If you buy psuedophedrine in Kentucky, there’s a computer system that keeps track of it. If you buy too much, the computer (and, more importantly, the police) decides you’re probably making meth.

Governor Steve Beshear has touted this program’s effectiveness, and now psuedophedrine manufacturers agree. They’ve helped put together the National Precursor Log Exchange, which helps officials track purchases nationwide, if state law allows for it.

The program might help identify possible meth dealers, but LMPD Sgt. Stan Salyards told the C-J that NPLEx is just one tool, and still requires police work and officers on the street.

Since the 1980’s, the government and media have warned the American people about the dangers of drugs like cocaine, heroine and LSD.  The Reagan administration even went so far as to call the anti-drug crusade the “War on Drugs.”

Hard drugs like crack, PCP, and methamphetamines are dangerous, not to mention morally wrong.   However, I believe that all drugs should be legal because the collateral damage from anti-drug legislation does as much or more damage than the drugs themselves.

According to the United States Department of Justice one out of every fifteen U.S. citizens will serve time in a state or federal prison at some time in their life.

The problem is even more appalling among men and minority communities.  A 2000 study by the Department of Justice estimates that 18% of all African Americans, over 11% of all men, 32% of all black men and 17% of all Hispanic men will serve prison time.  Of the 1.3 million American citizens these numbers represent, 21% of state and 57% of federal inmates are serving time for a drug offense.

There are two major flaws in the reasoning behind the war on drugs.  First, people assume that harsh penalties will deter young people from becoming involved in the drug trade – the opposite is true.  Second is the assumption that eliminating drug dealers eliminates drugs.  In actuality it simply creates a job opening.

Many drug dealers sell drugs, often on a smaller scale, for the first time as a young child.  As anyone with children will tell you deterrents are at best only partially effective on young people.  Children have no concept of time and no concept of their own limitations.  They also rarely understand the long term consequences of their decisions; that is what parents are for.

These kids may only make a couple hundred dollars a week selling drugs, but ask any thirteen year-old to choose between doing their homework or making $300 and see what they say.  While a rational adult may see that those couple hundred dollars aren’t worth sacrificing an education, for that child, especially a poor child, school takes on a less important role.

By the time many of these kids are seventeen year old crack dealers they’ve been selling drugs for the better part of a decade, have little in the way of an academic knowledge base, and still are too young to be expected to understand the consequences of their actions.

It is ludicrous for our society to expect a poor teenager, let alone a young child, to be deterred by the long-term disadvantages of dealing drugs especially with cocaine priced at between $12,000 and $35,000 per kilo, according to a study by the DEA.  It’s equally unrealistic to expect a teenager with no options to give that kind of lifestyle – one in which they may make as much money as a doctor or lawyer – up for a job at Burger King.

The idea that putting dealers behind bars will stem demand is even sillier.  Nobody stops using drugs because their favorite drug dealer has been locked away; they just go to someone else.  Drug addiction is much too powerful to be stopped by inconvenience, as are the underlying issues that lead to drug use in the first place.  The only way to rid ourselves of the problem is to study and treat drug users.

By outlawing drugs, we’ve simultaneously fueled gang violence, driven prices down, increased production and created and unregulated black market for the banned substances.  It is no coincidence that gang violence surged to unprecedented heights in the eighties and nineties as crack became king of the American underbelly, nor should this link surprise anyone.

The key to understanding why the war on drugs has failed is simple economics.  In a free market economy, which is what we’re talking about in its most pure form, competition drives price down and quality and convenience up.
That is why, according to a report by Mary Cooper, drugs are more pure, cheaper, and easier to find than ever.  It’s also why more drugs are being cut with Drain-o and rat poisoning – drug dealers need to cut costs.

Competition also causes is conflict.  People fight most ferociously when something tangible is at stake.  Pride or respect may be the focus of romanticized Hollywood movies on the subject, but money transformed the American gangbanger from neighborhood ruffian into cold-blooded killer.

The lack of regulation, however, has been equally important and has had equally tragic results.  Overdoses kill thousands of people each year.  If drugs were legal, purity could be regulated and drugs would be cut with benign substances people would have a better idea for how much they were taking and overdoses would become far less common.

Luckily, the problems caused by the war on drugs can be fixed fairly easily: by legalizing, commercializing, and regulating all drugs.  Many of the proposed changes, especially those related to marijuana, are similar to policies regarding alcohol.

