were cut down by drug abuse. Citing the drug-fueled deaths of other troubled musicians at the same age, some are speculating there is something special, or ominous, about the age of 27. But change the age by just a few years, and you still have too much evidence of too much talent cut too short by substance abuse. From Heath Ledger to Brittany Murphy to River Phoenix to Andy Gibb to Elvis Presley, the list just goes on and on. Age is not the problem; drug abuse is."

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Well, William J. Bennett, in my humble opinion, is a narrow-minded hypocrite whose understanding and knowledge is driven by a self-satisfying narcissism! He is a recovering gambler who lost a great deal of money gambling, is a drinker, and a man obsessed with his own ideals.

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Brittany Murphy for example, again speculation and rumor was rampant regarding the cause of her death. Again, as William Bennett chose to believe, drugs were the cause. But again, as in the case of Amy Winehouse, drugs do not appear to be the cause of death.

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At 08:00 (16:00 GMT) on December 20, 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to "a medical request"[33] at the Los Angeles home Murphy and Monjack shared. She had apparently collapsed in a bathroom. Firefighters attempted to resuscitate Murphy on the scene. She was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead on arrival at 10:04 after going into cardiac arrest.

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RE: Brittany Murphy: Shortly after her death, Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told the Associated Press: "It appears to be natural." An autopsy was performed on December 21, 2009. Her death certificate listed the cause of death as "deferred". On February 4, 2010, the Los Angeles County coroner stated that the primary cause of Murphy's death was pneumonia. It is suspected that Brittany died of exposure to a deadly mold, as her husband died shortly after under similar circumstances.

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So why the fixation with drugs???

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Incompetence and stupidity is my opinion. Ignorance and the bliss associated with such blissful blindness to the facts. For politicians it sounds good, to themselves anyways, to come down hard on what they call "drugs". It feels good to point a finger at something, even if it lacks substantial proof. Cannabis/marijuana for example - listed as a schedule one drug with severe potential for abuse and zero medical benefit, has been patented by the fedral government as an anti-oxidant and with potential to prevent or shrink cancerous tumors - see patent, #6,630,507 which reads as follows:

Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants

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Abstract

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Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.

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In response to a letter I sent asking for legalization of cannabis in America, my congresswoman, Senator Jean Shaheen, replied:

"Regardless of whether a state chooses to legalize medical marijuana, I believe that we should make a concerted effort to prevent recreational drug use, especially by youth. A study by the American Medical Association recently found that young people who smoke marijuana are up to five times more likely to move on to harder drugs. At a time when America's excessive demand for drugs is fueling violent crime at home and in neighboring countries, we need to strengthen initiatives to educate young people about the risks of drug use."

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All about young people, and more of the same about the "stepping stone" effect; and excessive drug violence; all but disproved, except maybe in Mexico. The message - better to wage war on Americans, ignore the constitutional rights of adults and make statements targeting children and young adults.

In conclusion, simple question:

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So, you want to protect the children, you have children or you know children. You care. But shit happens, and when you're not around you cannot always control what happens - that being the unexpected. So, albeit the fact that cannabis is "illegal" for adult use, tobacco and alcohol are also illegal for those under age 18. So, the question is this?

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Children in a home find an opportunity to search for, find, and experiment with one of 3 different drugs they might find.

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1) Tobacco

2) Alcohol

3) Cannabis/marijuana

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Which do you think is the safer drug for that young person to experiment with, if the worse were to happen? Which do you think is safer?

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My opinion... I pray that kid finds the cannabis first.

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We all contributed to the death of Amy Winehouse, since we as the people of this world are not able to distinguish between the different grays and colors of our reality. We are taught zero tolerance, passing standardized testing, accepting what we're told by those who are the authorities. We are encouraged to ask questions, but also encouraged not to question that which the authorities emphasize is unquestionable. We are herded into kennels, and raised as sheep. We are told it is for our own good.

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Without a doubt, I don't want to see any drugs in the hands of youth, but for adults, I want to experience freedom, not oppression. I think we all do, because without freedom, how can we properly raise our children?

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