Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Parents...Meet Your Newest Threat
take it from me. i am the result of my actions. we all are, whether we want to accept it 100% or not. i have made mistakes in my life and i am forced to deal with them everyday. there is a new threat that has been around, is easily available, and is totally legal in many states at the moment...including Georgia.
it's called Salvia Divinorium, and here is an article about it that came out yesterday about the "potential medical benefits". when i hear people talk about medical benefits in the same sentence as extreme psychotropic drugs without the advice of professionals...i do nothing but worry about a generation of kids thinking it's okay to self medicate. the fact is...no, i don't think drugs should be legal. people who are raised in an environment where they are more prone to use drugs as a coping mechanism don't get any advice from "professionals"...and when it comes to your mental health, you need nothing but advice before making bad decisions that could affect the rest of your life. mental health is something people take for granted, until they lose it. take it from me...i have experienced it, i have seen it time and time again with friends, and i worry about the kids i don't have yet as a result.
Salvia Divinorium is a scary drug with intoxicating effects that cannot be fully understood. the immediate effects after ingesting it have been linked to peyote, DMT, PCP, and the strength of the LSD available in the 1960's. if you think this is a cool thing, you should seek help...once again, take it from me. yes i've tried Salvia Divinorium, and i've tried it more than a few times. at first, i thought it was "cool" because it was so strong and intoxicating and it was and is as i write this completely legal to buy and own, at least here in Georgia. i went to all my friends and told them to try it, wrote about it, and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread! why wouldn't it be okay for me? here's why: you should be very concerned with any drug that suggests you have a sober sitter sitting next to you when you take it. now, why would they put that on the packaging itself? think about that "warning" for a minute. where else would you see that kind of warning? the fact is, you need someone to watch over you just in case you want to do something stupid, like jump out of a window or shoot yourself in the face like a guy reportedly did here hidden in this article suggesting the "potential medical benefits" that stemmed this blog. Salvia Divinorium is NOT to be messed around with. youtube is filled with videos of users getting high on it...for me, watching people laugh, fall down, and talk about insanity after taking it doesn't make me laugh...it makes me very concerned.
people who swear by marijuana say they will be "high till i die". i've been there. i understand that kind of talk. i've even said that...when i was HIGH! and i struggle everyday with it too as a result. but that philosophy makes me cringe with serious concern too. i wonder what their real potential in life could have been, if it weren't for a drug known to demotivate individuals to the point of being a lifelong loser with one thing always on their mind. sure we can talk about "moderation" until our ears fall off. i don't wanna hear about people who are able to function just fine from it. people who say that statement, are HIGH...or are at least the enablers in denial of the people who are HIGH! in my opinion, marijuana is NOT okay and should never be legal. and alcohol? yes, this is dangerous and personally i think prohibition should return. speaking of, drunk driving is something that can easily be prevented...by the police sitting back and arresting people who drive away from a public bar. how easy would that be to make their monthly quota of arrests? and how many deaths could we save each year from this overly simple task? it astounds me everyday that we allow people to drive away after having drinks in public. simply amazing.
i watched the new film starring rising star Seth Rogan called Pineapple Express yesterday at my favorite website. this movie was VERY funny, BUT if you think the long term affects of a movie that shows people driving around while smoking pot throughout the entire film is a good thing for society? wow. yeah yeah, Cheech and Chong, Half Baked, whatever. doesn't mean it's okay and it isn't helping our world at all. regardless...it's illegal and we wonder why so many of our kids are getting arrested for driving under the influence. it impairs you anyway you look at it...and if you don't agree with me, you must be HIGH!
that reminds me...i don't see too many movies being released focusing on people who drink and drive (maybe aside from one of favorites, Sideways), have fun while doing it, and never see the negative consequences. why is that? when there is a scene with people drinking and driving in films...it's nothing but serious foreshadowing that some devastating event will soon happen. with marijuana based films...it's different most of the time and the people get through it and laugh. yes, i do think alcohol is worse than marijuana...but that's beside the point. they both are dangerous to everyone, especially everyone outside of the user, unless done in moderation and in a home away from the public or away from "heavy machinery"...period. plus, marijuana is illegal and yet we celebrate it in so many films today as an activity of the characters without noting the potential long term side effects. whatever...i don't America to turn into a socialist or a communistic society, but i do feel strongly about a few things.
and now there is Salvia Divinorium, a highly dangerous drug with serious concerns i know quite well. this needs to be illegal in all 50 states, and i believe eventually it will, but until then we need to be aware of the long term side effects, which really haven't even been fully studied or understood.
trust me on this one. ingest at your own risk.