I propose that marijuana use be restricted to adults aged eighteen and older and that hard drugs be restricted to those twenty-one and older.  Furthermore, it should be illegal to use marijuana outside of one’s own residence and specially-designated clubs as the smoke may cause others to become intoxicated.

While marijuana may be treated in much the same way as alcohol, it is actually less dangerous and much less addictive, hard drugs are an entirely different animal.  Drugs like crack and heroine are dangerous, overdoses often result in death, and they are very addictive.

Commission of any crime while under the influence of hard drugs should result in a significant extension of the normal sentence.  The amount of time added should be doubled in the event of a serious violent crime like murder, rape, attempted murder, or any crime involving the use of a deadly weapon.

Overdoses would be greatly reduced by rating (and restricting) the purity of drugs and this information would be clearly indicated on whatever container is used for public distribution.  Limitations as to what drugs may or may not be cut with would serve to further protect the public.

Heavy taxes and difficult-to-obtain distribution licenses (for hard drugs) would facilitate a swift takeover by large corporations or government-owned monopolies.  This would eliminate small distributors and, therefore, allow for strict government and quality control.

Our country would also reap the benefits of what Cooper estimates as a 400 billion dollar industry which, given time, could be entirely home grown.

In addition to the enormous new revenue stream provided by taxing that industry, our government could less on prisons ($20,000 per inmate per year), law enforcement – 17.8 billion per year according to Cooper’s study, and court costs – 621,000 jail inmates in 2000, according to a report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

With nothing tangible to fight about, gang violence should decline steadily and police would be allowed to focus on enforcing other areas of the law (Murder, Rape, Home Invasion, etc.) rather than wasting their time and our money making drug busts (job openings).

More importantly, without a field of work promising fast money with little or no education or experience, more young people could focus on school and achieve their vast potential.

Since the 1980’s the government and popular media have done everything in their power to sell us on the benefits of the “War on Drugs.”  I’ve probably heard a thousand accounts of how drugs ruined an addict’s life, or how a young child was caught in the crossfire of a local gang war.

What I have not heard, unfortunately, is how the war on drugs has aggravated and, in some cases, created peripheral problems like gang violence and drug overdoses.

The war on drugs has created a “career” requiring no experience, education, and with no age limits; where it’s possible to make tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks; one that often ends in prison or worse.  By legalizing drugs, I seek only to eliminate the temptation caused by the drug trade.

Legalizing drugs will not eradicate drug use, but it will greatly reduce peripheral problems like drug overdoses, gang violence, crowded prisons, and the damage done to drug dealers.  If we cannot prevent people from using drugs (we can’t), the least we can do is limit the collateral damage.

By now, many of you have heard at least some of the national — scratch that, global — coverage on the tasing of a young girl, ten years of age, that occurred in good ‘ol Ozark, Arkansas. Let me state, for the record, that I do not live in Ozark, AR. I, in fact, live approximately two hours away from Ozark, AR, and therefore have no vested interest in this town or its police force. Now, I will state for those of you that are “in the know”, I do have a cousin that works for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department. Ozark, AR, is located within the confines of Franklin County, but the event being disclosed and discussed heretofore involved only the Ozark local city police department, and has no bearing or reflection on the county office (nor do my observations contained herewith).
All that aside, let me begin. For those of you determined to crush the media machine and all the evil propagandizing and fear-mongering that it solely exists to support and propel at the masses by not watching or reading material from any news network, I’ll recap here: a cop tased a 10-year-old girl. Also, the Smoking Gun has posted a copy of the police report here. The story goes that the officer was called to the young lady’s residence by her mother. Why? Because the little hellion apparently did not want to go to bed. In the official report, the officer states that he observed “screaming, kicking, and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her”. The mother tried to put the girl in the shower multiple times while the officer was present, in an attempt to get her ready for bed. Let me temporarily terminate our tale at this juncture.
….Um, WTF? Let’s look at this again. A woman — a woman with a 10-year-old child — called the police because her daughter was kicking and screaming, wouldn’t get in the shower, and did not want to go to bed? Let me say this again. She had an officer dispatched to her residence because her young daughter was acting like….a young girl. Egads. Holy poo. Either I completely failed to recognize the actual usefulness of the local authorities, or this woman just took time out of a cop’s tax-paid salary to help her put her daughter to sleep. Mom, there are many more efficient, not to mention much more cost-effective, ways in which to accomplish this. Here are a few that begin with the letter “B”:

1) Benadryl — winter is rolling around, I’m sure the girl has the sniffles, they make the stuff taste like frikkin’ cotton candy, and she’ll be down for the count in 10.

