THE DOPING OF AMERICA - INTRODUCTION

NOTE: Final Edit: March 4, 9AM:

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This topic is perhaps, the topic I was most meant to write. It's very hard to do, or prove, as it seems the definition of say a journalist, a reporter, a "special report", has all but exploded and created a false sense of what is truth, vital news, objective analysis. In other words, we're inundated with truth these days, so to make my case is a phenomenal undertaking.

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I'm fortunate I have a younger brother who was a newspaper reporter for almost 20 years. He knows the rules of proper journalism, helped me write/edit an important contribution to a missing person's case I got involved in, the Brianna Maitland, missing person's case in Vermont, Mar. 19, 2004. I wrote, with my brother's assistance, a "Profile of Brianna prior to her disappearance", that was "pinned" to the Maitland family /Brianna website until the site was taken down around 2008. (Profile available per Request).

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One needs to keep in mind that her disappearance was initially categorized as a "Low-Priority Event"; that she was simply considered a "Person of Questionable Character" and in all likelihood a victim of her own bad habits or a runaway. Initially that's essentially where law enforcement placed Brianna's disappearance... she was a known marijuana user, as were the people she associated with, namely most of her peers, most of the people she grew up with. What we don't accept is that Brianna was doing nothing wrong, nothing different than her peers, or the families of her peers.

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We're taught to believe "drug use" is so rare it's a scandal when it's discovered; yet we're told/convinced it's so common that it's an epidemic. The tragedy is, we don't know the truth anymore... we don't know what the difference is between personal use, drug use, drug abuse, addiction, and acceptable use. We don't know the truth and have been doped for too many years by untruths, lies and propaganda.

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The fact is, there is a "drug problem" in this country; yeah there is. But the truth is, as several recent celebrity deaths have proven; it's more complicated than simply demonizing a plant or a substance or a "drug"... in many cases death is the result of prescription drugs and alcohol, not cannabis. Yet, substance use in this countryis being addressed by our government as a crime! Has been a crime for 100 years... and the cost in human rights, freedom and those harmed is enormous.

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So the fact that Brianna Maitland was known to be a marijuana user, and may have used other substances occurred in tandem with the reality that we - our elected law-makers have made, putting Brianna, and other persons in jeopardy; based on flawed logic, narrow-minded attitudes, capitalism and it's price. Anyone wonder how the tobacco industry has survived so long, given the proof that tobacco use causes harm and slow death? Yet cannabis use shows nothing even remotely as damaging as tobacco use?

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Her story, with additional guest posts by myself, are here:

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Slam Dunk - Brianna Maitland. And the most recent Post here:

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http://theslamdunktrove.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-brianna-maitland-reader-questions.html

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That it was initially believed that Brianna "deserved what happened to her" - that she was responsible for the criminal actions of others, because she used marijuana, this is the sort of assumption a doped society makes, believing without question that "her dress incited the crime". Fortunately, many are not duped, and know the truth, and it didn't take long before Brianna's case was given the proper attention and recognition, albeit, too late to help her.

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I truly believe as a society we've been duped, and lied to. It should come as no surprise to us boomers that the "conspiracy theories" of the 1970's bore actual fruit, but what surprizes me is how many boomers in Congress are so doped up on something, that they've forgotten their roots.

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The tragedy is that people are hurt hundreds of times if not thousands of times daily by these untruths. People are HURT!!!

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Being in a state of "doped" means being incapable of distinguishing fantasy from reality, something our current Congress, especially, has made abundantly clear and obvious, over the past several years, with a (very) few exceptions.

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I think maybe, we can all agree, simply using marijuana does not make a citizen a criminal, nor doped. The meaning of doped far exceeds simply the use of a plant...

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Your first assignment, should you chose to accept it is, to peruse the following link:

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Sebastianmarincolo - "Mind Altering Essays on Mind Altering plants".

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"Watanuga Lahele is radiating. His glassy eyes peep out under a large, conical straw hat, his movements slightly erratic. He has been chewing on a dark-greenish kalangi root and the drug Tetralin it contains now clearly shows its euphoric and mind-altering effects. Lahele sits at a long wooden table at the traditional kalangi root festival in Bomaki, the capital of the Republic of West Africa. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have come here again to get collectively intoxicated."

