The Hypocritical and Paradoxical Way We Deal with Youth and Drugs

While we as a nation are telling youth not to use street drugs, We are prescribing the same dangerous chemicals in "purified" form to millions of children in the name of treating illnesses that can't be proven to exist. Tens of thousands of those children are physically forced to do so. That has to be arguably the most horribly corrupted application of the scientific method. The corrupter is money. This hypocrisy applies mutually to adults diagnosed with psychological conditions, but more forcefully to children because the chemicals alter brain development.

I think the pharmaceutical industry treats some physical conditions in good faith. I do not believe any of that good faith exists in association with mental health conditions. The treatment of virtually all these conditions relies on the flawed and unprovable pseudo-theory of a chemical imbalance. Imagine someone approached you and claimed that you committed a criminal act against their family. They are holding a weapon and saying they are going use it. They say that they are going to do so because they believe you did it although they have no proof. This is what the industry is doing in treating mental health conditions. Using a dangerous weapon to hit an object they cannot prove is there.

Today, whether it is right or wrong society believes that children as young as 13 are capable of making negative adult decisions. That makes it so sickening that they are not allowed to decide not to ingest a dangerous chemical.

Predator and Prey

In a truly civilized society no one would take advantage of the misfortune or weakness of another unless their literal life depended on it. To do otherwise would mimic the animal behavior of our ancestors. Instead we live by the law of the concrete jungle. Is it any coincidence that the nutritious leaves in this jungle are green and smell good. The problem is they do not just smell good to the prey. Unlike in the real jungle the leaves smell good and are nutritious to the predator as well. If this ever happened in ecosystem it would die in short order. The same thing happens with the human economic ecosystem, except it is revived by government when it flat lines. That is essentially what separates us from others in the animal kingdom. Our larger brains give us the ability to decide to gorge ourselves in gluttony until we become greedy. I am a spiritual man, but not a religious one. The only Bible tenet I always make a best effort to adhere to is the Golden Rule. That said I think it seems odd that so many are claiming that capitalism is in line with being a good Christian while two of the seven deadly sins are inherent to it.

You are prey if you make less money than is made from your labor. If this description fits your situation, you need to stand up and show the predators the power you possess. Do every thing in your power to save up enough leaves so you can graze for at least two weeks without going into the field. The economy will tinker on the verge of collapse as it may have last year, but this time the prey will decide through it's collective choice who survives when it receives a bailout.

Assuming what continues to separate us from animals with less cognitive ability is choosing to ignore our collective interests in favor of what is good for the individual, maybe it all should end in 2012 as some believe it will.

David Evans nearly sent me over the edge

This is my response as written on cbsnews.com to Part 2 of the "discussion" between Judge James Gray and David Evans of the Drug-Free America Foundation. When I read the first part yesterday I was bothered by Evans but it was typical prohibitionist rhetoric. Today he made me irate.

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I had to take a few moments to calm down otherwise I might have said something that could have caused me some serious trouble.

Evans said that Gray called him a racist. Gray never implied or said that Evans was a racist. He did state the undeniable fact that war on "some" drugs treats the races unequally.

This statement from Evans shows he is either delusional or racist. I hope it is the former.

"Prohibition did not cause an increase in the overall crime rate but there was an increase in the homicide rate. However, the increase in homicides occurred mainly in the African-American community, and African-Americans at that time were not the people responsible for trafficking in alcohol."

Assuming Evans is simply delusional, he must believe that Alphonse Capone, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky and many others were black. These men were all responsible for an untold number of murders solely to gain control of the illegal alcohol market. The only truth in his statement is that blacks were not ones trafficking in alcohol. It's disturbing that Evans attacked Gray for not backing up his statements when he made no attempt to support his statement with evidence. Undoubtedly, many people of all races died during Prohibition for reasons that had nothing to do with the 18th Amendment.

I am a black man of moderate means, who is blessed to have a little family money that allows me to work on political issues that are important to me. My Mother was a hard drug addict during my childhood and remains an alcoholic and tobacco smoker. My late Father was an alcoholic who died of complications related to alcoholic pancreatitis. All of my education beyond high school I have obtained on my own. Although I have been told since I was a child that I have a 90% chance of becoming a hard drug abuser and alcoholic, I have never used anything harder than cannabis and only drink socially. I have been educating people on the horror that is our drug laws since I was 9 and working on political efforts to change them since I could vote. I was forcibly removed from the DARE program because I challenged what the officers were saying. I say all these things because according to Evans, there are not many re-legalization advocates like me. This is one place he is correct, he is just wrong about the reason. There are many, many blacks who come from a similar background and feel the same as I do. I personally know hundreds of them. The fact is the majority of the nation is not politically active, and in the black community in general, we have to be far more concerned about keeping jobs, supporting families and not "fitting the description". Evans states that blacks do not want more drugs in the community. This could not be more true, but drugs are not the problem, dealers and the law which enables them is.

Judge Gray although I take issue with some of the areas in which you agree with Mr. Evans, I applaud your efforts. I voted for your in your senate bid years ago and through your writing here have gained a new level or respect for you. I would have not been able to remain as civil as you did in responding to the misleading, outright dishonest and sometimes downright vicious things Mr. Evans has said.