Pandora's Box: The Price of Prohibition

It's pretty widely known about me that I support the full legalization of marijuana. I have many reasons for my stance and I've exhausted myself with presenting the same tired reasons for why we should repeal the prohibition of an essentially harmless substance. I speak a lot to deaf ears and moderates who choose to close their eyes instead of take action (activism has a price sometimes you know). Well finally after years of prohibition would-be users of marijuana have a legal fallback (for how long I don't know). But unfortunately that fall back has an unknown price.

For those who are not closely involved with anyone who uses illicit drugs you may not be aware of the synthetic cannabinoids that have flooded the market. They are commonly referred to as Spice, but they have many names such as K2, space, spike and countless other names. One brand name gets pulled off the market and ten pop up to replace it. Most of these blends are marked as "not intended for human consumption" or as "incense blends", people disregard these warnings, knowing that these herbal blends are laced with synthetic cannabinoids, they pack these herbal blends into glass bowls, bongs, or roll them up into joints and light them up and inhale. These new blends don't show up in a drug screening (as they are not illegal) so many people who used to smoke marijuana but are now in professions where they get drug tested frequently are now turning to these blends to get the high they once got with marijuana without the consequences.

These people are just thinking about the high and not thinking about effects. It has been documented that user synthetic cannabinoids experience a different high from that which you would receive from THC (the chemical in marijuana that give it its psychoactive qualities). It has been documented that users of what I will refer to as Spice for the rest of this entry for the sake of brevity, are more prone to agitation, elevated heart rate and nervousness than a user of marijuana would be. When smoking spice you don't get the calming effect that you would get from smoking marijuana.

Possibly the most troubling things about these compounds is the lack of testing that has been done on them. These chemicals are research chemicals that were made in a lab at Clemson University in South Carolina (my home state). Even John W. Huffman, the scientist who created these chemicals does not think that they are a good substance for recreational use, citing that there have not been an adequate amount of peer reviewed studies on these chemicals. Because of the lack of research on these compounds there is no real way to know what the long term effects of ingesting these chemicals on a regular recreational basis are.

These chemicals (mainly jwh-018 and jwh-073) were created to mimic the medicinal effects of marijuana without the psychoactive effects. The jury is still out on weather these chemicals yield the right properties for fulfilling the medicinal capacities that marijuana can. The fact is that we don't know enough about these substances to know if they are safe or not. We don't know what will happen to someone ten, twenty, or thirty years down the road as a result of the habitual use of spice. We don't know if a build up of these chemicals will cause disease or organ failure. We won't know until the people who have been turned onto these untested compounds start presenting the long term side effects that may or may not be the result of these chemicals.

These herbal blends that are being smoked in the stead of marijuana are made in a fashion that leads to even more questions. Most of the packaging for these herbal blends don't list ingredients (remember they "aren't intended for human consumption" wink wink nudge nudge COUGH). You don't know what the herbs are that you are smoking, you don't know what the concentration of the chemical is, and you don't know what other little untested psychoactive treats have been thrown in there, so when you open up a fresh package of spice, even if you religiously use the same brand (although its kinda hard to given the fact that brands come and go) you could be smoking a totally different cocktail of drugs every time. You are inhaling god only knows what in the pursuit of a high.

Many people start smoking spice because they think its just like marijuana, but its not. It's not something that occurs in nature like marijuana is. It's effects aren't fully documented or known (unlike marijuana, which people have been using for thousands of years with no significant medical problems). Most importantly when you smoke spice, you have no real way of knowing what it is you are smoking (unlike with marijuana, where if you are smart you know what you are ingesting).

This is the price of prohibition. All these unknowns would probably never even be questions if not for the need to replace THC. For a long time I'm sure scientists have wanted to create a synthetic version of THC but were limited by the science of their time, so Pandora's Box did not open until just recently, but now it is opened, the world of synthetic cannabinoids is just starting to gain steam and now an untold number of consequences will plague our society because of backwards laws that make criminals out of innocent people.

By making marijuana illegal we have created so many problems for ourselves that would easily be solved if we stop deluding ourselves into believing nonsensical puritanical things about drug use. We need to as a society look in the mirror and realize collectively that we were wrong. We have problem with that phrase in America, we don't like to look in, we don't like to admit that we made a poor assessment, we like to hold onto our morals and remain static, but we can't afford to be static anymore, we can't afford the price that we are paying through the nose for prohibition.