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"During the festival there are dozens of rapes each year. Many visitors end in emergency rooms after dangerously overdosing the drug. But these aspects are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the destructive potential of Tetralin. Its effects on perception and motor control during strong intoxication are so devastating that tens of thousands of consumers in the Republic of West Africa die or get injured in traffic accidents every year. Tens of thousands die from overdoses or from the consequences of prolonged overconsumption and addiction. Prolonged heavy use can lead to hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, nerve cell damage, psychosis, laryngeal-, liver-, stomach-, or pancreatic cancers, as well as to cardiac insufficiency, depression, and fatal forms of dementia."

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My goal? Provide proof to all of you that Things are Not Always as they seem, and one cannot simply accept truth at face-value, or what we're told is the "truth". It's unfortunate, but that's where we're at as a society. It's easy to twist the truth, create lies that sound truthful. The question is, does a government approved education provide the means to distinguish truth and lies? If not, what good is an education?

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The recent events with the "Arab Spring" provide poignant examples of how the truth has been altered, only to be called out and challenged. Much the same is happening right now in the United States. Actually, has been for many generations... the real question is, are Americans able to recognize "truth" for what it is still today, or have we been duped for so long, we are helpless to see the forest through the trees anymore?

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NEXT: "Part One: The Doping of America..." continues...

UPDATE: PATRICIA SPOTTEDCROW GRANTED EARLY HEARING

Source: Jack Herer.com

*** Update regarding the imprisonment of "drug-Dealer" Patricia Spottedcrow of Oklahoma. I have previous posts HERE... May, 2011 - "TAKEDOWN OF PATRICIA SPOTTEDCROW".

Ms. Spottedcrow - a mother of two living with her own mother, was arrested for selling $31 of marijuana to a (police informant) narc. She lives in Oklahoma and "drug laws" are pretty severe in that state.

She was found guilty of selling a "dangerous drug", with her mother as an accomplice. $31 worth!

Would have to be a seriously "dangerous drug" to get Ms. Spottedcrow 14 years in prison, and her mother 30 years, suspended (to care for the two children).

The "dangerous drug" was, (marijuana) a joint one day, and another joint several months later. [a "joint" is when cannabis herb is ground up, similar to tobacco, then rolled up into a "cigarette shape" which is usually twisted at each end.] A joint generally is half the size or smaller than that of a commercial cigarette. The size of a joint has grown smaller since the 1960's - 70's.

The court was lenient at the time of sentencing, to suspend Ms. Spottedcrow's mother from prison too. Prosecutors argued that there was a "major drug sale operation" - their evidence, two "marijuana cigarettes".

So many more serious crimes occur that I'm hesitant to even speak it: manslaughter, deaths from DUI, assault, domestic abuse (often triggered by alcohol abuse), sexual assault, rape, theft, child abuse... the list goes on. The penalties for these crimes often far less than the crime of selling two joints.

Constitutional Violation? Yeah... Big-Time!!!

Recently a judge granted her a 4 year reduction in her sentence, bringing it down to 8 years. And more recently, according to an update courtesy of Jack Herer.com, a parole board has agreed to hear her case early, and decide whether she is worthy of , well, parole.

There's much in the way of epidemics and deaths due to particular dangers... never have I read cannabis is the cause. How many celebrities of late for example have died as a result of cannabis?

None... Nada.

Best wishes to Ms. Spottedcrow during her upcoming hearing.

Nowhere has it been more obvious that a punishment doesn't fit the crime as in her case.

LIFE: THE DREAM WITHIN A DREAM...

Concluding the previous three posts titled "Life Sucks, Then You Die..."

I will not even begin to try to understand people who commit suicide and take down others in the act. It makes no sense to me. The act of a suicide is tragedy enough.

There is an element to life that does appear to cry out, that "life sucks, then you die...", but it is but one of an infinite number of variables when it comes to our choices in life.

Life is like a dream within a dream. Some dreams are lucid and quite clear... memorable, other dreams are nightmares, impossible to detach from, or vague, maybe not even remembered.

