I should be studying

   I should be panicking right now. My college experience is shit, and I'm giving up midway. Maybe I should have stayed away from academics and readied myself for what my life was truly meant for, hard labor and drug addiction, just like my elders. The damage they are doing, the damage they have done. The labor each individual took part in,the labor men easily died for, created a driving force of understanding with the masses riding the momentum.  the ones who carried the world forward are the ones who keep it behind.

    

The Criminalization of Mind-Altering Substances is Unethical

 

Criminalization of Mind-Altering Substances is Unethical

Tyler Golightly

College of Southern Nevada

Abstract

Drug use may be as old as humanity itself, but only in recent times has such a large array of substances been made illegal. Criminalizing the sale, possession, and use of mind-altering substances causes more problems than it solves, the moral thing to do would be to end the criminalization of these substances. By gathering information from books, a journal, the Internet, and personal experience, I have determined the flaws in the attempt to eradicate drug use in much of the world. Humans have been consuming mind-altering substances since before spoken language was invented, only in recent times has drug use been synonymous with existentialism. The effects of these substances can even be attributed as the catalyst for the creation of religion and the beginning of early society. In more modern times, International agreements between multiple countries to control the distribution and production of multiple substances in their borders because they are unhealthy, addictive, cause crime, ruin lives, and along with numerous other reasons, and thus began the non-religious criminalization of drug use, trade, and possession that still goes on to this day. The criminalization of controlled substances in itself actually causes more problems than it prevents, problems such as organized crime, health risks, fear, inflated crime rate, unemployment, misinformation, impure substances, and the rise of more dangerous legal alternatives. Drug use and possession should be decriminalized, with quantities and substances being regulated.

            According to American scholar Terrence McKenna (1993), mind-altering substances were a catalyst for the evolution of mankind and religion. In the early years of human history when the nomadic lifestyle was staple, when the concept of a town or city could not be fathomed, when an individuals diet consisted of anything edible, humans consumed copious amounts of mind-altering plants in their effort to obtain sustenance. There is no doubt that some curious soul happened upon a field of grazing cattle and was greeted with the sight of Stropharia cubensis, the entheogenic mushroom that todays western culture demonizes so ignorantly, perched precariously on top of a mound of dung. The individual enjoys the easy meal that took no real effort in obtaining, but it is what comes approximately 20 to 60 minutes later that will truly make a significant impact on this individual’s life. Without a true understanding of the chemical nature of the fungi or the metabolic reaction that ones body has with the chemical components, this prehistoric individual must be in awe at the sheer power that he/she is overcome by. The individual may experience ego death, which is a very surreal, spiritual experience where a person feels the boundary of self and environment are dissolved and begins to realize that they are apart of the universe. An example of ego death is a scene in the movie I ♥ Huckabees when Albert realizes that he and Brad are both the same person (Russell, 2004). Drug induced experiences of ecstasy such as these are the beginning of religion and possibly even civilization as we know it today.

            Drug use and possession is criminalized for multiple, understandable reasons. According to Talleos (2009), a treaty was signed at the 1912 Hague International Opium Convention between France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Siam, the UK and the British oversees territories (including British India), to which the countries agreed to control the production, trade, and use of certain mind altering substances. This treaty was the beginning of non-religious drug criminalization that is still in effect today. Addiction is the most reasonable reason for the criminalization of drug possession and use. An addicted person loses control of their life to the substance that they are addicted to. Health risks such as overdose, heart attack, liver damage, and diseases transmitted through the blood such as AIDS, paint drug use in an immoral light, and aid in swaying public support of drug criminalization. Addict parents are in no mental or physical health to care for children, the media as well as public officials love to use children as a way to sway the public to believe that the criminalization of drugs protects children.  Society is accustomed to hiding the truth from children to protect them, in the case of drug use, protect them from ruining their childhood and possibly their life. Children are taught to abstain from drug use, most of the time by over exaggerating the truth and even giving out false information. Hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, PCP, mushrooms, and marijuana, can put individuals in a state of mind that they could never reach without them, if they are in an environment that is deemed unsafe or are in the wrong state of mind they may develop anxieties or bring about an unknown mental illness. Society feels it is their job to save an individual from themselves, making drug use an immoral and criminal act is a way of trying to force individuals to conform to their standards.