Bubble Gum?! Yumma dum dum! I'll have mine with some Sailor Jerry!

This is a buckle that can be attached to said belt. I chose this one because it speaks to me personally, and this design remains upon my arse to this day as a constant reminder of what happened when I chose to disobey my parents.

Yeah, this one, too.

Now, having said that, I’ll move on. So she’s alerted the authorities to the domestic terrorism that is apparently taking place in her home. The officer arrives promptly at the residence, probably thinking something to the effect of, “I know this bitch did not call the five-oh because her kid ain’t co-operatin”. At least, that’s what I would be thinking. He enters the home upon the mother’s admission and observes the child flip-floppin’ on the floor and, in general, being a wild hellspawn creature that is more than likely the result of poor child-rearing on the part of her parents. Remember, I’m referencing the genius that decided to call the POLICE BECAUSE HER DAUGHTER WAS THROWING A FIT. F&$%, that’s not going to leave me for a while. The officer then makes “several attempts” to speak with the young girl, who is now balled up on the floor, screaming and crying. It’s at this point that the mother attempts to pick the girl up and put her in the shower, and the girl resists, apparently by kicking and screaming. Stop for a second. I’m just trying to think this out in my head…I’m 10 years old, I’m in trouble for causing a ruckus at my house, and my effing mother has just called the cops on me, who have just shown up at my door. I can only imagine what is going through the head of an actual 10-year-old at this point, but my “fight or flight” reflex would have kicked in the moment I realized my ridonkulous mother actually just called the cops. “Balled up on the floor” my ass — I would have “vacated the residence” and caught the “next train to Georgia”, then “lived in squalor” whilst trying to “make a decent buck”, and eventually landed myself “in jail” and “got raped”.

My mom called the cops on me when I was 10! What's your excuse?!

Jodi Sweetin: I just couldn't imagine calling the cops on my daughter when she turned 10 and then giving them permission to tase her. So I quit meth immediately when I found out I was pregnant!

I'm getting pissed just looking at this tantrum. Anybody seen my taser?

The look on Sister's face is appalling, but the pain reflected in Brother's is worse. And this was just ONE kick.

Did they just tase this guy? OR! Did someone just kick him in the balls? Yeah, can't tell at all, can you?

I'll get mine in blue.

This plant looks completely harmless doesn’t it?

One might even go as far as to say that it is “nice”.

You’re fucking WRONG!

That plant would slit your throat in your sleep. It would steal your car, rape your wife, burn your house down, commit grand theft auto, break and enter and possibly claw it’s own skin off, just for a little taste. A taste of what, you say?

SUNLIGHT

That might sound a little far fetched until it happens to you, and if you don’t believe me then consider the following information.

Have you ever seen the way a plant looks at sunlight? Just like a fucking meth addict. Yeah, I know, crazy right?  They are always looking for some illegal* shit to put inside themselves. Seriously, if you don’t believe me then move your house plant away from the window the next time you water it. I bet you fifty bucks that mother fucker moves by itself. How is that even POSSIBLE?! It has no fucking limbs! No muscle, no brain, no ANYTHING….  Except an unquenchable thirst for photons.

Hell, back to water, try not watering your plants for a while. I bet that they will overdose on sunlight without even thinking twice about the kids that live in your house and then what?!  BAM, you’re explaining the reason for your dead inhabitant’s selfish and inhumane ways. Have you ever tried to explain hardcore drug use to a five year old and how it pertains to the loss of a loved one’s life? Yeah, you should ride that train some day, non-believer. Hell, while you’re at it, you should just show them first hand by giving them illegal drugs. I bet you will believe me then.

I know, some of you may be saying, “Oh! But, Anthony, plants create oxygen! We need oxygen to live!”. You know what? Oxygen is a byproduct of drug abuse and so are hand-jobs, if that is the case then I say we forget about oxygen and just live off of hand-jobs. There is really no comparison when it comes to satisfaction, which is what life is about anyway.  Buzz Aldrin didn’t need oxygen on the moon and Sharks don’t need oxygen in the ocean so you know what I say? Fuck oxygen. Biochemical companies have plenty of oxygen in bottles anyway. If you really think you just have to have some then buy a few canisters. It’s probably cheap, considering it’s free if you go outside. Just like bottled water, use it and then throw it out of your car window while you’re driving through a national park.

