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April 05, 2009
A Consumer Report
I have been meaning to write something about a Consumer Report I have been reading on licit and illicit drugs. They discuss a few famous opiate addicts, including the father of modern surgery Wm. Halsted, among others. One bit of the article struck me as particularly interesting. Incredible as it may seem, even a few poverty-stricken American addicts today make a reasonably successful adjustment to their addiction. "It doesn't happen often," Dr. Marie Nyswander concedes, "but once in a while, one of the so-called vilest addicts in East Harlem finds a doctor who gives him drugs or he gets an easy source from a friend. Under these conditions, he is likely to keep a job, maintain his family intact, and cut out his criminal activity. We see more of this kind of adjustment among middle-class and wealthy addicts who either have a medical disease which gives them a legal excuse for acquiring a regular supply, or who discover a brave doctor. With these people you see no social deterioration. I've yet to see a well-to-do addict arrested."A $100 a day black market heroin habit is a heavy load. A $1 a day white market heroin habit can be supported by panhandling. It is true that drug users can be quite a burden. Opiate addicts like Surgeon Wm. Halsted should have been properly persecuted for their dug habits. And that Olympic Gold Medal guy? Pot just ruined his life. A lot of the problems attributed to drugs are actually caused by forcing distribution to the black market. But who knows this? Not many because few still alive today remember what things were like before prohibition of drugs. You can start your education with a little history: The Marijuana Conviction: A History of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States Cross Posted at Power and Control posted by Simon on 04.05.09 at 11:33 AM
Comments
Excellent story 11B40, and might still be repeated by a heroin addict in the Bronx today. I suspect Simon would relate the cost of that heroin to the black market, and he might be right. But let's take a look at what is happening with LEGAL drugs of choice, such as alcohol and tobacco. When the government needs more money, they layer on the "sin taxes". Not a "black" market per se, but a "white" market maybe? It's the 'good guys' in our government, knowing what is best for us...and... oh by the way? This all works fairly smoothly, by the way, because we are NOT a majority. The 'divide and conquer' routine works well in most situations, but never better than with "SINNERS"! This is where our judeo-christian roots come into play, but I will leave all this 'guilt' for now to continue on with my point. We need to talk a LOT more about this 'White Market' that moves among us in the guise of our government. Today's sinners drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and run red lights where big brother cameras are installed. Tomorrow's sinners will be riding SUV's after dark and daring to use incandescent lightbulbs when the blinds are drawn. If that isn't bad enough, your family vacation fund will instead need to go to convert to solar, because...well...you don't have an energy problem, you TOO now have a money problem. This is what is called the SQUEEZE play...coming to a ballpark near you... and sooner than you think. Penny · April 5, 2009 11:04 PM I've had two morphine addict friends, both of the same (almost-lower) class. One of them is a musician who has a "brave doctor" for a fan. He has a wife, works, has typical guy hobbies, goes about his business like anybody. If you don't know what he does, you can't tell. He's just some dude. Never even has a weird look on his face. The other one is dead. He never knew if it was from a needle or from something he did to get his daily cash. And the amount of time it took him to scare up money, every day, endlessly, kept him from doing anything else with his life. He was a much better musician than the first guy, maybe a great one. But no one who only knew him for the last few years of his life could tell you that. He was too busy to show them. guy on internet · April 6, 2009 02:52 AM |
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which covers more than marijuana. Or you can read this speech given to the California Judges Association, 
also has a lot of good history.
Greetings:
Back in the Bronx of the last '60s, I had a very casual acquaintance with a heroin addict who was fond of saying, "I don't have a drug problem; I have a money problem."