            Criminalizing drug users does more damage than it prevents. By criminalizing drug use, production, and trade, it is forced in the shadows allowing true criminals to profit. Like prohibition in the early 20^th century, organized crime profits greatly from the barring of certain greatly demanded substances. Organizations soon claim turf and use violence to maintain their hold on it. Lowly peddlers, high level criminals and even innocent civilians end up getting killed in acts of violence, violence used to maintain the high profitability of illegal trade. Crime is not the only killer; misinformation is another dangerous outcome of drug criminalization. Individuals grow up only learning abstinence but never the proper way to go about doing the drug. People are still doing drugs and they do not have the necessary information within reach to take the drug safely. Misinformation is the main cause of accidental overdose in first time users because these first time users are unaware of the onset and/or dosage of the particular drug. By putting the drugs in the underground, society is putting the users in the underground as well. Individuals find legal alternatives most of the time are more dangerous than the drug they are mimicking. I know of a synthetic cannabinoid called AM-2201 that has a dosage of 2mg, this drug is very cheap, and just last year was very legal. This cannabinoid has no ceiling, unlike the natural cannabinoid THC, and thus is very dangerous. By making drug use so taboo if an individual becomes addicted to a drug they may be hesitant to seek help because by using the drug they automatically become seen criminals and bad people. These individuals can even be cast out from their homes, jobs, religious institution or even their schools.

             The best way to end the crime and woes associated with drug use is to end the war on drugs and the resulting war on the people who use them. By ending the demonization of these substances, it allows doctors, teachers, parents and community leaders to stop misinforming the public and start informing the public on using substances in a safe and acceptable manor. Moderation and safety in addition to abstinence should be the new form on drug education, like Nietzsche (2010) wrote in regards to morality; our culture of excess must become one of moderation. Even substances such as sugar or aspirin can cause great harm to individuals, especially in a culture of excess such as the United States. Bootleggers and the organized crime associated with it in the days of prohibition should be used as a model of what the barring of substances brings about, which is a state of corruption and fear. We can contrast this with the Mexican drug cartels in the early 21^st century that, thanks to the war on drugs, have viable unregulated markets with almost no competitors. The United States war on drugs actually lowers the quality of life of not just the American population but the quality of life of other countries, such as Mexico, by fueling their organized crime organizations. Portugal decriminalized drug use in 2001 and according to Hughes and Stevens (2010),“Portuguese decriminalization did not lead to major increases in drug use. Indeed, evidence indicates reductions in problematic use, drug-related harms and criminal justice overcrowding,”  and therefore was a resounding success. Drugs change ones perception, like the bag in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), can help an individual put their thought processes into perspective, and allows the individual to become in touch with their spiritual and naturalistic humanity, which Nietzsche (2010) explained is one of the great causes of woe in modern man.

            The criminalization of mind altering substances and those who posses and abuse them is doing more harm than good, and therefore the moral thing to do is to decriminalize them. Man has been using mind altering substances since the before written or even spoken language. Only in recent times has such a large scale effort to abolish all mind altering substance from free control for non religious reasons such as addiction, health, crime, and other reasons too numerous to mention. The downfalls of criminalization outweigh the good, downfalls such as organized crime, misinformation, unregulated substances, and the search to find legal alternatives. The use, possession, and trade of controlled substances should be decriminalized and regulated, with an emphasis on moderation and safety being added to the already dominant practice of teaching abstinence. The war on drugs, which was fueled by corruption, racism, misinformation, and greed, must be put to an end if our society ever wants to progress at the rate our prehistoric selves have.