If you don’t heed my advice then I sure as hell don’t want to hear about it when you wake up dead due to some seething lilac plant’s evil ways so fuck off with that noise, bro.

*Sun is illegal if you're serving a sentence and you are confined to solitary or if you live in hell.

Weed, grass, pot…let ‘em smoke it. Gay, homosexual, partners…let ‘em put a ring on it. Inconvenient, unintended, accident…let ‘em kill it. Decent, moral, compassionate…let ’em all just forget it.

When I read an article by Jacob Weisberg in a recent issue of Newsweek, that is exactly the message I took away from it. Weisberg seems to think if enough people want to do something, every one else should just get out of the way and let them do it. My problem with this short-sightedness is that when anything goes, everything goes.

“Our forms of prohibition are more sins of omission than commission,” Weisberg writes in the article, titled, “Gay Marriage & Marijuana: You can’t stop either. Why that’s good.”* “Rather than trying to take away long-standing rights, they’re instances of conservative laws failing to keep pace with a liberalizing society.”

While I do think too many in the media would love it if Americans could just lounge around all day massaging their same-sex spouses, inhaling cannabis, eating Doritos and shooting babies with BB guns, I do think a majority of Americans still disagree. Certain elements of society — namely, the media — are “liberalizing,” but many Americans such as myself feel like a lot of this is being shoved down our throats. We are starting to choke.

Weisberg quotes the president, Barack Obama, saying, “‘I inhaled — that was the point.’”*  That is just one more reason I am glad I did not vote for the man. Seriously, even when he admits he consumed illegal drugs, Obama does it in a condescending way.

Pointing out that the bastion of conservative ideology, The New York Times, (can you hear my sarcasm?) has recognized gay unions on its wedding pages for the past seven years, Weisberg says this reflects “evolving social norms.”* I say this is just another example of a media outlet foisting its views on us.

Weisberg writes, “What’s advancing the decriminalization of marijuana is not just the demand for pot as medicine but the number of adults — more than 23 million in the past year…who use it and don’t believe they should face legal jeopardy.”*

Wow, I am amazed the “but Mom, everybody else is doing it” excuse can be used at any age now. Weisberg calls this the “evolving definition of the pursuit of happiness.”* I call this another example of our declining civilization.

Rome crumbled once the societal elites turned to hedonism. Is that the path we wish to travel? Should we let just anything go?

Discussing the relaxing of marijuana laws, Weisberg reports, “In L.A., you need only tell an on-site doctor at a walk-in pot emporium that you feel anxious to walk out with a legal bag of Captain Kush.”* Well, I have to stay up late to get this article done. How long before I can step into a walk-in methamphetamine boutique to pick up some Captain Keep-Me-Awake?

This is exactly my point. Where do we draw the line? When does it stop? Who is going to stand up and yell, “Enough!”? When are we going to realize what I said before — when anything goes, everything goes?

I do not think the problem is that society is becoming more liberal. I think the problem is that we are becoming weak and spineless.

We are too afraid of appearing judgmental. We are too afraid of being deemed politically incorrect. We are too afraid of causing offense.

I say the whole thing about not judging others is a load of crap. We judge others all the time. It is in our nature to do so. If I hurt your feelings and you think I am politically incorrect, go cry to your mama. If I offend, maybe you should be offended. Perhaps that is exactly what you need.

* Quotes from the article, “Gay Marriage & Marijuana: You can’t stop either. Why that’s good.” Newsweek. Nov. 9, 2009. (24).

Where?  Some crappy little town somewhere, right?

What?  Around the corner from my house, backing on to the park that all the local kids play at, and what is this I hear about the backyard being booby-trapped.  A neighbour was told by the police this afternoon that the backyard – whose gate was open – was booby-trapped in order to keep trespassers out.   Turns out the police scared a squirrel that was in the yard before they walked in, and the squirrel did not make it.

Nice.  Safe.  And to think I actually had one foot in this backyard picking up my neighbours soccer ball.

So this is what happened last night that lead to the surrounding area being roped off by the cops.

A suspicious chemical odour (acetone – which smells like nail polish remover) led authorities to a meth lab inside a home in one of the city’s most sought-after neighbourhoods.

Toronto police closed off a block of Woburn Avenue near Avenue Road, located in Toronto’s quiet Bedford Park community, while they investigated the duplex. The street address was 438 and 440 Woburn. These properties were sold in 2008 for $810,000.00 each to a developer who was going to tear them down and put up three houses.  The economy went south and the developer rented them out, in this case to an individual met over the internet.  

