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Jade
(soccer mom)
10-16-04 19:04
No 536105
User Picture       Drugs Are Inanimate Objects
(Rated as: excellent)

Drugs Are Inanimate Objects
A Guide to Their Culture and Effects
by Michael Dare

Let's say there are two rocks, one of which is used to hold down papers on someone’s desk, the other of which is used to bash someone's head in. Which is the "good" rock and which is the "bad" rock? Stupid question, right? There are no such things as good rocks or bad rocks. Rocks don't have morals. Rocks are inanimate objects that just sit there until an animate object such as a human being comes along and does something with it.

What someone does with a rock can be judged good or bad because actions, and only actions, involve morals. Everyone who is animate is capable of doing good or bad things with whatever inanimate objects happen to be lying around. You may bash in someone's head with a rock, a trashcan lid, or a jar of facial cleanser, and the head will still end up equally bashed.

It’s not the rock’s fault the head got bashed in, the trashcan lid is entirely innocent, and as far as the jar of facial cleanser is concerned, it was all in a night’s work of just sitting there until someone came along and did something with it.

Let’s say we want to stop this horrible wave of people getting their heads bashed in. Would we go on a crusade against rocks? Round up people in possession of trashcan lids? Give mandatory minimum sentences to those found guilty of selling jars of facial cleanser?

Such is the war on drugs. Drugs are inanimate objects. There is no such thing as a "good" drug. There is no such thing as a "bad" drug. Until an animate object comes along and does something with a drug, the drug will just sit there. Drugs, like the rocks and plants they come from, have no morals. The central lie of the war on drugs is that there are such things as good or bad drugs. There is no such thing as a "Schedule A" drug. All drugs are exactly the same. They are nouns, not verbs, subjects without predicates. They don’t do anything until they are modified. All nouns are good if used wisely. All nouns are bad if used stupidly.

Inanimate objects have no agenda. If your child is killed by a moron in a car, you can join a campaign to ban all cars, or you can join a campaign to stop morons from driving cars. If your mother is crushed by a grand piano dropped from the 40th floor of an office building, you can picket Carnegie Hall to stop performances of Mozart piano sonatas, or you can devote your life to keeping idiots out of the piano moving industry. If your husband dies of alcoholism, you can send bombers to destroy the wine fields at Chateau Mouton Rothschild, or you can teach people to drink responsibly.

And likewise, if anyone you know is killed or is ruining their life with illegal drugs, declaring war on the inanimate object involved is a hopelessly misguided activity. Your totally justifiable scorn must focus on the misuse of the inanimate object — be it guns, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, cars, pianos, bathtubs, jars of facial cleanser, or any other potential instrument of death.

Every year an average of five people fall to their deaths while posing for pictures at the Grand Canyon. The canyon is obviously dangerous, but only to people who are stupid enough to climb out to the edge. This particular national park is of absolutely no danger to those of us who, upon gazing at a mammoth hole in the ground, are seized by no impulse whatsoever to walk to the very edge.

Those dead tourists didn't purposely plummet to their deaths, though they are well aware of the danger they put themselves into when they climbed out onto those overhangs. They certainly don't get what they deserved; nobody deserves a painful death due to a minor lapse in judgment. But no one else is to blame, least of all the Grand Canyon itself.

Most drug deaths are accidents too, which means they are no one's fault but the victim's. To blame the drugs themselves for these accidents is like blaming the Grand Canyon for the deaths of those tourists. The vast majority of tourists do not fall off the edge, and the vast majority of drug users live to tell the tale.

It has been extremely frustrating for me to watch the current drug debate, which is being conducted by so-called experts who have never bought, sold, or used drugs. In the past, I’ve engaged in all three of these activities. The pundits are all basing their opinions upon second hand information, delivered by those whose beliefs are polluted by political agendas. I’m basing my opinions upon personal experience.

There are many arguments against current drug policy that no one is making, perhaps because hard-liners find it particularly hard to face certain truths. The establishment has put so much time and effort into their massive propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the public that drugs are evil, that they now find it impossible to backtrack.

Their propaganda machine has drilled into our heads the bad things that can happen if you find yourself doing endless hits of crack, heroin, LSD, speed, cocaine, ecstasy, or marijuana. They’ve got a point. Anyone who finds themselves addicted to any drug should probably seek medical help.

What the drug war propaganda machine has failed to mention is that every drinker is not an alcoholic and every drug user is not a drug addict. In fact, the vast majority of drinkers and drug users do so responsibly. Some drinkers swill down scotch every day, beat their kids, and then go out drunk driving; others have an occasional glass of Bordeaux with their Caesar salad or an occasional Bud with their hot dog. Some pot users smoke up a storm and go out to rob drug stores; others have a small hit so they can stay home and giggle through an episode of Mad TV. Some cocaine users blast off the tops of their skulls with endless hits of crack, doing damage to themselves and their unborn babies; others, whose stomachs can't stand coffee, inhale a small line in order to stay up late for work.