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7 comments:
Well, I disagree on the use of marijuana, but that is a personal opinion and maybe you're right--I'll never know. (We do agree on the driving issue. People should not drive while under the influence of anything--pot, alcohol, benadryl, whatever . . .)which brings me to my comment:
I have never heard of S.D. before but it sounds incredibly scary! The suggestion of having a "sober sitter" sounds insane. What doctor would recommend this? It reminds me of Ambien. People have been known to DRIVE while asleep after using Ambien! How can this be legal? That seems way worse than even driving while drunk, which I think is unforgivable.
I remember you writing about S.D. and I shook my head no while reading it. I can't judge though--I had my fair share of experimentation. The thing is, based on my trials and observations of others' trials, I concluded my experiments. ;-) I have known a ton of people who use pot. I have known 1 person that has used it almost daily and remained motivated, gainfully employed and goal-oriented. Every other case I've known has gone to jail at least once. Oh wait--there's this one guy who smokes out and lives off a trust fund. I can't forget that guy. So yeah he has no job and doesn't "need" one.
I can't speak to what is right for other people, but I didn't want that to be part of my lifestyle. Recently I've cut way back on my alcohol consumption. Now by cut back I mean, rather than a drink a week, it might be a drink a month. This was a personal decision because I am already depressed and I didn't want to layer more chemical depressants onto my current state. I'm trying to get BETTER so why take a step backward? Yeah not a good plan for me.
Sometimes I really want to drink..or eat crappy food... or look at something sparkly or whatever. I just want to distract myself from whatever it is that's bothering me. It's really hard to stop in that moment and face whatever it is as we are accustomed to avoid issues at all costs. But the cost of doing so is really high for me as an individual.
Back to the sociology of it all: this summer at Walmart, the cashier said they just had 45 applicants and only one passed the drug test. Seriously. 1 in 45. That's f'd. I'm thinking "isn't it humiliating to get teh note you failed the drug test?" I'd be scared soembody would find me and bust me. But wait- they don't do that. Why not? I mean you have proof that something was taken. Hmmm maybe this would be a way to change things? Probably not. The War on Drugs is a s big of a scam as everything else in this country. As we know, you don't have to take illegal drugs to be completely FUBAR'd as a result. Just look at what the FDA approves.... Yikes.
Ah man. I could go on all day. Touchy topic as I've had drug/alcohol addiction destroy my childhood and family and claim more friends lives than I can count. But the best advice I have for anyone is be an example. Start with yourself. If you wouldn't want your kids to do it, then don't do it. If you don't want your kids to break laws, then don't break laws. Move to where it's legal. ;-)
Hahaha... interesting scribblage today.
You know i have to answer this.
Hmm, I think Salvia already is illegal for inhalation in Georgia, unless they changed the law. Legal for incense. I happen to think your indignation is probably right, but your solution? I think it will lead us down a slippery slope...
And I don't think stoner movies glamorize pot at all, it's more like one of those mirrors society uses to laugh at itself. Usually they can't do anything right, look like morons, and laugh at dumb stuff. I doubt many people want to be Jay or Silent Bob...
Hang on while I go into my personal responsibility/ libertarian personality =)
I fall into the category that you think needs help, because I do think the effects are cool. And I also don't like salvia, although I respect it. I don't endorse any drugs except for hallucinogenic ones actually, and even then only with close supervision, good intent, good set & setting, etc.
Just because it isn't for you doesn't mean it isn't for everybody. Like skydiving... of course it's a crazy high-risk stunt with no obvious reason behind it. There could be spiritual benefits for some people, why not? Even if there's not, what's wrong with thrill-seeking. It's just not your cup of tea! There's no reason to go running to the high sheriff.