References

HUGHES, C., & STEVENS, A. (2010). What Can We Learn From The Portuguese

Decriminalization of Illicit Drugs?. British Journal Of Criminology, 50(6), 999-1022. doi:10.1093/bjc/azq038

Jacobus, L. A. (2010). Friedrich Nietzsche: Morality as Anti-Nature. In A World of Ideas:

Essential Readings for College Writers - 8th Edition (8th ed., pp. 713-26). Boston, MA: Bedford/St.Martin's.

McKenna, T. K. (1993). Food of the gods: The search for the original tree of knowledge : a

            radical history of plants, drugs, and human evolution. New York: Bantam Books.

Russell, D. O., Baena, J., Goodman, G., Rudin, S., Hoffman, D., Tomlin, L., Schwartzman, J., ...

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc. (2004). I [heart] Huckabees. Los Angeles, CA: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Talleos, J. (2009, April 12). The great mistake. How illicit drugs became illegal in the first place

- Hartford Conservative | Examiner.com. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from <http://www.examiner.com/article/the-great-mistake-how-illicit-drugs-became-illegal-the-first-place>

Why Do Humans Take Such Risks?

People take potentially life threatening risks every day. Whether it is riding their bike on the side of the road or smoking. People know that a simple mistake can change their life forever. J walking can lead to death or serious.bodily harm. We only have one life to live so why cripple yourself.

People You Knew In Highschool

Why is it that when you see someone you once knew in Highschool you get nervous and do not want to talk to them. Is it because it has been so long since you have talked to them regularly that you think they have changed. Maybe we were not friends afterall.

What Are We Working Toward?

I relised that we work and work knowing that soon we we become old and soon we will die. Once we are dead the only thing carrying our "soul" is humanity. Humanity is the body and us individuals are the cells. What is our "body" working towards? Why shouldn't humanity work together to better everyone's existence, rather than working solely for ones own personal gain. Why do we as humans find such joy in the suffering of others. It reminds me of big daddy and how Adam Sandler would hurt himself solely for the amusement of the boy he was watching.

A Cell

I feel like a cell and humanity the organism. I am so insignificant. Once organism dies there can be no cell growth.

Minor Threat Analyzation

Analyzing Minor Threats “Salad Days”

Minor Threat’s “Salad Days”, describes the end a youthful time in one’s life and the reassurance that there is no turning back, stressing the importance of living life to its fullest potential.

  The preservation of youth is an important topic addressed by Minor Threat in “Salad Days”. In the excerpt, “Wishing for the days when I first wore this suit,” can express a feeling of regret for not considering the valuableness of youth. The hope that maybe one can stay young is diminished by society’s views on midlife children, or the anxieties caused by experiences in everyday life. The term “suit”, may represent the physical body, and the line “when I first wore this suit,” can illustrate when an individual was born. This can show the common urge for a time in one’s life, when it was accepted to be inexperienced. The lines “But I stay on, I stay on Where do I get off? On to greener pastures,” can represent a youth waiting to become an adult. It can signify the feeling of still being young even if one was at the age of maturity. It can also represent a child’s idea of being an adult, and the assumption that life gets easier with age.

The struggles to meet expectations set when in times of youth are described by Minor Threat in the lines, “Baby has grown older, It’s no longer cute,” and, “Baby has grown ugly, It’s no longer cute”. These separate statements can represent a parent struggling to repudiate their past expectations and accept their offspring for what they have become. It can also denote the strife of the child, who cannot meet expectations set by their parents, or society. The quote shows that as an individual reaches the standard age of adulthood their state of mind doesn’t exactly change with their new age. This portion simply expresses how fast time passes and how people aren’t aware until it’s too late.

The term “ugly”, can refer to an individual who changes from a sweet baby to a criminal. In the quote, “too many voices, they’ve made me mute,” the idea that peer pressures help mold you is stated. For example if an individual is demeaned multiple times they can develop an uneasiness to interact socially.  The quote shows the effects of being told what’s wrong so many times, illustrating how it can make a person just give up on their aspirations’ completely.  The quote can also express the fear of expressing one’s self, due to social anxieties or fear of conflict. As a person gets older they’re core beliefs and morals change, the quote, “The core has gotten soft,” puts that idea into a good perspective.

