Interrupting Cow Here.



r e b u t t a l , p a r t o n e
legalize ALL drugs? no!
by Morbus

I read a lot, and per se, agree and disagree with quite a lot too. Some writings I just ignore, and some I just move into a folder and wait until I feel like tackling them. This was one of those pieces. See, I've been strapped for decent things to write about as the other duties of Disobey have prevented me from even watching the Nightly News. Thus, I clean out the folders in search for a gem.

And lookie what I got here. I don't remember where it came from, who wrote it, or how long ago it was written. All I know is that it's about legalizing every now-illegal drug in America.

Um. No.

Let me first say that I have never taken an illegal drug in my life (much less inhaled). The closest I have been to a drug was being in a car while three other people passed the bong and "hit it like a cake, g". So, perhaps I am not eligible to write this article. If you think that, fuck you... I'll write it anyways.

The person who wrote this little piece, which grabbed my attention so dearly, broke it down into eight major points... the first being "the war on drugs is not a war on drugs". He (and I use "he" out of convenience not out of sexual determination) complains that "people with harmless drug habits... are thrown in jail, ridiculed by fellow citizens, or even killed".

Awww... poor baby. Don't try to turn drug users into compassionate human beings. The reality is not that the police are attacking you because you are you, and you have weirdo hair, and they don't like you because you burn too much fucking incense to cover the ganja ("man"), but because, in THEIR eyes, you are doing something illegal. It doesn't matter if you and everyone else in the country thinks its "a-ok".... our current law says that it's a no-no, and you gots to pay whether you think it's wrong or not.

Take, for instance, Evil Jack. Evil Jack likes to kill people because he thinks it's fun, he likes it, and it gives him the biggest hard-on and the best buzz you ever did see. He thinks it's just dandy to go around and murder everyone... it FEELS good. It still does not make it right. I'm sure there are some people in the world who think child pornography and fucking their hoe of a sister is ALL RIGHT. That doesn't make it legal.

The writer goes into paranoid wanderings about how the police can bust down your door under the guise of drugs even though "they are looking for something OTHER than drugs". Fucking horseslobber... these cops nowadays... they never give criminals a chance anymore!

The second point complains that "government prescribed crack would provide a system to monitor usage, ie... who is an addict and needs help", "people would no longer have to pay ridiculous prices... causing a decrease in theft and related crime" and "dealing with drugs lords would no longer be an issue". Ultimately, this point is bunk. Did you read of those five 12 year olds selling Ritalin on the playground? They had their own little racket going on... no longer will you be worried about drug lords taking out a leg or so, but more about Charlie taking your homework because you couldn't pay for the latest shipment.

Government regulation would only prolong the inevitable: an easier way for the drug to get into the hands of normal people. Doctors over-prescribing it to patients, their wives, and themselves. Patients and passerby's stealing it from storage rooms at hospitals, and little kids jacking into their neurotic father's supply.

His third point argues against the idea that people would use legalized drugs as a "scape goat to personal issues" and that he'd rather be in a room "with a friend" who is high "than a slobbering alcoholic with absolutely no intellect". Well, how smart is your friend? I don't think I'd be in a room with anyone if they had absolutely no intellect, whether they were drunk or not (although time tells about stupid people becoming rather funny when they are drunk). He goes on to say that people will switch off alcohol to other "forms of reality escape".

And here I go: do we REALLY need to escape reality? Where can we go? Is it not enough that our dreams are filled with such twisted thoughts that while they even minimally represent facets of our day to day life, they are still fucked up beyond recognition? Can we not escape reality by watching soap stars talking to miniature people and asking for help from a reflection of themselves a la Snow White? Here's a thought: we need reality to escape from reality. You smoke reality to have DISTORTIONS of reality, not something that has never been imagined. If you want to "escape" reality, read a fucking book or watch a movie. Engross yourself in celluloid and paper and not grass. Sure, it takes a little more time than flicking your Bic, but hey, YOU MIGHT remember OR learn SOMETHING!

But, I digress... the fourth point cautions against thinking that "drug addicts kill people, and are crazy" and continues "who would you want to be locked in a room with, a slobbering drunk with a shotgun or someone who has smoked a lot of pot and has a shotgun?". The writer has come to the point of using alcohol as a crutch. First it was the big bad cops assaulting our civil rights and freedom. Now, he's comparing another drug to lessen the negativity of another. He gives little concrete reasoning for why legalizing his beloved drugs is important, and more reasons why illegalizing alcohol is paramount.

