On Apr 10, 1:02 pm, "John B." <johnb...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Apr 10, 1:39 pm, M_P <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
> >http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/369995.html
>
> > ELISE PATKOTAK
>
> > Published: April 8th, 2008 11:17 PM
>
> > Every once in a while, I am forced to face the fact that the war on
> > drugs is an abject failure, yet lack of a spine in way too many
> > politicians has made a rational, national discussion of this issue
> > practically impossible. Which is just pathetically sad because the
> > billions of dollars and thousands of lives lost to this hopeless war
> > could have been much better spent in treating people with a problem,
> > to say nothing of how much we'd save if we emptied our jails of people
> > whose only crime was pot.
>
> > This issue comes to the forefront again in my life because of its
> > impact on the work I do with children. It is apparently OK under state
> > law to adopt children out to parents who drink so long as their
> > drinking is not a problem. So if they have a glass of wine with dinner
> > or a cocktail before a play, the state deems them acceptable adoptive
> > parents. But if a person smokes pot at all, even once, even away from
> > the child, the law considers them unsuitable and they are asked to get
> > substance abuse evaluations.
>
> > Considering that alcohol is a gazillion times more likely to be the
> > problem causing children to be removed from their homes, this simply
> > doesn't make sense. It makes even less sense when the assumption is
> > that anyone who smokes pot has a debilitating addiction but anyone who
> > drinks is considered healthy unless proven otherwise.
>
> > There are a lot of people in this state with a severe drinking
> > problem. Whether we like it or not, many of them overcome that
> > addiction by replacing it with pot. That might not be the ideal
> > solution, but as someone who has worked with abused kids for over
> > thirty years, if that's what it takes to make a home where kids are
> > safe, fed and allowed to sleep through the night without blood
> > spattering their bedding from Dad beating Mom, then I say give them
> > all the pot they want. Most people on pot do not get violent, rape
> > their children or forget to feed them. Maybe not the ideal situation,
> > but I've been around long enough to know that people rarely achieve
> > perfection.
>
> > I have been to more than one meeting on abused children where
> > participants go off to dinner after a full day of workshops and order
> > a cocktail or glass of wine to help them unwind from the day. They see
> > no irony in sipping that beverage while discussing the problems that
> > drug abuse causes in our state and nation. Yet alcohol is a drug,
> > albeit a legal one.
>
> > If we can so easily accept alcohol as a regulated drug acceptable for
> > adult use and only a problem when abused, why is it so hard to start a
> > real discussion about pot use? Seriously, when was the last time you
> > picked up the paper or watched the evening news and heard about
> > someone going nuts on just pot and committing a heinous crime? If an
> > honest discussion were ever allowed about pot in this country, we'd
> > all have to admit that one of the most violent drugs in our society is
> > the one that is legal -- alcohol.
>
> > I find it amusing that at this late stage in my life I am writing a
> > column in defense of pot. It feels like something I should have
> > written in the '60s. The truth is that in an ideal world, all parents
> > would raise their children in safe, sober homes where the strongest
> > substance used was caffeine. But Ozzie and Harriet don't exist anymore
> > and no home is ever really as perfect as the one they ****trayed.
>
> > So we go with the best possible homes we can create to raise our
> > children. In some cases, that's a home where parents might smoke pot.
> > In my experience with troubled families in this state, if forced to
> > choose, I find it highly preferable to alcohol. If we could have an
> > honest discussion about drug use in our society, alcohol would
> > probably end up banned and pot use would be legal.
>
> > =A9 Copyright 2008, The Anchorage Daily News, a subsidiary of The
> > McClatchy Company
>
> Well, no kidding!
Sometimes the obvious does have to be stated.
> I grew up in the 60s when everybody did drugs. I
> knew five people who got addicted and three who died from overdoses.
Nobody ever died from a marijuana overdose. (Not that I'm implying you
claimed otherwise.)
> I've known more alcoholics that I can begin to count, including at
> least three who drank themselves to death. Friends, family, wife's
> family, co-workers...alcoholics are everywhere. We're all so used to
> alcoholism that we don't really think about it anymore. But it's
> probably more damaging to society that drug abuse.
And substance bans are more damaging to society than substance abuse,
as we learned from alcohol Prohibition and should have figured out by
now regarding other drugs.
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