Minor Threat puts life in a different veiw, where either you live to die or live to live. The lines “But I stay on, I stay on Where do I get off? On to greener pastures,” can represent the many followers of religion, who set aside their true goals to dedicate their lives to making it into heaven. It describes the many people who believe every story and follow every law, no matter how brutal. The same people who live a whole life of worship only to make it to heaven.

One of the key messages to this song is to savor time. Life goes by fast and there is no way to go back. Minor Threat criticizes society for wasting time in the quote,” Look at us today We've gotten soft and fat Waiting for the moment, Its just no coming back”.  This statement illustrates how lazy our society has become from the lack of effort. It is symbolized to “Dwell upon our memories,“and sit around waiting for excitement gets us nowhere. Life is what you make it, not how you made it. The passage emphasizes the importance of living each day to the fullest no matter what age. People don’t get anything accomplished waiting around living in memories. The blunt statement,” It’s just no coming back,” explains there is no way to relive your good times. In the excerpt, “Wishing for the days when I first wore this suit,” the desire to be reborn and relive ones childhood is expressed. The word “wished” was used to emphasize that it’s not possible in reality.  No matter how hard you try theirs no going back to the past.

Minor Threat articulates the importance of living life to one’s own standards. Wasting time worrying what other people think can keep a person from accomplishing they’re true desires. In the last line, “there are no facts,” Minor Threat emphasizes the fact that there is no right way to have fun. If someone has fun robbing people they are still having fun. It doesn’t matter how society looks at it, as long as it feels fun to you, than you are having fun. The same goes for beliefs, If it feels right to you than follow it to the end.

In conclusion, Minor Threat’s “Salad Days” describes the end of youth. The pressures and desires of everyday life in this sensitive time are explained both upfront and paradoxically. They signify the importance of making each day memorable and not looking back.

My Cultural Identity

            My individual culture can best be described simply with an mp3 player. I have grown up with music being a key part in my life. My father being a musician, played music nonstop since I was born. When I listen to music I listen to each sound and beat, reading the lyrics in my head as the song plays. The newly learned ideals being remembered, only to be sorted later while in deep thought. Many of my morals and ideas come from the music I have heard throughout life.  Not following popular culture is a philosophy I have adopted from understanding music. I feel that some forms of popular media can control culture, and I think it can destroy some individualism. With every song played I gain knowledge and distrust society more and more. Without music I would not have thought about how people are used as pawns so other people can live comfortably without worry.

            While growing up I have gone through many phases and each phase can be recorded with the introduction of a new artist or genre. From my discovery of punk to my new found love of classic rock,  each leap of direction is started by profound life experiences. Even today when I play Nirvana my memory of my child hood flashes before my eyes. I remember it playing on my clock radio as I bounced around my room in a state of total anarchy, flinging legos about and screaming at the top of my lungs. As I started school pop music was the thing to love, and like any fad I was pulled into the stream unaware of the lameness. As I began to question my surroundings as I grew older and wiser. While in middle school I discovered the punk ideology and rebelliousness. I continued hating rules developing a strong disgust for the government.  Shoplifting and being untruthful were daily things I were involved with. I still feel a strong dislike toward society and the laws I was forced to abide by.   As I entered high school I changed my mood toward classic rock and became accustomed to the more relaxing music. Listening to this music made me feel closer to my parents who grew up with classic rock.  As I started smoking sensimilla, I began listening to sublime gaining much insight from their music. With each step in complexity and simplicity I gained knowledge. I became completely vexed by the inciting beat of the drums. With each change in tempo, my mood shifts.