The article splits at this point... at first concerned with the misconceptions of legalizing drugs, he now moves into arguments FOR the legalization. These will be addressed in the exciting conclusion of this REBUTTAL series... coming next issue.




p a r t t w o
g. nih ton saves you
by g. nih ton

[BEFORE-WE-BEGIN-NOTE-FROM-MORBUS: A long ass time ago (back in issue Twenty Three), G. Nih Ton started a series about how to save the world / universe. His first piece was published, his second piece was received, and then he disappeared off the face of the Earth. We don't know where he is. Some people think that is good. Recently, this piece resurfaced as we were going through our archives of "publish me" stuff. We present it here just to get it out of our faces.]

Second step: No matter how many times I attempt to look past this step, it always comes back. Eliminate the PSA. It's a tragedy that every time I get a commercial break on the square god, there always has to be some sadass celebrity attempting to tell me what is best for everyone. Read a book, talk to my child, stay in school, and I could go on for hours. This is about as bad as those interviews on GMA and Today where some soon to be has been can't support the movie he never got cast in but really wanted to, but has come to support Literacy Plus or some bullshit PSA throat stuffer like that.

We don't need celebrities to tell us what to do, and most importantly we don't need to listen to them. Honestly, anyone who picks up a book by Salinger because someone from Friends suggested it to the millions of people who were supposed to be taking bathroom breaks is a fucking moron. The same applies to anyone who got on the wagon because Dennis Franz did a plug for AA. Sure, these are good things to do, but if the motives are all wrong, then what's the point?

If you're looking for answers, I don't have any. PSAs will be around as long as celebrities get community service instead of actual jail time. All I can do is suggest that you run up to these celebrities who plug these so-called causes and do the opposite of what they want you do to. If it's one of those pansy ass losers whose only threat of parenthood was in a script, grab a child, stand in front of him and beat the hell out of the little bastard, all the while yelling "Patience got me nowhere, now I've got to hit him harder!" That should tell them it's all a joke.

All in all, I am thoroughly convinced that the only way to successfully change the world is to get people to understand they're fucking up through their own sight, and not some sanctimonious piece of shit prick who makes more money in a year than three generations of your family ever will. Hell, if I had that much money, I'd pay someone to solve my problem, write down a way of how it was done, get it run on tv so that I too could sell the secrets of success and people would listen to me because I was rich.




judgments
send us an email

98-Aug-03
Bryan.Johnson@rnb.com

your views on drug reform are way off base and dangerous. without going into too much detail, i think you've oversimplified the issue ad absurdem. you say drugs ruin lives; in some cases, yes, they do. so does alcohol, so do cigarettes, so does gambling, all which are legal and controlled by the state.

drugs ruin more lives though mandatory major sentencing for possessing minor amounts of drugs, infection with hiv though use of illegal syringes and stigmatising what to some people is, simply put, self medication (remember, the 'big three,' pot, coke, and heroin all had/have documented medical benefits.)

the rant, appealing to baser fears and lacking any attempt at researching the subject, is indicative of where your newsletter has been heading the last couple months.


98-Jul-30
slough@rintintin.colorado.edu

For those of you who are unfamiliar with me, my name is Chris and I write for the collected works section of Disobey. Upon reading the new Devil Shat, it occured to me that I have never sent Morbus a response to any of his numerous articles. Well, that's changed. This piece concerning the legalization of drugs brings up many interesting points which need to be adressed from myriad perspectives, as it is a convoluted and oft misrepresented topic.

I enjoy smoking marijuana. It's not something I do every day, or even every other day. But it's something which I have participated in for many, many years. Why do I do this? It's not an escape from reality. How does one escape from reality anyway? I suppose if you ate a .44 slug that might do it...but I enjoy this reality far too much to make a run for it. The reason I smoke is more for a religious purpose than anything else. I don't mean to say that I'm some white-dread trustafarian with a Pathfinder and cellphone, touring with Phish because they're, like, SO spiritual. I mean that smoking gives me a connection to something larger than what my 5 senses are capable of registering on a normal basis. Reality doesn't become distorted when I smoke, quite the opposite in fact. The quantized nature of the universe becomes more apparent to me, and I become reaquainted with the fact that I live in a place and time where the obvious isn't the truth at all, but a box for mankind to hide it's head in because it's warm and it comfortably blinds you. Who is truly hiding from reality? All of us...That's who. By watching T.V., by working at a job we hate year after year because we feel obligated to pursue the "American Dream", by legislating morality on those around us even though we live in a country which supposedly gaurantees our right to pursue happiness so long as we don't step on the toes of another.

One can't compare the desire to smoke pot with the desire to murder someone. One can't compare freedom of choice with freedom to maim. The biggest problem with America is a complete lack of character, integrity, and common sense. Should people have the right to use drugs? Absolutely. Will Americans ever enjoy that freedom? No way. We're too selfish, we're too irresponsible. We're a nation of obsessive-compulsive neurotics who care too much about other people's business as opposed to truly scrutinizing our own personal hang-ups. You can thank the media and the White House for that, but that's an entirely different tirade.