“This was a full methamphetamine lab,” Staff Sgt. Jim Qualtrough of the Toronto Police drug squad told reporters on Wednesday.

“What is particularly disturbing in this case is this lab is right in the middle of a residential neighbourhood,” said Staff Inspector Mario Di Tomaso. “Because of the volatile chemicals that are used, they are a great danger to neighbours.” 

If you look in this picture you see the house on the left and behind is the “chicken park” called that because of the KFC right beside it.  Pretty much anytime you are in the park, you can smell the fried chicken.  Local kids play there during the day with their parents and nannies.

No one was inside the home at the time of the discovery and as of Wednesday evening, no arrests had been made.

I guess there are some lessons to be learned from this fiasco.

1) Never rent to someone you meet over the internet

2) If you are going to run a meth lab, please keep it away from parks

3) Know your neighbours!

4) This area has been called desirable and ritzy.  What do you think that will do to my property value?

Today is Wednesday, November 18, 2009.  It is the 322^nd day of the year with 43 to go.

Today’s History

In 1883, the U.S. and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.
In 1886, the 21^st president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur died in New York.
In 1959, Ben-Hur the Biblical-era epic opened in New York.

Today’s News

Ninja Not
A Seattle man is in hospital with severe injuries after he impaled himself on a metal fence while pretending to be a ninja.  The man dressed as a ninja with the express intent of trying to rob and assault people.  Police say he was attempting to assault a woman who ran away from him.  He chased after her and tried to leap over a 5 foot metal fence, but failed to clear it properly.  He impaled himself one of the fence posts.  Police believe he may have been intoxicated at the time.

Uhm… I’m laughing so hard I’m not even sure what to say to this.  You’re pretending to be a ninja and you try to rob someone while pretending to be a ninja.  Then you jump over a fence, try to jump over a fence while pretending to be a ninja and you impale yourself…while pretending to be a ninja.  I need to understand why you are pretending to be a ninja in the first place.  The article describes the man didn’t climb up the fence and try to jump over, no, he tried to LEAP over the fence…a five foot metal fence with sharp spiky posts…while pretending to be a ninja.

Bungled Burglary
Portuguese police had to rescue a man who attempted to rob a grocery store because he got stuck in the window.  The man busted out the window and tried to crawl through but it was too small.  He even tried to take his pants off to make a little more room, but he just got even more trapped.  There was nothing for him to grab hold of so he could pull himself, so he was trapped in the window for 11 hours with his pants around his ankles.  Nobody even noticed him until the morning shift showed up the next day and saw him hanging in the window.  Then it took 2 hours for the fire department to break him out.  They took him to the hospital for his injuries, and then they took him to jail.

Well, at least he didn’t impale himself while pretending to be a ninja, but this is just as bad.  I know we’re all a little bit desperate because it’s a horrible economy and the holidays are coming soon.  We’re just trying to get by, but you know, if you’re going to lead a life of crime, you should be a little bit smarter about it.  I know my fat ass is not fitting through any windows any time soon, so I would try a different method of break-in.  You think!

Kannibal Kabob
Three Russian men are under arrest on suspicion of murder after police found dismembered body parts at a bus stop.  Police say the three men, who are homeless, attacked another homeless man, murdered him, and then ate him before selling the extra body parts to a kabob stand.  The men are charged with “setting upon a foe with knives and a hammer before chopping up his corpse to eat.”

So Russia is no longer on my Top Ten Places to Visit.  First, I’m disturbed that the Russians have an actual charge for this sort of thing.  “Setting upon a foe with knives and hammer before chopping up his corpse to eat,” indicating that this sort of thing might happen all the time.  In America, we just have murder, attempted murder, cannibalism, not an actual title but you know they do things differently in other countries.  Secondly, I’m disturbed that they don’t exactly say what happened with the kabob stand.  Did the body parts make it into a kabob?  Did someone buy a human meat stick and eat it?  I need to know.  It was like the only crime was “setting upon a foe with knives and a hammer before chopping up his corpse to eat,” but nothing is wrong in buying human body parts, or using body parts to make kabobs and meats.  Once again, foreign countries.  Yeah.

