Can we agree that death is a bad thing?

Can we agree that something-anything that causes death is a bad thing? 

I  know it sounds like an obvious question with an even more obvious answer but given the current circumstances we find ourselves in, one must consider just how out-of-touch our present political institutions really are.

And they are out-of-touch with reality in a way that reminds me of a mental game a professor of mine used to play with us lowly students. She, that’s right gentry, it was a FEMALE professor (what can I say, these things happen) anyway, she called the game “perception is reality.”

“Perception is reality” refers to a system of belief that not all we experince is definable as truth. In that truth is actually a relative concept. My professor would illustrate this idea by giving the example of an alcoholic with the DTs or Delirium Tremens,a severe life threatening form of alcohol withdrawal. The inebriated patient is admitted to a facility. At the facility, the doctors and nurses witness the intoxicated sufferer screaming in agony because he thinks (perceives) that he is being attacked by spiders. As hard as the doctors and (mostly) the nurses try to convince this man he is NOT being attacked, their attempts fall on deaf ears.

The victim Believes (again, perceives) that the spiders are biting him from head to toe. Thus his warped “Perception” of the situation conflicts with the “reality” for the nurses and doctors. Which gives us the concept of “Perception is reality!” We make our own truth.

So we have established that “truth” is relative and that we have to determine a way to promote an environment that allows someone, anyone, to pursue there “version” of “truth” however vague that “version” may be. This is done with the establishment of government. And any government can only survive and thrive in a country or nation that operates with laws that support a free market, a free press and free choice. It’s the last of these laws that we will address with respects to the present political institutions.

And just how these LAWS have negatively affected “choice” in a nation whose cumbersome and downright anti-democratic approach to substance abuse placates the alcohol, tobacco and (incredibly) the pharmaceutical industry.

Our supposedly sovereign nation was founded on the principles of democracy. These principles were not easily won. And they were acquired through a tremendous amount of individual and collective sacrifice!

The kind of sacrifice that involves a lot more than just blood, sweat and tears.It involves putting one’s life on the line. It means the potential for-you guessed it-death.

Once again we return to the premise of this blog. And I reiterate my question for a third time: Can we agree that death is a bad thing?

It was early summer in the month of May in the year 1970. The Vietnam war was raging and many citizens (mostly young democrats) were raging themselves. Demonstrating on a daily basis throughout the United States and engaging in behavior unbecoming to the Silent Majority-Conservative Evangelical republicans.

To be specific the most annoying behavior to these supposedly God fearing Evangelicals was the use of marijuana. A substance thought by them to retard thinking, impede responsibility and most importantly curb moral virtue.

This may sound strange but I will not use the term “Christian” in this blog. When considering Nixon’s ilk and the ever present Evangelical liaison, Billy “multi-millionaire” Graham these two were far from being Christians. I have come to know many Christians (especially Catholics) who dedicate themselves to public service. Public service was NOT a consideration of the Evangelicals. More like Public Plundering!

The then occupier of the White House President Richard “Tricky Dicky” Nixon was a ruthless, brutal warrior for the Right. He, too, loathed the young Liberal crowd because of their disruptive behavior and freethinking, anti-religious views. Most troublesome was their use of mind altering substances.

Specifically pot!

Nixon’s obsession with marijuana escalated day by aggravating day. Tired of the strife it was creating among his loyal flock he enacted what many legal scholars say was the most comprehensive and destructive act since Jim Crow.

It was the Controlled Substances Act, developed to curtail hard-core drug use when, in fact, it was a direct repudiation to the use of marijuana. A plant that had never accounted for a single over-dose death. A substance determined by Nixon’s own government to be benign and even medicinal.

Since the passage of this callous law, the public has been harassed, bullied and denied fundamental constitutional rights that are the bedrock of a free society. To this day, the draconian enforcement of these cruel mandates rebuff our basic civil rights.

Consider alcohol and tobacco, two substances that kill more people than all other drugs combined! They destroy 95,000 and 480,000 lives respectively each year. 

Cannabis has never accounted for one, single solitary death. NOT ONE!

And don’t even get me started on the Pharmaceutical Industry!

Opioids anyone?

All things considered, marijuana users are nonviolent, responsible and, yes, even productive CITIZENS who are incredibly drained by the ongoing shit-rain of oppressive statutes that continue to isolate and ruin the very essence of decent livIng.

Now is the time!

Now, more than ever, we need a fresh approach to marijuana reform. Something along the lines of a real shift in jurisprudence. A shift so radical that it literally shakes the foundation of authority.

Together, we can move mountains but we have to start with the small hills.

And remember: Life is a good thing

All American Atheist,
Richard