This issue of legalizing drugs is a moot point because it won't happen for hundreds and hundreds of years, if at all. If you compare our country to a human being, the U.S. is the equivalent of a smart-ass teenager who thinks he knows how the world works. Many other countries have succesfully de-criminalized cannibus and regulated other hard drugs. Their success lies in the trust that the government puts in its citizens. Our government would sooner shoot us than trust us, which they do everyday. In the name of justice, no less.

I realize that this email has rambled all over the place, you might even think I'm stoned, but I'm not. I just get irate living under this false pretense of freedom when I can't even smoke a plant that grows wild in nearly every climate. As for other drugs...Well, if you're responsible enough to keep your shit together and not get behind the wheel of a school bus after freebasing a pile of meth, then do it. You're a free person, are you not?


98-Jul-30
hugh@denoncourt.com

I felt the murderer who gets high from what he does (they do exist), and the child pornography thing is a pretty poor analogy (you tried to make such thinking analogous to the thinking employed by those favoring drug legalization). The point about those crimes is that they actually cause harm to other people, whereas drugs tend to cause damage (if you can call it that) only to the user.

To me, the main thrust of drug legalization is that people are being thrown in jail for causing absolutely no harm to others or the property of others. There are many such crimes on the books (among them include the illegality of oral sex, anal sex, etc) and the term "consensual crime" is attached to them all.

Whether or not you feel consensual crimes should be legal or not depends on what you feel laws should or should not do. If you feel laws should protect people from causing harm to themselves or should protect them from acts of stupidity (that don't harm anyone but themselves) then of course you will feel certain consensual crimes should be illegal. I personally believe people have the right to fuck up, to cause harm unto themselves as they please and that there are many many many things that are legal which can cause serious harm.

In the drug category, you simply need take an over-the-counter drug in a high enough dose to kill yourself or cause harm to yourself. I agree that the author you criticized focused a little bit too much on alchohol, but it is a prime example of something legal which causes harm to oneself. Of course you can eat a lot of red meat daily and have worse effects, yet red meat remains legal. Pesticides are legal, pollution is legal, and yet these are things that harm others and not merely the users.

As far as the motivation of drug usage being to "escape from reality", I know that there aren't a lot of drugs that actually are strong enough to allow you to do this. Most moderate drug usage of even the stronger drugs does not throw you from one reality to another. Rather, the effect tends to be that of altering your view of reality. Looking at reality in another light, or from another point of view is not bad in my opinion because you are still dealing with reality and care about reality. And though I feel there is no need for drugs in the production of original ideas, those ideas about reality are seldom felt without the use of some altered state of mind (not necessarily drug induced, but drugs suffice).

Another often-used justification of drug usage is the reported ability to get in touch with the unconscious mind more easily under the influence of certain drugs (typicall dissociatives and hallucinagens). People often have higher dream recall after adrug experience(of the right type) and lucid dreams are also reportedly of higher frequency after one. I think this defies "escaping reality" and is more along the lines of "confronting your unconscious" or at least "learning more about your unconscious".

Anyhow, I see the illegalization of drugs as a harmful suppression of a potentially innocent (presuming people use drugs correctly and wisely) submission to the naturally curious drives most people have.


98-Jul-30
tcmeyers@usit.net

You wrote a thoughtful essay on why drugs should not be legalized, but you neglected to mention that anyone who wants drugs can get drugs anyway. So the only effects of drugs being legalized would be: (1) Less crime and violence from drug-related problems, (2) FDA-regulated drugs that would not be spiked with whatever unknowing dealer might add and would therefore be less harmful, (3) All the idiotic "war on drugs" funding can go to more worthy causes like, oh, feeding the starving, (4) One less problem, druggies running out of money and resorting in turn to more illegal activies, will be antidoted. These are minor problems, perhaps, but no BAD comes out of legalizing drugs - the "war on drugs" is hardly helping. The most important thing about the breakthrough would be that (5) Ads with cute cartoon characters would be in magazines to lure stupid people to crack and heroin. Wheeee! Not since Joe Camel have we had such a great form of natural selection-the perfect way of weeding out the stupid people! Wheeee!


98-Jul-30
Steve4774@aol.com

I love your guys magazine, but where in the hell does that one guy get off putting the shaft on drugs like that?

Try some one day dude! You might just like them. I always say, if you haven't tried something, than you shouldn't say anything about it!

Just expressing my feelings, keep the mags coming! You guys rule!

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Devil Shat Thirty Two was released on 07/30/98. Last updated: 08/10/98.