I generally do not have a lot of patience or tolerance with drug abusers. However, I am not a drug warrior. I do not believe in prohibition. I would really love to see marijuana be legalized. Would I smoke it? Probably not, just because I do not like the way it makes me feel. I would not even mind all the other controlled substances being legalized, regulated, and taxed. It would not totally eliminate the black market; that market will always be there. Do not believe me?, just take a look at Appalachian area with moonshine, or the smuggling and selling of untaxed cigarettes. Legalization would reduce the black market to a substantial degree but I digress.
I have personally seen drug abusers destroy their lives and the lives of their family, simply because they would not stop abusing drugs. The destruction came in the way of stealing from their family, physically assaulting their family, and in some instances, the death of a relationship between a husband and a wife, because one of the two would enable their child and the child's drug addiction. Because I have seen what it has done to some of my own family members (not in my immediate family), I do not have a lot of tolerance for drug abusers. Now, I do know that there are some individuals who have an addictive personality. There is something about them, and in a lot of cases it is hereditary, that keeps them on whatever their abuse. However, I still feel they could stop the drug abuse if they really wanted. I believe that in most cases, these people do not want to stop their behavior. By the age of 19, I had sampled almost all the Schedule I and Schedule II substances, more than once for most of them. I did not have a problem stopping any of them. I feel everyone should be able to stop using any of these substances, though it may be hard, if they actually wanted to.
con't after the jump
This brings forth the discussion of hypocrisy. Today, I was thinking about drug users and the effects they have on their families and society in general, while reading the medical records of the case I am working on. The individual in question had a severe drug problem. While I was castigating drug abusers in my mind, I had one of those epiphanies that smacks you in the face. I myself am addicted to a drug. I smoked my first cigarette at the age of four, and began to smoke regularly at the age 15. By regularly, I mean whenever I was out with my friends, before and after school, or any time that my parents would not find out. After I graduated high school and entered the workforce, I was smoking a pack and a half to two packs daily. After I joined the Navy, I began smoking like a chimney. I continued smoking after the Navy, but did try to quit on multiple occasions. At times I was semi-successful going months on end without smoking a cigarette. During law school, I actually quit for about six months in my last year, but allowed the stress of the bar exam to pull me right back in the grip of that demon weed. I continued smoking on and off after law school. However, even the birth of my daughter, nor a diagnosis and successful surgery removing cancer has been able to keep me from smoking. Oh, I have quit for months on end with occasional lapses after having a few drinks, and I have currently fallen off the wagon. As a matter of fact, it is time for a smoke break, be right back.
okay, I am back. So where were we?… Ah yes, I cannot totally quit tobacco. I do not care what anybody says, nicotine is a drug. In fact, I have read that it is more addictive than anything on the planet. So, am I a hypocrite because I am addicted to nicotine but have no problem casting aspersions ( or casting asparagus as Louis Gohmer would say; seriously, what a fucking idiot! East Texans have their heads up their ass) on drug abusers? I do not think so, and here's why: like all things, it is a matter of degrees. Yes, I cannot quit nicotine, and I judge those who cannot quit other drugs. However, I do not commit crimes for cigarette money, and I do not steal from my family for cigarette money. While smoking, I am not in an altered state.I am and not in danger of causing a car wreck and killing someone because I have smoked a cigarette. I am not in danger of overdosing because I smoked a cigarette. I am not in any danger of losing my job because my use of tobacco affects my performance. In short, everything that we think of when we think of drug abusers and alcohol abusers,we do not think of cigarette smokers. Now, I know some of the anti-smoking Nazis would disagree with me. You have seen them, one whiff of a cigarette from 50 yards away and they think they are going to die from secondhand smoke. Well, fuck them and the horse they rode in on. So, I say I am not a hypocrite. What do you say?
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