            As I go through the day I think of the musicians life and what their life lessons can teach me. I think of the lifelong struggles they may have faced, and how I can use them to free me from my life's prison. I  am an individual who is full of energy. Music helps me set my problems aside, get up and go.  Each day helping me escape my peers and the boring lifestyle they are accustomed too. Music gives me that tingly feeling in my gut that tells I can do anything. To me it is the fuel that bounces me to work or to school. As I listen to music it reminds me of the time I first listened to it. I feel the mood and see the surroundings as if it were dejavu.

            Music is the best form of philosophy because music isn't bias. The sounds draw you in and trap you, letting the words rip at your mind. Attention is always focused on the melody while subliminally processing the meaning. We challenge or ideas and remake our beliefs while stuck following the rhythm. My culture is always changing with every realization and every conversation. I chose an mp3 player because as I grow so does my library and my memories.

Music

  I fucking love music. I just thought I would share my love with the internets. When I listen to music I feel lost in the sound, my emotions are one with the sound and the flow. To me music is a drug, it numbs me but not really. I would say that music helps me ignore my problems, the soothing pleasurable sounds take my attentions away from boredom or depression, and drops my mind off in an interact-able experience.

 The feeling you receive from paying attentions to the sounds of music rely on many things (forgot the word), the emotions can come from a memory associated with the song, the sounds from the song itself, or the feeling can come about due to the situation one is in while listening to the song.  When I am drunk as fuck, my friend driving the car with  fast paced electronic music pumping, I feel like fucking great grisly god.

 I am a drummer, I play when I feel it is time to. My drum set is pure shit. It was purchased by my fathers ex wife who he was getting back together with. They had some sort of falling out or something. A couple weeks after receiving the set this lady killed herself. She drove off a 550 foot cliff in Colorado.

I can surly say the drum set sounds much better.


:)

I am a horrible writer.

BE GETTING BETTER.

Humans are the main cause of extinction

 

Humans are the main cause of extinction

Human beings are slowly depleting the planet earth of its biodiversity. Habitat loss and fragmentation, wildlife trade, the introduction of an invasive species, and extensive hunting are only a few causes humans contribute to the endangerment and ultimately the extinction of many species across the globe. Eliminating an animal from its habitat affects the whole ecosystem, causing an imbalance that is very difficult to repair. For example, the displacement of wolves may be the cause of the overpopulation of white tail deer in Maine. A normal deer population should be between twenty to twenty-five deer per square mile, but Maine’s deer population is an astonishing one hundred deer per square mile  (Mere). The effects of the overpopulation can be seen in the forest itself. ” Deer change the makeup of forests with their appetites. They prefer certain saplings such as the sugar maple, pin cherry, and black and yellow birch leaving other species largely untouched. In open areas, deer grazing can allow ferns to spread, stealing valuable sunlight from some trees” (Crissey). Life lives off life, and as a predator becomes extinct or critically endangered, their prey flourishes. As time goes by and overpopulation sets in the species food source will not be able to keep up with the steadily increasing animal. The food source will not have time to replenish effectively, causing a famine. This can cause the species itself to be frequently mal nourished, and even cause some to die off due to starvation. The other animals that ingest the same food will suffer the same fate. This evaporation of nutrients can cause some hungry animals to start eating things that they aren’t supposed to eat, which can affect an even wider range of life forms. 

Deforestation, especially in the rainforest, displaces animals and is a leading cause of animal endangerment and extinction. As the human population grows, and the cities and towns expand, mass amounts of animals are displaced. Life once thriving in rainforests is destroyed by human expansion displaces, and ultimately endangers an extremely wide range of animals. The extinction of a single seemingly insignificant species can have a drastic effect on the areas eco system. “The educated guess is that each species of plant supports ten to thirty species of dependent animal. Eliminate just one species of insect and you may have destroyed the sole specific pollinator for a flowering plant,” explains David Quammen (qtd in. Butler). By eliminating a source of food in an environment many species are affected, which can lead to the loss of more and mores species similar to the domino effect. It is also believed that as animals are displaced their population density decreases. Plants become too spread out to successfully pollinate, affecting the species that it has a natural relationship with. Animals that would normally live in large packs would be almost helpless if their packs are not large enough. An animals group can provide protection, assist with hunting, warn of danger, and provides easy access to a mate. As population density decreases animals would have an extremely difficult time locating suitable mates.  With more and more forest being cleared each year surviving animals have less places to flee to. With cities, roads, farms, factories, and other man made barriers in the way of the fleeing animals it is far more difficult to find a new suitable habitat. Animals may have to relocate to unsuitable locations, which can detrimentally affect their likelihood for survival. “Many tropical species are used to constant, year-round conditions of temperature and humidity. They are not adapted to climate change even if it is as small as 1.8F (1C),” (Butler).