What anti-marijuana advocates refuse to acknowledge is that it is a part of human nature to want to change our consciousness through various avenues, some of them through substances. As long as there have been people there have been substances used which served this function. Some people do this through drinking, some through marijuana, some through hallucinogenic substances, different people favor different substances.

The problem is that for some reason, in our society we have taken to condemning behaviors which come naturally to humans as being indicative of an abhorrent lifestyle (mainly drug use and sexual unions which occur outside of committed relationships). People who advocate for the legalization of marijuana are painted with the broad brush of being extremists, not being intelligent and being addicted to drugs by society. Because our society is greatly based upon how your standing is perceived by others many people who would advocate don't because they fear their actions will be a threat to their livelihood. There are a lot of advocates who hide in the closet, there are a lot of users who hide the closet with those advocates.

Because being perceived as an advocate of marijuana is sometimes a risk to great for some people to take, public opinion and public policy do not match up. We all saw the famous clip where President Obama LAUGHED when asked if he would legalize marijuana to rebuild the economy despite the fact it was the most popular question asked. Public opinion has shifted to the point where many people don't take issue with the idea of legal marijuana, if you've turned on your TV recently you can figure that out, marijuana is not demonized in the media the way it once was when I was a child. The problem is public opinion was way too late and the government won't change the laws until we beat them over the skull with the notion of legalization (I mean that purely as a metaphor, I do not advocate for violence in pursuit of the cause).

Because marijuana was made illegal under completely false pretenses, the market is controlled by thugs, drug cartels grow strong while our government wastes man power, money and resources on fighting a war that will never end. Weakening an already weak economy Along with fighting against ever present threat of gangs, we now have a new potential problem. The results of the recreational use of these chemicals in spice.

The need for Spice would never be present if marijuana had been legal this whole time. We know that there are no serious medical side effects from the long term use of marijuana. We know that it doesn't make people violent and we know that it has a lot of uses aside from its psychoactive properties. We would be living in a cleaner more efficient world if not for this senseless prohibition, and the need for spice would have never existed.

But now its too late, because the box is open. We can try to make jwh-018 and jwh-073 illegal and try to close the box back up but just as with the different name brands of spice which come and go, different chemicals will replace the ones which have become illegal and the illegal ones will go join all the other illegal drugs on the black market. All we can do now is damage control, we can't undo the past and go back in time and make marijuana legal so that spice was never a necessary invention, all we can do now is legalize.

The sick irony of all of this is that most marijuana users would never touch spice if not the issue of marijuana's illegality, and that all these problems would not be here if we had never banned it in the first place. But as they say hindsight is 20/20. This is the price of prohibition America, people pursuing highs on unknown chemicals, innocent people getting locked up for victimless crimes and an unprecedented amount of resources wasted in the pursuit of keeping a harmless (and quite useful) substance illegal. Are you still willing to pay the price? Or do you want to see just how deep and dark Pandora's box can get?  Will you stand up and say to your government that legalization needs to be a priority or will you let your silence speak for you?    

To me the price of prohibition and silence are too great to not speak.

Love and Respect,

~Krissy

Glass Veins: An Experimental Poem I Wrote

I wrote this poem but I'm not entirely sure what the inspiration was, but I read it to my friend Sean and he loved it and said I should post it. Its still a little rough, but because its so experimental I want some opinions/constructive criticism. 

Glass Veins 

I posses eyes that resemble that resemble smoke filled globes that portend fates that twist and bed though time.
You say your veins are made of glass,
That if you move too fast they'll shatter and lacerate the inside of your soul,
I can't offer many words that console.
All I can offer is a promise,
A promise that I won't let your veins shatter and crack.
I mystify you with antiquated words,
Smoke and mirrors.
I lead you to a gypsy fortune teller who sees eternity in the lines in your palms.
She reads your thoughts.
Cards hit the surface of of a silk covered table,
but even lush fabrics can't stop the fates from counting down.
Hearts are palpitating,
counting down the seconds to a fate you can't escape.
My crystal ball vision is obscured,
It grows more foggy the more I try to look.
My ocular globes have filled with smoke.
I am not meant to see,
I am not meant to intervene.
For years I tried not to see, tried not to dream,
because my dreams were obscene,
my dreams made me scream.
But now I try to see,
I delve deep into my sixth sense.
It may be too late,
I can't change your fate.
All I can offer is this promise,
I won't let your veins break.
All I can hope is that this is not your fate.
That your insides will not lacerate.   