First of all, I think drugs- legal & illegal- are like tools. You use them for a purpose. You could go destroy your asshole neighbor's car with a crowbar and sledgehammer but you usually don't because that is improper use. I guess my point is, it's the human element that determines the positive or negative effect of any tool, including substances. Lots of people do lots of dumb inadvisable things with bad consequences that have no saving grace. Hallucinogens, unlike other drugs even, have almost universally good effects on people, although you do not hear about those: they are not news. Considering the amount of people who have tried, say, salvia, the amount of negative encounters is lower than with most things, definitely lower than hard drugs, lower than Rx drugs, much lower than alcohol & nicotine, and probably lower than lots of OTC drugs, although granted the effects of allergic or negative side effects from aleve are nothing like the repercussions of a bad trip. Except that they are physically harmful. Salvia isn't unless someone bumps into something. Yes you need a trip sitter but that's what happens when you decide to experience an alternate reality. That alone isn't such a big deal is it?
I don't say any of the comparisons to justify it, I am pointing out that if you start playing this game, you have to take away everyone's crutches to be fair, not just psychonauts & I know you can see how irrational that is.
And salvia is one of the less favorable hallucinogens, lots of people just plain don’t like it. Psilocybin for instance has virtually no bad side effects, no lasting side effects, won’t impair your life & isn’t addictive. You may gain an unusual respect for the flight of butterflies & things like that… or decide that God is definitely real or something. Salvia not so much. More dark & otherworldly to most folks. Every drug is different in every person.
I think you raise a lot of good points. Ingesting certain substances does lead to increased stupidity, carelessness, irresponsible & often illegal behavior. However, these are all things that lots of people are anyway, and that all of us are some of the time... so yes, it can make people act in ways that they wouldn't if sober. Despite this, it clearly does not always or even most of the time mandate any form of wrongdoing. Most people smoke pot or salvia or trip shrooms without ever a negative incident befalling society because of this (unless you consider their theoretically reduced productivity a societal bane, and I don’t.)
Whether or not it is mostly good or mostly bad isn’t even the point. This is a greater philosophical question about what we have a right to tell other people to do or not do.
My father always says to maintain fairness you can only reasonably punish the effect: not the cause. If one guy trips a million times & never hurts anyone and improves his community by being more involved (a person I know) and another trips one time and decides to put a golf club through his trachea (another person I know), you can’t “punish the drug” logically, because the drug is not the rogue factor, the person it goes into is.
Besides, from a neuroscience & behavioral biology student’s perspective: anything that you can mix with a person & get those kinds of effects has got tons of potential for treating all kinds of things, if it can be figured out and controlled, so the powerful factor of hallucinogens only makes them more interesting (and frightening. But no pain no gain.)
So some people (pretty rarely) really screw up when they trip. But what if most people act in a good way that they wouldn't sober, too? Far more users feel this second way.
I say this because I know people who benefit from the more open or impressionable perspective marijuana creates, for example, and others who are friendlier & more relaxed when they use it. However I do very much think it can be over-used or used inappropriately. Probably more than 75% of the time this is the case.
Like vicodin, good for some uses, but has to be regulated by the individual & you have to be aware of the signs & symptoms of abuse. And I wouldn't expect it to be legal without controls.
I have seen drugs, including salvia, used in very peaceful, responsible, yes even healing & spiritually awakening ways. I do not think the drugs are bad per se. We humans are easily affected by the occasional cautionary horror story though, and that fear theoretically helps the survival of the human race but it isn’t always rational. There are more fatalities in Nascar than salvia will ever cause, but we don’t outlaw Nascar because people enjoy it. People enjoy salvia, too. They’re just taking the risk in their mind more than body, so it causes more stir. No different though. Probably needs to have some safety parameters put in place, sure, but that will only come with more education & research of psychedelics, not pretending we can lock it in the closet and it let it fade away.
I think that when you let certain chemicals lose in peoples' minds, there is a chance (usually small) that something catastrophic could happen. Like when you turn on a lawnmower, you could lose your foot. But it is a chance that you take because to you it is worth it for that manicured lawn! It isn't anyone else's decision (well unless your neighborhood has policies) except your own, and you accept the risk that you take & the risk that you pose to society with your potentially dangerous tool- and you tacitly agree to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Lol, ok bad example, but I hope you can see this perspective.
