...about how some drugs are OK, but others can land you in jail, if you even get close to them. And I been trying to reason out the whys and the wherefores, as to which drugs are OK or not, and why that might be so.
Now me I have to admit, I've always been a fan of psycho-active substances. When I was only two years old, and I used to go out in the fishing boat with my Dad and Grampa, the very first word I learned to say was "beer". The second word I learned to say was "more beer". No kidding. The adults would give me the dregs of their bottles, and I loved it.
Imagine that. A drinker at the age of three. Since then, as the recent Bob Dylan has intoned:
There's been a lot of water under the bridge.
A lot of other stuff too.
Now who's gonna say, which drugs are legal and which are not? And why? Is there some kind of a standard or something? Some kind of a consensus or other? If there is, I don't see any sign of it. Humans have always loved to get stoned, for no particular purpose, but with tremendous determination. It is part of our nature to get blitzed from time to time, and occasionally to get blitzed permanently. So what? Is that wrong?
What I wonder is why governments are so intent on interdicting this, that, and the other drug. Are they safeguarding our morality or what? Does the DEA really believe that by whack-a-moling dealers and trafficers of coke, they are protecting America's youth from the dangers of this drug? Can they actually possibly believe that? Sadly it is exactly that, that appears to determine America's drug policies. A sort of niggling, Calvinist approach to the subject, whereby it is assumed that "human nature" is essentially singular and virtuous (though sinful) and that any chemical or alchemical interference with this essential nature must be forbidden.
Smash the dealers, throw them in jail and throw away the key. Bigger the dealer, longer the sentence. But can anyone -- I mean can anyone explain why psycho-active drugs should not be part of the free marketplace, right along with hog bellies and real estate?
I do not believe that all psycho-active substances are the same, nor do I believe that they should all be treated equally under the law. I would welcome a discussion of this subject.