Who hasn't looked back 5 years and realized nothing had changed...? Or that everything had changed?

Such is life.

Edgar Allen Poe had it correct when he wrote "A Dream Within A Dream...":

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream

You can read the rest of the poem by clicking on the highlighted link.

We are the dream, living in a dream. That is a fact. It is also a fact that our actions affect the dream, and those in it, just as those in our dreams affects us.

The irony is, with dreams, it's so personal. We cherish our dream(s). We cherish who we are, who we are, within the dream. I call this our dream atmosphere; the dream we live in, the society and politics of the external dream; our heritage, family traditions, the morals and mores we learn and accept, all become part of the dream atmosphere.

Whether your dreams are nightmares or a form of heaven, mundane or confused, however you perceive them, we are all one, we all live them, and no one is a rock, unchanged over time.

Living your dream...and the only question I have is, are you hurting others or yourself? I would hope not. But the answer is what makes or breaks a crime. How obsessed we are with crimes, and how numerous those crimes. One would think being human is a matter of commonsense... the acts of being kind and respectful of life and others. It's no wonder so many of us shake our heads daily with the latest news of hurt.

There is no need for governments, for example, to enact a nightmare on the public. Such actions would only backfire... but it happens all the time. To the extent that we ask ourselves exactly who does government serve?

"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living." Anais Nin

To whomever is living a nightmare... there is no need. Reality is subjective; and provides for choices in any dream.

It's something of an irony that around age 6, I remember being with my sister and her friend singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat..." an irony in, here I am at 57 singing the same old song...

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Life is..."But A Dream."

Live long, be kind, and prosper...

"LIFE SUCKS, THEN YOU DIE"... IS THAT WHAT YOU BELIEVE? - PART THREE

Wow... I met a wonderful woman online. I courted her the past 5 months. We are a bit distant from each other, but we made the best of it. Two weekends ago I helped her move into a new apartment. No "over-night guests" at the old place, so now, at least I had a couch to sleep on.

Not. She's dumping me. Yeah. She really is.

Which brings me to the subject of suicide - taking one'own life.

First let me make clear I have no licenses in psychology. I'm not a clinician of any kind. I simply have experience. An my good, old, trusty BA in English - makes me a legit writer, yeah. Power to Education.

Socrates...

I always thought Socrates was the first of ancient persons to take their own life. He drank a lethal brew of hemlock.

It turns out, he was sentenced to death by a jury in 399 BC, because his views were considered unconventional - yes, simple as that. He chose his form of death.

"Socrates had become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who also lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. It is Plato's Socrates that also made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains strong in providing a foundation for much western philosophy that followed."

"According to Xenophon's story, Socrates purposefully gave a defiant defense to the jury because "he believed he would be better off dead". Xenophon goes on to describe a defense by Socrates that explains the rigors of old age, and how Socrates would be glad to circumvent them by being sentenced to death. It is also understood that Socrates also wished to die because he "actually believed the right time had come for him to die.""

"Xenophon and Plato agree that Socrates had an opportunity to escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prison guards. He chose to stay for several reasons:

He believed such a flight would indicate a fear of death, which he believed no true philosopher has."

"If he fled Athens his teaching would fare no better in another country as he would continue questioning all he met and undoubtedly incur their displeasure.

Having knowingly agreed to live under the city's laws, he implicitly subjected himself to the possibility of being accused of crimes by its citizens and judged guilty by its jury. To do otherwise would have caused him to break his "social contract" with the state, and so harm the state, an act contrary to Socratic principle."

"The full reasoning behind his refusal to flee is the main subject of the Crito.

Socrates' death is described at the end of Plato's Phaedo. Socrates turned down the pleas of Crito to attempt an escape from prison. After drinking the poison, he was instructed to walk around until his legs felt numb. After he lay down, the man who administered the poison pinched his foot. Socrates could no longer feel his legs. The numbness slowly crept up his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his death, Socrates speaks his last words to Crito: "Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt." Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely Socrates' last words meant that death is the cure—and freedom, of the soul from the body."

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"Freedom of the soul from the body". Suicide.

