Running Into Trees

A while ago, I made a reference to a past of drug use.

I am a firm believer in the difference between drug use and drug abuse. I never abused drugs. I always knew that there was a time and a place, and I can't think of a time where my drug use affected my work or personal life. I enjoyed getting pissed, or having a few cones or tabs or whatnot, and I maintained a measure of control whenever I did it.

I mean, I have put myself outside of some serious quantities of grog, but I have never done anything negative whilst pissed that I probably wouldn't have done sober. I never felt like I "needed" to be wasted- I just liked it a whole lot.

I also passed through my phase of drug use pretty easily. I stopped drinking regularly years and years ago, and now only drink occasionally. It just isn't something I feel the need to do anymore. As for the drugs? Well, I still enjoy a joint or two if it's available, but I haven't had much over the past couple of years, and I haven't had anything else in seven or eight years. I never had anything resembling withdrawals, it was just something that I gradually stopped doing.

I'm not an advocate for drug use. My view is that people that are going to f--k themselves up are going to find a way to do it, regardless of what is legal and illegal. People that enjoy the occasional release are going to find a way to achieve it, laws or not. I have a real problem with people being incarcerated or tainted on the back of a minor drug conviction, and resent the communal taxation pool being wasted on locking up people that really shouldn't be there. Choice is a wonderful thing, and what government needs to realise it that people learn more from bad choices than they do from good ones. I'm not going to push drugs on anyone, but I am also not going to condemn them for wanting to do it.

Giving someone the stigma of a criminal conviction (and the limitations on potential travel and career paths that it carries) is a massive overreaction to someone exercising their ability to make an informed judgment. By all means stop the kiddies from getting smashed, but when an adult is faced with a multitude of options, you really just have to accept that they will either make the right choice, or they will learn from the wrong one.

A few years ago, I read the autobiography of US actor and comedian Tim Allen (of Home Improvement fame), who actually spent a few years in prison a long time ago on drug charges. He made a very good point- that with all of the prohibition and "wars" on drugs in the western world, the drug problem had never actually gotten any better. First there was weed, then they came out with acid, then heroin, then coke, (and updating his point) then crack, then X, then speed, and now there is all manner of "newer" drugs of choice. Ketamine, oxycontin, dexamphetamines- all represent a worse drug replacing a more benign one.

His analogy went something like this (and I apolgise to Mr Allen in advance if I f--k it up): It's like we have our head down, running at breakneck speed through a forest. Obviously, if you run through a forest and don't look where you're going, sooner or later you'll hit a tree. Whenever we have hit a tree, all we as a society have ever done is back up a few paces, kept our heads down, started running again, and smacked straight back into the same tree as if the tree's going to get out of the way. If we stop to look around and take a step to the side, we can get past it.

That's not to say we won't hit another tree in the future, but at least we'll be closer to the other side of the forest, rather than being continually stuck at the first tree.

The whole politics of drugs is something that makes me seethe. Politicians know that drugs are one of those trigger issues that they can use to manipulate the feebs of the world, and they do so constantly.

Take a look at the guy who is supposed to be the most powerful man in the world. George Bush had a well documented history of cocaine use, but because of various circumstances he never found himself at the pointy end of the criminal justice system. A few years later, he has made an electoral platform, both as the Governor of Texas and as the President of the US, out of his willingness to sign laws into effect that not only jail people that have done the very same thing as he did, but to also destroy those people's futures (not to mention preclude them from either running for public office or even being eligible to vote) by virtue of that sentence.

Drug dealers are another matter. What is so perverse is that should some of the "lesser" drugs (and yes, there is such a thing as a lesser drug- there is a world of difference between weed and heroin, for example, no matter what the Family Associations and religious douchebags say) be legalised and regulated, the dealers will be out of business in a heartbeat. If you could go to the local deli and pick up a 25-pack of Winfield Extra Sticky, no one would be stupid enough to risk keeping a dealer in business. I mean, how many illicit tobacco dealers do you know?

Not to mention the potential taxation revenue. Tax the shit out of it, and it will become the pokies of the new millennium.

So no, I don't drink much nor use many drugs at the moment. Drugs were never any more than a hobby, and they never got too far up my list of priorities.

The question has to be asked, though: How will I deal with raising kids who, at some stage, may become curious about drugs?

Simple. I will do the same thing I plan on doing throughout their formative years. I will give them information. Not just the patronising, Mr Mackey-like "drugs are bad" crap, but the whole story. The good, the bad and the indifferent.

That's how you reach people, and especially adolescents. You give them access to every bit of information that you can gather, and you teach them to analyse the evidence and form their own conclusion. If you do that, you'll find it very difficult to go wrong. Natural rebelliousness dictates that if you try to just browbeat them with "this is what you must think, and that's all there is to it" you'll not only have little effect, you'll also manage to make sure that you'll never be kept in the loop again.

And in my view, nothing is more dangerous for a parent than not knowing what your kids are thinking. Nothing at all.

Later.