Drug Dealer Daddy
A Salt Like City mother is under arrest after it was reported that she gave her 9 month old child to a drug dealer.  The mother claims that she did not give her child to the drug dealer as payment for drugs, but so that the drug dealer could actually take care of the baby.  Someone reported the baby being in a local crackhouse and when police raided the place, they did find a 9 month old child there.  The mother is a meth fiend and she gave the drug dealer the baby’s Medicaid card and a note stating that the drug dealer would have guardianship.  Police say the bizarre thing was that the house was completely filthy but the baby was clean, healthy, taken care of and not injured in anyway.  The child is now in child protective custody.

Well, that’s pretty random.  Hmm, why don’t I let my local crack dealer take care of the kid while I’m gone this weekend, because that seems like a reasonable thing someone should do.  Now, I know when you’re a meth fiend you don’t usually make the brightest decisions, but I can’t imagine even the most doped up lunatic would think a crackhouse is a daycare center.  I guess it truly is bizarre that the dealer was seriously taking good care of the child.  I guess he was standing on the corner with the kid in a baby sling while he sold dime bags.  Take your child to work day.

Today’s Thought

If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than history.  ~Pierre Bayle

Waterford Chamber of Commerce President Paul McDaid today welcomed the news that 12 new jobs are to be created in the bedroom of a disused townhouse in Waterford City in what he described as ‘a pioneering economic venture’.

Speaking at the town hall, Mr. McDaid welcomed the entrepreneurs behind the new crystal-meth facility due to open next month. ‘Crystal production has long been associated with Waterford, and it is with great pleasure that I announce its return to Waterford City, innovatively tailored to meet the current market situation’.

Waterford recently witnessed the loss of its’ world-renowned Crystal industry amidst growing economic turmoil and a sharp reduction in consumer spending. The entrepreneurs behind the venture declined to comment to Not the News Ireland, preferring to remain anonymous.

Today I was rather “down” after a lousy art venue that did not pan out until I turned on the news and put life into perspective.
I listened to the story about how many Afghan children are getting more addicted to drugs at very very young ages because opium/heron is being
fed to children to keep them warm during cold, to soothe aches and pains and to help curb hunger.   http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5226111n&tag=related;photovideo
Every week more and more children are becoming addicts.  Their mothers are doing what the tribal elders tell them to do and the children and their mothers are becoming the latest victims of drugs in the stone-age life in Afghanistan.
Below is story that is another sad tale of society taking a turn for the worst for a new generation of children that will fight addiction probably their whole lives.
I think back to the stories of the unwanted children that the police try to “eradicate” in South America so the tourists aren’t affected by the addicted, glue sniffing, begging orphans. These children are forced into lives of crime and debauchery and often sniff glue to eleviate their hunger pangs -

I see these stories and wonder still why there is no real war on drugs? Why  can’t there be some effort to somehow harness the abuse of Afghanistan’s opium over production? Oh, maybe because Karzai’s corrupt government can’t even keep Karzai’s own brother from dealing. And how does a “warlord run” country like Afghanistan ever get a hold on their illicit opium when that is their biggest money cash crop for the people besides weapons making?          Who suffers for this greed? The children of course, another generation lost to addiction and living life in squallor in “Flintstoneville”.
My life sounds like whining about a hang nail compared to the scope of reality in which children are given opium just to fake their little bodies into not feeling winters chill. What the Hell? And then again, in America we have an over abundance of  “meth lab” babies and children. It makes me ashamed that we place no real value on changing this plight, on actually controlling  drugs.  I suppose there is no hope to curb drugs.  Meth can be made cheaply and easily. Money is not available and even if it was, does anything change? Would legalizing drugs change anything? At least our government would make a lot of revenue through taxes. What’s the answer?
Children are the future – but in Afghanistan, many children will never make it to adulthood to lead a productive life  –and what is productive in Afghanistan besides opium/heroin/hashish???

Published On Tue May 27 2008-  The Toronto Star

Saliha, a 4-year-old opium addict, sits on a hospital bed in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province May 26, 2008 with his sister Hamida, 10, and their addicted mother Malika, 35.ROSIE DIMANNO/TORONTO STAR

 

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN–Saliha is a recovering opium addict.  He’s 4 years old. His 10-year-old sister is an addict. His mother is an addict.  Scratch Saliha’s tummy and the wide-eyed child giggles. Press just a little harder and he bursts into tears. “It hurts,” he wails.  This is the soreness that occurs with opium addiction, along with the nausea, the cramping, the diarrhea, the listlessness. Somehow, the youngster has retained his baby fat, not yet taken on the skeletal appearance of a chronic opium user. But his growth has been stunted and Saliha looks more like a child half his age, lying on his mother’s bed in the drug-recovery section of a local hospital.