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I've had my fair share of exposures to suicides. There was an employee of mine, whose husband hung himself during X-mas. The owner of the facility we worked refused to give her time off to attend to his body and other matters. I was her manager, until the next day when i quit the job calling the owner an asshole, which he was. There went my resume listing "manager"...

During my time as a custodian at a community college in the 1970's I made two unforgettable acquaintance'. I was in my early 20's and both women were beautiful, very beautiful. One woman made me think of the French, Joan of Ark, short, dark hair, a face to love, and experiences... she was 26 when I met her.

The other woman was a model... in the sense she was beautiful, graceful, but by no means dumb. We had some very good discussions, but then one day she opened up about her body image. She hated herself. She felt the human body was wrong, not right, awkward. She decided she would rather be dead than living in her body. She did so, committed suicide. She was at most 22.

My French friend, she told me one day she was in the nursing program to learn how to properly kill herself. Age 27 she shot herself at the local general hospital, in the restroom.

There was my cousin's best friend, a beautiful woman I got to know well with 3 kiddos and a husband. We used to share "feelings" together. We had fun together. She killed herself and i adopted a kitten the day my cousin and I visited her husband after her death. The cat was my closest companion for the next 11 years, until he died... with him, she died forever, and I was devastated.

Fact is: My father made me promise not to kill myself. He could see I was capable of it from a young age. And so far, so good. But considering the reason's why some choose suicide and others don't... maybe it's the fact I was a 70's person, and going to a therapist was in style, along with self-help books and a lot of questions about "Who Am I", and "What Is My Purpose in Life?" We embraced the challenge. Many of us benefited from the unusual therapies. We took personal risks other generations didn't dare take. For many of us, the "baby-boomer" generation, the results were mixed, but overall positive. For others, not so good.

I'm an idealist, and always around the corner is a better life... some would call that hopeful, others would describe that as being a basic foundation of the American principal, the never ending "pursuit of happiness" that our culture encourages, or at least as a "Constitutional ideal". I'm finding that in reality, life is indeed difficult, and finding happiness is more and more elusive... The very nature of what got Socrates sentenced to death, for example, is still alive and well in 21st century America... the overt demand for conformity. Some people do better shedding the need to conform than others, or the ability to conform and find pleasure in that, however, even successful people have trouble feeling as one with society sometimes, and find they can't live with themselves. And it's sad. I don't believe it has to be that way. But again, I'm an idealist.

Feeling awkward about ourselves or our body... ? Granted, sometimes that is unavoidable, especially when we obsess about it, yet often, it is simply a difficult task as we become more keenly aware of our differences among others, our physical form, or the burdens we carry.

Seems the role of government in that respect would be more one of acceptance, and less frivolous regulations when it comes to what rights adults have in pursuit of their dreams. But alas, governments, religions, and group ideals don't often help, instead, they are designed to enforce a ideal of their own, a lock-step of sorts, and the result is a large segment of the population doesn't feel like they "fit in".

I'll conclude with a very touching, recent story of a SOAP Actor who recently took his own life. Nick Santino, unemployed, was "forced" to euthanize his dog Rocco, on Nick's 47th birthday. Nick got Rocco, a mixed pit-bull, from a shelter, lived in an apartment complex the originally allowed pets. They changed the rules, but "grand-fathered" pre-existing pets as okay to keep.

But for Nick that was at a price...

“People were complaining about his dog,” said neighbor Kevan Cleary, 63, an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School. “It was open season on him.”

Rocco couldn’t ride in the main elevators and wasn’t allowed to be left in the apartment alone for more than nine hours.

Santino was then threatened with a $250 fine for having a barking dog, neighbors said.

Santino couldn't live after that... and that's all it takes.

Hey, us human beings, we're a tough lot. But we've got feelings. Part of those feelings is where do we fit into humanity, our brethren?

I can tell you suicide is not the answer, but the solution is complicated. It requires standing back from the present and reassessing the future. With more than two solutions present at all times, one's third eye can often see a way out. I've witnessed it many times. Yet still, those who took their own lives, it's so sad, as it still seems so unnecessary, unjustified and unfair to us still living.