[NondualitySalon] THE PROBLEM WITH ANTI-DRUG FAIRY TALES (article)

[Guest guest]

Bruce Morgen wrote:

> Bruce Morgen <editor

>

> THE PROBLEM WITH ANTI-DRUG FAIRY TALES

>

> Salim Muwakkil.

>

> Carl Sagan, the late astronomer and prolific author, once wrote a

> pseudonymous essay touting marijuana as a stimulus to his intellectual

> work.

> In fact, according to an article by his biographer in the Aug. 22 San

> Francisco Examiner magazine, Sagan was an avid pot smoker for most of his

>

> life.

> Not surprisingly, news of the influential astronomer's smoking choice

> had

> to hide under a pseudonym or wait until his death, lest he suffer

> America's

> puritanical wrath.

> It's the same wrath currently being ducked by George W. Bush, as he

> refuses to answer questions about his "rebellious" youth. It's a

> wrath--fed

> by ignorance, mythology and selective morality--that condemns drug use as

>

> irredeemably evil.

> But the Carl Sagan model of the drug user has been more my experience.

> To

> be specific, some of the most creative and productive people I've known

> also

> have used drugs.

> I say that not as an advertisement; for I've also encountered those

> drug

> abusers who have made their (and their families') lives miserable. But as

> one

> who has witnessed the social carnage of the imbecilic war on drugs, I

> find it

> increasingly difficult to tolerate the simple-minded propaganda employed

> for

> that war.

> Thus, Bush's current travail offers a rare opportunity to provide a

> more

> realistic portrayal of the typical drug user. While on one hand I support

>

> Bush's decision to end the inquisition into his wayward past, I still

> urge

> him to fess up if he has used drugs.

> Aside from the political benefits of candor, his admission would help

> transform the perception of drug users from stereotypes of depraved

> sociopaths to something closer to reality. But it's an uphill climb.

> In order to justify our punitive treatment of those who use illicit

> substances, our cultural media demonizes them and wildly exaggerates the

> dangers of the drugs. This "bogeyman strategy" not only insults the

> intelligence of adult Americans, it also does little to discourage

> substance

> abuse.

> Couldn't agree with you more but..."Dubya" is the tough guy governor

 

of a mean, tough state that does terrible terrible things to people in the

nameof "The War on Drugs". How fair is it that he didn't get caught while

others

are doing hard time for perhaps no more than he did?? Now if he were the

governor of Vermont, for example, it would be much easier to fess up.

Love, nora

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

But until folks like George "Dubya" comes clean, or someone with as

> high a

> profile as Carl Sagan can candidly express his affections for pot, we're

> stuck with anti-drug fairy tales and erroneous notions that competence

> and

> drug use are mutually exclusive.

> ----------

> E-mail: salim4x

>

> Copyright Chicago Tribune

>

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