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Letters to the Editor

By Hempology | March 20, 2002


From MONDAY MAGAZINE

Wednesday, March 20th, 2002

Truth over Propaganda


Re: Just say what?, March 14-20


The truth! Just tell your kids the truth about drugs. Don’t allow them to be victimized by organizations which spew out lies and misinformation like a Pez dispenser. I’ve been a regular pot smoker for nearly 30 years (I’ll be 44 next week) and a sole-support single mom for the last 21 years. My only child is a healthy, productive, enthusiastic, well-liked, mature, socially-conscious young woman who knows the truth about drugs. I urge all parents of minors to question their kids’ eposure to the anti-pot propaganda that saturates out schools and communities. Anyone still embracing the notion that pot smoking leads to heroin usage, crime and family breakdown shoud learn the truth about pot and let go of the archaic, negative sterotype. Without such an awakening, progress is unlikely and our children deserve better.


Nancy Raycroft

Victoria



Recreation of Denial


John Threlfall, in his article Just say what?, presents himself as an example of a well-adjusted, successful person who is a daily pot smoker.


Having read what he said, I still hold the opinion that drugs support denial. Maybe Threlfall is an exception to this generalization but nevertheless I feel unesasy about his presenting himself as a role model of responsibility.


The best-known example is the person who drowns his sorrows in alcohol and inadvertently perpetuates them. But now I think the same is true of any psychoactive drug, including prescription drugs. Allopathy, a term describing western medicine, means treatment of symptoms. For example, for the last 30 years my mother has taken pills to control her blood pressure. This has permitted her to continue the self-destructive habits which raise her blood pressure. The pharmacopoeia is full of remedies, which suppress the symptoms of stress or depression and do not address the causes.


As I see them, “recreational” drugs are actually self-medication for the same problems. I will agree that I learned something important by taking hallucinogens, but it took me too long to understand that when you get the message, you hang up the phone. There is a price that is paid, and when you are smoking/drinking every day you are not in a position to see that.


The price is self-neglect, a greater or lesser dissipation, being in one’s head, not being grounded in body-awareness, not dealing ewith unresolved grief and trauma. And when you feel that joint burnt he back of your throat you suppress your knowing that this is not good for the body. The greatest philosopher (and dope-smoker) I ever met died of throat cancer.


Edward Butterworth

Victoria

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