So, on the eve of Alaska giving in to Big Marijuana and recreational pot-faux-pharma, I've been asking many of our friends and relatives their opinion on the subject. I learn from different points of view, am grieved by others, but in the end I appreciate that drugs market themselves, and the interior conditions of a soul are what makes them attractive --- packaging & distribution really is an afterthought. I do find some amusement in the irony of the most vociferous weed advocates being rabidly opposed to cigarette use.
However, woe unto the society that removes the protection for its most vulnerable populations. On a personal note, as a heavy daily pot smoker for five or six years, at least when I offered my loyalty, conscience and identity to drugs, it was clear that the trade-off was opting out of polite society in quantifiable ways. I was intuitively given the gift of shame. For that, I thank my parents and the ambient cultural defaults (in the mental health world these are 'norms' and risk/protective factors, which is neutral language for standards and expectations. It is objectively cruel to remove them...) which are being so rapidly discarded. Maybe that's one definition of aging --- hand-wringing at the new school, love for the old school. :)
May we elevate all people to keep their drug use in the back alleys. And at least stop short of telling wannabe scholars that getting stoned will get them anywhere except stoned.
In lieu of waxing emotively to placate or antagonize the Libertarian streak, the comfortable conservative, or the rebellious Republican, I'll just let Louis C.K. share the giggles. And yes, he curses.
"The gift of shame," "the interior conditions of a soul are what make them attractive," "keep their drug use in the back alley." So many good points. I'm sorry that they come from real life and I'm glad that you're speaking out.
ReplyDeleteaw shucks -- thanks. not a subject I ever hope to use my bad judgment as a 'credential' when discussing, but, it is what it is! what's the Flannery O'Connor quote we like, about coming in to the Church through a means that the Church doesn't allow? Also, she:
ReplyDelete“Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look.”
maybe I'm arguing for descending into vice in search of God there ~! Nevermind. :)