Products like Haagen Dazs ice cream kill overweight people with heart disease every day, but there’s no pending legislation to make it illegal. Ice cream is addictive and has absolutely no legitimate use other than it tastes good and it helped Robert DeNiro gain weight for Raging Bull. Nobody needs the threat of a jail sentence not to make pigs of ourselves.

If every action deserves an equal and opposite reaction, then the drug war list of all the bad things drugs can do needs to be countered by a list of all the good things drugs can do. Here’s a bit of the information the drug war is leaving out of its propaganda . .

To read the rest of this you can either go to this link http://www.freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/drugs_inanimate_objects.htm

or this pdf file

There's a terrorist behind every Bush.

Trenchcoat
(Hive Bee)
10-17-04 09:18
No 536167
User Picture       living rainbow crystal

This article does not take into account the Living Rainbow Crystal, which is alive but has no conciousness of its own. In this way it is like other simple forms of life: made of organic building blocks but having no brain. Also in addition to being paperweight rocks and headbashing rocks there are also crackrocks. I would tend to say that paperweight rocks are good, headbashing rocks are bad, and crackrocks are revolting.

Better loving through chemistry.

Psiloman
(Stranger)
10-17-04 14:27
No 536184
      Its a shame...

Its a shame that when someone posts articles like that not many people respond and they seem to go by unobtrussively without commentary.Of course these are chemistry boards and more weight is dropped on ...(it goes without saying)...CHEMISTRY!

I think i will break the monopoly of chemists (im not one,but i am very fond of this science) and respond to this passage.

Overall i liked it.It states the obvious,but it needs to be stated anyway since "logic" is not what governs our life.If "logic" governed our lives there would be no wars,no greedy people,no bombings with nukes and no terrorism.Why? Because what is more "Logical" than helping this planet to resemble paradise day by day than a hellhole? After all we are all gonna die,and we arent gonna take our wealth,our oil reserves,our fame,our "selection of beautiful women and handsome men that cherished us" in our graves.Be it a DEA officer,a drug addict,a glorious chemist,a politician,a preacher or that poor man hanging outside of the liquor store we are all going to die.Are we gonna wait for afterlife for things to get better?In fact ,we arent even sure if afterlife exists!

So,after injecting some more logic in this discussion even a D.A.R.E officer could understand that "drugs" are not bad or good.Nice,im halfway in reforming the DARE programme,drug laws and universal drug additude! Hang on am inute though! Is the author of this passage forgeting something?

In my opinion YES.Although good the passage looked very simplistic,tottaly oblivious of human nature.I agree that heroin could be a safe painkiller if used correctly and that coke could aleviate alot of pain and be a nice stimulant.Yes,speed could even help scientists in focusing on a lecture or carrying out a long and painstaking experiment. Human nature though tells us that this is a utopia or more correctly put a Eutopia (cmon polish your Greek terminology!) with very thin chances of being implemented on reality.

Our species is too immature to make good use of such powerfull tools.If we were more strong at will,more "serious" and at the same time more humorous about our existence the 60's and all the psychedelics it involved would have changed the world into heaven that the writer proposes. Drugs would be our "allies" and im not talking castaneda here.THey would be tools and helpers.

So ,being realist what can we do to even aproach to the slightest the Eutopia the writter suggests? Well,one could start with mass lobotomy of the population but...hang on a minute...schools and TV do that already! Next solution would be intervening in our genetic code to make us more "wise" less of "mindless pleasure seekers"...BLTC and transhumanism come to mind.FOr the time being though,lets suffice ourselves in correct education on psychoactives.

A correct education doesnt fill your head with "lotsa info on drugs".The internet has "been there,done that" and although there are many brilliant people discussing and seriously researching drugs ,there is also a big portion of people using this info to....ruin themselves in even more destructive ways than if they stayed into the loving arms of their dealers! "Mentality" must be infused as well,a role that religion once played very well in keeping people free of drug problems.Religion was effective ,but please we wouldnt want to see more "sects" and more loonies coming out of the closet as psychedelic mentors.It would be highly impropable that even one person in this board would stop abusing (and start USING) speed,DPT,LSD *insert some more wacky psychedelics here* if someone told them that "bad spirits will take away their soul if they continue abuse".

A more thought out,practicalself conscious mentality is required...

Sorry for being Sooo Looong and propably of the mark,but my intention is to spur some conversation!