In Afghanistan, rehab – for the very lucky, the very few – can start as young as this. One patient on the ward, now gone back to his village, was a 6-month-old infant. They are only children. They never made a choice to use opium. It was put in their mouths – usually by their mothers – to still them, keep them quiet and docile.  This is what parents had been instructed to do, by their families, by tribal elders, by well-intentioned but uneducated quacks who believed opium to be the benign cure-all, or at least helpful therapeutic intervention, for everything that ails a person, and so very handy. They just didn’t know any better. Opium for colic. Opium for labour pains. Opium for women’s troubles. And, routinely, opium as pacifier to soothe a baby fussing, as babies do.  “They use it as a medicine for all kinds of illnesses,” explains Dr. Mobien Sultani, 31, who runs the Counter-Narcotics Drug Recovery program at this 20-bed unit in northern Balkh province, one of only two such specialized hospital wards in the country.   “The mothers of these children work very hard. Most of them are Turkmen carpet-weavers. In order to work, in their homes, they need the children to be relaxed, to sleep for a long time. So they put opium on their tongues.”  The problem, Sultani continues, is particularly rampant in northern Turkmen villages, where casual opium use has been common for decades. It was simply part of their culture. In one particular rural town, social workers from this hospital documented 3,500 opium addicts – nearly the entire population. It was their normal.     “They were addicted. They just didn’t know they were addicted,” Sultani sighs. “We’re seeing now more and more teenagers turning to heroin. They do this for the same reason that young people use drugs everywhere in the world – for the pleasant sensation it gives them, at first; because they’re idle, they don’t go to school, they can’t find jobs. But this is killing our communities. With few people working, because everyone is sitting around smoking opium or heroin, the bottom falls out of the local economy. Families either hide their addicts in the home – especially the females – or sometimes throw them out on the street. Then these people become garbage. Men, teenage boys, have to steal, they will even kill, to support their addiction.”
Once a nation that merely produced and exported narcotics – cranking out some 93 per cent of the world’s heroin last year – Afghanistan is now becoming internally subsumed by drugs: 920,000 users, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, out of which 120,000 are women.
According to a 2005 study, Balkh alone has 110,000 opium addicts – and this is a province that cultivated zero poppies last year, as concluded by a UN survey.   In fact, says Sultani, cannabis use – hashish, primarily – is the top addiction in Balkh, followed by opium, alcohol (despite the fact Afghanistan is a formally dry Muslim country) and heroin, the chemically refined version of opium. “The communities tend to accept hashish use,” says Sultani. “But heroin makes young people depressed, as well as useless. Heroin addiction is a big stigma for Afghans.” Saliha’s mother, Malika, 35, says she began taking opium following the birth of her first child 14 years ago.
“This is the medicine that was given to me. I didn’t know there would be side-effects for me and for my children.”  She entered the hospital with her two youngest kids a few weeks ago and, together, they have coped with the dreadful withdrawal symptoms.
For most female addicts, however, there is tremendous shame attached to admitting addiction. So they hide in their homes, growing increasingly detached and isolated. There are only six female beds in this facility.
Sultani has pleaded with the Ministry of Public Health to establish more such hospitals and increase his bed capacity to at least 50.
In another bed by the window, Khurma tells the familiar story – addiction born from delivery of her five children. The youngest, 12-year-old Khudi Bardi, is also a patient. They share this narrow cot.     “I was spending ($2) a day on opium,” recalls Khurma, 45. That would buy about two grams of opium every 24 hours. Doesn’t seem like much, in the way of cost, but the average yearly income in Afghanistan is only about $400. “My family could not afford it any more. I had to stop.”  Her son makes a ball with his fist, to express the agony of opium stomach pains. By age 10, he was stealing rice from the village to purchase the drug and also trafficking in narcotics – selling mostly to local women.
“I can remember when opium made me feel happy. I liked that feeling. But then it made me feel sicker and sicker. I was sick when I took it; I was sick when I stopped.  “But I’ll never start again.”  The in-patient detox program lasts for up to 40 days. Before qualifying for the treatment, applicants must attend three times a week, on an out-patient basis, while tapering off their drugs. Follow-up supervision – the hospital employs five social workers – extends for a year. Sultani admits there is a 40 per cent relapse among those who complete the program.     The Ministry of Counter-Narcotics operates 11 drug-education clinics in the province but this is the only facility with patient beds and detox capacity. Since it opened in December 2006, 376 patients have gone through the program.
“It’s not much but we do the best we can,” says Sultani. “The most important thing, though, is education, getting into the communities and making people understand about the dangers of opium, about harm reduction. We go into the schools, talk to the elders, at the shuras and in the mosques.
It is a very big job, a major challenge. But on our side, we also have Islam, which forbids the use of narcotics. Our faith is our strongest weapon.”