The trading of animals is also a leading cause of the endangerment and extinction of species. In the last 100 years the tiger population has been reduced nearly 95% due to deforestation and the illegal trading of body parts. The bones, teeth and other body parts of the tiger are widely used as medicine and as an aphrodisiac even though the practice is against WWF code. The passenger pigeon were brought to extinction decimated by American hunters who sold the birds as a cheap source of meat. The birds which population was an estimated 5 billion before Europeans arrived once flourished with little known natural predators. Migrating flocks would darken the sky and take hours to pass. It was fairly easy to hunt the birds, which may have helped contribute to their demise. The poaching of white rhinos and the illegal trading of their highly sought after horns brought the species to the verge of extinction. The horns where also sought after for their uses in Chinese medicine and their aphrodisiac properties. Pet orangutans are common in Indonesia, even though they are an endangered species. “In Indonesia pet orangutans are thought of as a status symbol. Habitat loss remains the single biggest threat to orangutans, but as it turns out, the pet trade and deforestation are closely linked,” (Kneidel). 2010). “The hunting and capturing of orangutans for the pet trade is, in a way, a by-product of the timber trade and the conversion of forests to palm-oil plantations,” (Kneidel). The loss of their protection leaves them vulnerable to capture. After the young are captured they are typically shipped to market in groups in the hopes of at least one surviving. “Up to 15 orangutans die to get one live infant to market,” (Kneidel). It is disturbing how the traders disregard the position these species are in. Measures must be made to stop the trading of endangered animals, and future animals that may become endangered due to trading. The fur of leopards, tigers, cheetahs, wolves and other fur bearing animals were once highly sought after and thought of as a luxury. Unfortunately the fur trading of these animals was not stopped soon enough.

Life should be cherished, no mater what form it comes in. Our planet is being taken over by our own race and we will not truly realize this until it is too late. That is why every human being should be more aware of the impact our species makes upon our planet. Instead of contributing to the seemingly unavoidable destruction of our planet we should all honestly think of what it would be like to be in an animal. The fact is Homo sapiens are animals but we somehow gained an extremely unfair advantage. The decline of biodiversity on our planet and our mass farming of domesticated animals may keep life from evolving in appositive direction. With all the diversity depleting all our soon to be extinct race will have are a couple of species that are living crops. The future will only be filled with animals that are bred only to be slaughtered; a free roaming animal would be the thing of the past.

 

Works cited

"Animal Extinction and Endangerment, Main Causes." Rainforests, Rainforest Animals, Other

Environmental Issues And Practical Environmental Solutions. Sept. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/Animal-Extinction.html>.

Butler, Rhett. "Impact of Deforestation—Extinction." Rainforests. 24 Nov. 2010. Web. 29 Nov.

2010. <http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0908.htm

Mere, R.J. "ADWA - Deer Overpopulation Is a Serious Problem."ADWA - American Deer and

Wildlife Alliance. 24 Oct. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.deerwildlifealliance.org/Deer-Overpopulation-is-a-Serious-Problem.htm>.

Kneidel, Sally. "Laws Flaunted: Flourishing Pet Trade Threatens Orangutans' Survival –

Sumatran Orangutan Society." SOS – Sumatran Orangutan Society. 25 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. <http://www.orangutans-sos.org/news/309_laws-flaunted-flourishing-pet-trade-threatens-orangutans-survival>.