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	All 3 posts		Subject: Drugs Are Inanimate Objects		Please login to post		Down


		Jade (soccer mom) 10-16-04 19:04 No 536105				Drugs Are Inanimate Objects (Rated as: excellent)
						Drugs Are Inanimate Objects A Guide to Their Culture and Effects by Michael Dare Let's say there are two rocks, one of which is used to hold down papers on someone’s desk, the other of which is used to bash someone's head in. Which is the "good" rock and which is the "bad" rock? Stupid question, right? There are no such things as good rocks or bad rocks. Rocks don't have morals. Rocks are inanimate objects that just sit there until an animate object such as a human being comes along and does something with it. What someone does with a rock can be judged good or bad because actions, and only actions, involve morals. Everyone who is animate is capable of doing good or bad things with whatever inanimate objects happen to be lying around. You may bash in someone's head with a rock, a trashcan lid, or a jar of facial cleanser, and the head will still end up equally bashed. It’s not the rock’s fault the head got bashed in, the trashcan lid is entirely innocent, and as far as the jar of facial cleanser is concerned, it was all in a night’s work of just sitting there until someone came along and did something with it. Let’s say we want to stop this horrible wave of people getting their heads bashed in. Would we go on a crusade against rocks? Round up people in possession of trashcan lids? Give mandatory minimum sentences to those found guilty of selling jars of facial cleanser? Such is the war on drugs. Drugs are inanimate objects. There is no such thing as a "good" drug. There is no such thing as a "bad" drug. Until an animate object comes along and does something with a drug, the drug will just sit there. Drugs, like the rocks and plants they come from, have no morals. The central lie of the war on drugs is that there are such things as good or bad drugs. There is no such thing as a "Schedule A" drug. All drugs are exactly the same. They are nouns, not verbs, subjects without predicates. They don’t do anything until they are modified. All nouns are good if used wisely. All nouns are bad if used stupidly. Inanimate objects have no agenda. If your child is killed by a moron in a car, you can join a campaign to ban all cars, or you can join a campaign to stop morons from driving cars. If your mother is crushed by a grand piano dropped from the 40th floor of an office building, you can picket Carnegie Hall to stop performances of Mozart piano sonatas, or you can devote your life to keeping idiots out of the piano moving industry. If your husband dies of alcoholism, you can send bombers to destroy the wine fields at Chateau Mouton Rothschild, or you can teach people to drink responsibly. And likewise, if anyone you know is killed or is ruining their life with illegal drugs, declaring war on the inanimate object involved is a hopelessly misguided activity. Your totally justifiable scorn must focus on the misuse of the inanimate object — be it guns, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, cars, pianos, bathtubs, jars of facial cleanser, or any other potential instrument of death. Every year an average of five people fall to their deaths while posing for pictures at the Grand Canyon. The canyon is obviously dangerous, but only to people who are stupid enough to climb out to the edge. This particular national park is of absolutely no danger to those of us who, upon gazing at a mammoth hole in the ground, are seized by no impulse whatsoever to walk to the very edge. Those dead tourists didn't purposely plummet to their deaths, though they are well aware of the danger they put themselves into when they climbed out onto those overhangs. They certainly don't get what they deserved; nobody deserves a painful death due to a minor lapse in judgment. But no one else is to blame, least of all the Grand Canyon itself. Most drug deaths are accidents too, which means they are no one's fault but the victim's. To blame the drugs themselves for these accidents is like blaming the Grand Canyon for the deaths of those tourists. The vast majority of tourists do not fall off the edge, and the vast majority of drug users live to tell the tale. It has been extremely frustrating for me to watch the current drug debate, which is being conducted by so-called experts who have never bought, sold, or used drugs. In the past, I’ve engaged in all three of these activities. The pundits are all basing their opinions upon second hand information, delivered by those whose beliefs are polluted by political agendas. I’m basing my opinions upon personal experience. There are many arguments against current drug policy that no one is making, perhaps because hard-liners find it particularly hard to face certain truths. The establishment has put so much time and effort into their massive propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the public that drugs are evil, that they now find it impossible to backtrack. Their propaganda machine has drilled into our heads the bad things that can happen if you find yourself doing endless hits of crack, heroin, LSD, speed, cocaine, ecstasy, or marijuana. They’ve got a point. Anyone who finds themselves addicted to any drug should probably seek medical help. What the drug war propaganda machine has failed to mention is that every drinker is not an alcoholic and every drug user is not a drug addict. In fact, the vast majority of drinkers and drug users do so responsibly. Some drinkers swill down scotch every day, beat their kids, and then go out drunk driving; others have an occasional glass of Bordeaux with their Caesar salad or an occasional Bud with their hot dog. Some pot users smoke up a storm and go out to rob drug stores; others have a small hit so they can stay home and giggle through an episode of Mad TV. Some cocaine users blast off the tops of their skulls with endless hits of crack, doing damage to themselves and their unborn babies; others, whose stomachs can't stand coffee, inhale a small line in order to stay up late for work. Products like Haagen Dazs ice cream kill overweight people with heart disease every day, but there’s no pending legislation to make it illegal. Ice cream is addictive and has absolutely no legitimate use other than it tastes good and it helped Robert DeNiro gain weight for Raging Bull. Nobody needs the threat of a jail sentence not to make pigs of ourselves. If every action deserves an equal and opposite reaction, then the drug war list of all the bad things drugs can do needs to be countered by a list of all the good things drugs can do. Here’s a bit of the information the drug war is leaving out of its propaganda . . To read the rest of this you can either go to this link http://www.freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/drugs_inanimate_objects.htm or this pdf file There's a terrorist behind every Bush.