Perhaps this is a little more like the firearm argument? Minds are at stake instead of lives, but if guns protect dozens of people from death and kill one innocent, how do you decide whether guns are good or bad? You don’t. Because it’s just a tool. The person who killed the innocent did a bad thing with the gun. Punish them. Only fair way. Say no one can have it and you have to lose the benefits. I know you don’t think it has benefits, but it does. Maybe you heard about Johns Hopkins study? “Two months after taking psilocybin, 79% of the participants reported moderately to greatly increased life satisfaction and sense of well-being.” That’s taking magic mushrooms one time. (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html)
So yes, things can go wrong. But why are we as a society so fearful & concerned with preventing anything from going wrong? It's a philosophical choice between discovery & security as always. Most people choose security. It's why so many people will die without seeing the world, but there will also be fewer deaths from infection gained in foreign countries, extreme sports, etc. But if you don't want to, you don't have to. Just don't stop other people from going.
The older we get, the more we value security, (Not a jab at your age ;) and it's natural to want to look out for others, but when is it helpful, and when is it interfering with their free will?
I was always a daredevil as a kid (still am sometimes) and as a result I have lots of scars and nicks and bruises. But you wouldn't make it illegal for kids to use swingsets because they hurt themselves or other kids would you? No because that is part of being a kid, and drugs (I refer to those grown in the ground not labs) are basically a psychic swingset.
All kinds of cheap methods can be put in place to prevent or help in case psychoactives go wrong. I mean, we don't take down the swings (although i've seen it with slides) when a kid hurts himself, we send him to the nurse. Drugs don't need to be buried & forgotten about (because they won't anyway even if they are outlawed), we just need better coping methods.
Plus making things illegal just helps create a seedier, less controlled & corrupt black market for it! It will still be there, people will still use it. You just make yourself less responsible. It will, however, make it hard to help those who did need it, since they are scared of being caught or shamed.
Basically, in this case it would just give the "secure" crowd a reason to look down on the "discovery" crowd, and that is not going to help human progress at all. Just create subjective groups of wrongdoers and rightdoers.
Moreover, you could even argue that people who would try drugs are more likely to be the risk-takers, the experimenters of society, & since it does not always lead to bad outcomes (in moderation it is especially harmless) then outlawing drugs is merely a vehicle for discrimination against certain personalities! Or at least to control the rebellious crowd.
Wow this turned into a blog in its own right! Maybe I’ll just email the rest to you & cut it off here. Anyway, yea I don’t care for salvia but what is point of protecting our brains from harm if people won’t let us make up our own about what we can & can’t do?
Have a good one gorgeous. Talk to you soon.
-Leigh Anne
well, i can only assume those that disagree with me on my stance on marijuana are HIGH. it's ok. i've been there and i understand.
this just came out today. it states that a new study has directly revealed that the use of cannabis has been linked to an earlier onset of pshychosis. i don't think we needed a study to report this, but it just further adds to my point that it's a dangerous drug that can have devastating effects on your mind:
here is the article
I am not high, Samuel! And I wasn't when I wrote that either.
Actually I agree that it's bad for people, but come on, people who take drugs were at least a little unhappy with their state of mind in the first place, so they are probably predisposed to mental problems before they ever came across weed. People use drugs at the same times lots of people use sex & alcohol: when they are depressed.
It's a form of self-medication. And anything can be a drug...
I even know some men who induce psychosis in me, for instance.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." -Hunter S. Thompson
"i just have one thing to say about drugs...mmmkay?"
"drugs are bad...mmmkay?"
-mr. mackey
and Hunter S Thompson commited suicide with a shotgun a few years ago...so it's pretty hard to say that drugs, alcohol, and insanity actually "worked" for him. doesn't make sense. the man needed serious help and never got it, and that's the sad long term effect of his choices. just because he published books and became famous for being an addict...doesn't mean anything in regards to helping yourself, others, or getting help. i believe had he gotten the help he needed, he wouldn't have killed himself. plus, i think the very fact that he did become famous for being an addict, did nothing but help others follow in his shoesteps in the same downward spiral.
plus, "insanity" never works for anyone and i don't find that to be funny at all, regardless of who says it. insanity is something that is not cool.\
in America, we celebrate people who self medicate and go in and out of rehab like it's an attractive lifestyle or something. how messed up is THAT?
are we gonna celebrate Amy Whinehouse after she dies of an overdose???
point made, if ya ask me.
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