CAPLETON FEAT. METHOD MAN – WINGS OF THE MORNING (DZ REMIX) (zShare)

Imagine you’re Marty McFly and it’s 1955 out and you’re trying to make your dork pops do it with your hot mom so your hands will stop disappearing and you can live and shit. You’re dodging Biff at every turn and in general shit’s just poppin off. Your dad has no clue how to score chicks and refuses to face his ‘density’. So you rummage through the trunk of your Delorean in a desperate attempt to find anything that will facilitate the task at hand….hmmm…..a radiation suit, he’s never seen one of those….hmmm….my Walkman (or iPod since this is a modernization of this myth) he’s never seen one of those before.  So without having a custom Van Halen ultra-riff to blast his ears to oblivion with, the next runner up would have to be this song. This song is the ‘09 equivalent. This is ‘09 future music. The typa music to scare your old-timey dad into bangin’ your old-timey mom so you can be whole again. At least wait’ll we’re done. HYIIIIOOOOO!!!

DON’T FORGET ABOUT THIS!!!!

NEXT SATURDAY DAGGERIN’!!!!

BE THERE!!!

AMAZING MUSIC!!!

GIRLS!!!

WALMER!!!

An Auburn [Indiana] man was arrested Monday after police found a mobile meth lab on his moped, police said.

via  The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind..

Ok so in the interest of full disclosure, this opinion is coming from someone who never liked Agassi as a player.  I definitely rocked a pair of jean shorts with spandex underneath in the 10 and unders, but besides that, he annoyed me.  He was a hothead who cared more about flamboyant shots than winning and lacked worth ethic.  Actually, now I realize why I disliked him so much during the first part of his career – he was too similar to myself.  I was a hothead who care more about flamboyant shots than winning and lacked worth ethic.  Then during the second half of his career (post meth), he seemed incredibly fake with his lame kisses to the crowd after every match.  Now, with the stuff that has come out of this book, those lame kisses make sense…seems to me that he was thanking the crowd for putting up with him being an ass for a decade, and for being a methhead.

I guess that isn’t really what you were posting about…you seem to be questioning on whether or not this full blown memoir is a good idea, and why did he bother?  Before I answer fully, I’d really like to read the book first.  People need to take all these excerpts and interviews with a few grains of salt.  As in, he wrote the book for three apparent reasons: 1. A lesson for others so they don’t make the same mistakes 2. to make some dough 3. self-serving divulgence of information to clear his conscience 4. to get back in the spotlight.

Those reasons were not in order.  Anyone want to take a guesstimate as to the order of importance for those reasons? 2, 3, 1.  Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive, in my humble opinion.As for reason number 4, I really don’t know where that fits, could be in first position, could be in last position.

“But Jeremy, he already has so much money…no way is he writing this to make a buck.”  No, he is not writing this to make some extra cash.  He is writing this to make millions of bucks.  He is writing this because maybe it will be made into a ABC movie of the week HBO miniseries (do they do movie’s of the week anymore?)  That’s why all these excerpts are coming out…notice how they aren’t crazy revelations about his day to day training routine.  No, they divulge such info as the crystal meth use, hairplugs, hatred of his father…Agassi (and his publisher) are trying to sell freaking books.  Oh, and yes, Agassi and his wife have millions and millions of dollars (much of which they have done amazing philanthropic work with)…but he is probably relatively bored, and if telling his story is going to make him millions more, why not?

Wow, I really didn’t expect to come across so angry.  But I guess meth just does that to me.  I mean, talking about meth, not taking it.  Believe me, after seeing this clip, I steered clear.

I just heard this band on CBC Radio 3. Super catchy song. They sound like Metric, but better, and on Meth. It’s pretty sexually charged too. This girl must be into some kinky shit….

They dress pretty awesomely too. Maybe they’ll make an appearance on JuST B

This one is the whole song. No video though.