		Trenchcoat (Hive Bee) 10-17-04 09:18 No 536167				living rainbow crystal
						This article does not take into account the Living Rainbow Crystal, which is alive but has no conciousness of its own. In this way it is like other simple forms of life: made of organic building blocks but having no brain. Also in addition to being paperweight rocks and headbashing rocks there are also crackrocks. I would tend to say that paperweight rocks are good, headbashing rocks are bad, and crackrocks are revolting. Better loving through chemistry.



		Psiloman (Stranger) 10-17-04 14:27 No 536184				Its a shame...
						Its a shame that when someone posts articles like that not many people respond and they seem to go by unobtrussively without commentary.Of course these are chemistry boards and more weight is dropped on ...(it goes without saying)...CHEMISTRY! I think i will break the monopoly of chemists (im not one,but i am very fond of this science) and respond to this passage. Overall i liked it.It states the obvious,but it needs to be stated anyway since "logic" is not what governs our life.If "logic" governed our lives there would be no wars,no greedy people,no bombings with nukes and no terrorism.Why? Because what is more "Logical" than helping this planet to resemble paradise day by day than a hellhole? After all we are all gonna die,and we arent gonna take our wealth,our oil reserves,our fame,our "selection of beautiful women and handsome men that cherished us" in our graves.Be it a DEA officer,a drug addict,a glorious chemist,a politician,a preacher or that poor man hanging outside of the liquor store we are all going to die.Are we gonna wait for afterlife for things to get better?In fact ,we arent even sure if afterlife exists! So,after injecting some more logic in this discussion even a D.A.R.E officer could understand that "drugs" are not bad or good.Nice,im halfway in reforming the DARE programme,drug laws and universal drug additude! Hang on am inute though! Is the author of this passage forgeting something? In my opinion YES.Although good the passage looked very simplistic,tottaly oblivious of human nature.I agree that heroin could be a safe painkiller if used correctly and that coke could aleviate alot of pain and be a nice stimulant.Yes,speed could even help scientists in focusing on a lecture or carrying out a long and painstaking experiment. Human nature though tells us that this is a utopia or more correctly put a Eutopia (cmon polish your Greek terminology!) with very thin chances of being implemented on reality. Our species is too immature to make good use of such powerfull tools.If we were more strong at will,more "serious" and at the same time more humorous about our existence the 60's and all the psychedelics it involved would have changed the world into heaven that the writer proposes. Drugs would be our "allies" and im not talking castaneda here.THey would be tools and helpers. So ,being realist what can we do to even aproach to the slightest the Eutopia the writter suggests? Well,one could start with mass lobotomy of the population but...hang on a minute...schools and TV do that already! Next solution would be intervening in our genetic code to make us more "wise" less of "mindless pleasure seekers"...BLTC and transhumanism come to mind.FOr the time being though,lets suffice ourselves in correct education on psychoactives. A correct education doesnt fill your head with "lotsa info on drugs".The internet has "been there,done that" and although there are many brilliant people discussing and seriously researching drugs ,there is also a big portion of people using this info to....ruin themselves in even more destructive ways than if they stayed into the loving arms of their dealers! "Mentality" must be infused as well,a role that religion once played very well in keeping people free of drug problems.Religion was effective ,but please we wouldnt want to see more "sects" and more loonies coming out of the closet as psychedelic mentors.It would be highly impropable that even one person in this board would stop abusing (and start USING) speed,DPT,LSD insert some more wacky psychedelics here if someone told them that "bad spirits will take away their soul if they continue abuse". A more thought out,practicalself conscious mentality is required... Sorry for being Sooo Looong and propably of the mark,but my intention is to spur some conversation!

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