I'm thinking of getting my hair cut in this style, what do you think? This is how long my hair is now:

I'm thinking about changing it because the long hair is really hard to manage with my hairs texture and its always getting in my face. I also want a unique hairstyle, lots of girls have long wavy hair, so having a different look would make me happier. Leave your comments below, I'm interested in other opinions.

Love and Respect,



~Krissy Aldrich  18 June 2010

It's Only NORML

Many people are aware that I advocate for the legalization of marijuana. I've been wanting to get more involved in the cause for a while now and finally yesterday I started on that journey of getting more involved. I attended my very first National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws ( more commonly know as NORML) meeting yesterday. I have been a supporter of the cause for a long time and my views are met with varying attitudes by my peers so it was nice to be surrounded by people who agree with my beliefs on marijuana.

What is important to understand about NORML is that its not a smoke party. It is a legitimate political and social organization. You don't have to smoke marijuana to attend get involved and NO ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES ARE CONSUMED DURING MEETING TIMES. the goal of NORML is the sufficiently move public opinion to the point where legalizing marijuana is possible. They also work to make sure that your constitutional rights are not being violated. Namely your fifth amendment right, the right to remain silent, your sixth amendment right, the right to an attorney of your choice and most importantly, your fourth amendment right, the right to refuse unreasonable search and seizure.

Upon entering the meeting I was handed a green piece of paper, this piece of paper was a NORML Foundation Freedom Card. This card is designed to be carried in your wallet and it outlines how to politely and calmly refuse to have your rights infringed upon.

 

 This card reads:

"THE NORML FOUNDATION FREEDOM CARD
The U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from interfering with your right to remain silent, to consult with an attorney, and to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement. However, it is up to you to assert these rights. This NORML Foundation Freedom Card will help you do so effectively. If you are confronted by a police officer, remain calm. Be courteous and provide your identification. Politely refuse to answer any further questions. Ask to talk to an attorney. Do not consent to any search of your person, your property, your residence or your vehicle. Tell the officer you would like to give him or her this card, which is a statement of the constitutional rights you wish to invoke. Do not reach for this card until you have obtained the officer's permission to do so.

If the officer fails to honor your rights, remain calm and polite, ask for the officer's identifying information and ask him or her to note your objection in the report. Do not attempt to physically resist an unlawful arrest, search or seizure. If necessary, you may point out the violations to a judge at a later time.

THE NORML FOUNDATION
1600 K Street, NW, Suite 501
Washington, DC  20006-2832
www.norml.org" *courtesy of norml.org*

But these guys aren't just handing out cards. The Columbia Chapter of NORML has big goals and they are actually making plans to host events and get large numbers of people involved in their cause. 

Somethings that are coming up for NORML:

Potluck Dinner: This is happening sometime within the next week or so. The idea is that everyone brings something delicious and people get educated about marijuana. I don't have a date for this event yet, but I will post it on the fan page when I have it.

Another thing they are trying to get people involved in is spending a weekend night handing out fliers and other promotional items to spread the word about the cause. 

And of course they have their monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of every month and the weekly planning sessions on Wednesdays. I plan on getting more involved in this cause and you should too.

It's easy to sit in the comfort of your own home and say you support legalization. It's easy to buy a t-shirt, but it doesn't really do anything, you haven't moved anyone by doing this, your sitting in place and so is everyone around you. When you silently support the people around you aren't moved. In order for real change to be made, you can't hide behind a keyboard, real change comes from action. There's a sense of accomplishment that comes from action that you don't get from silently holding your views and getting involved in this cause. 

I finally feel like I'm doing something meaningful. What we're doing is going to lead to real change and that gives me a sense of pride in what I'm doing, like it somehow cancels that I'm in a transient state at the moment. Maybe I'm not perfect, but at least I'm doing something with my life now, which feels like direction, which feels nice because I've just been floating directionless for a while and I think a lot of people even in fixed situations are just floating through life. So I encourage everyone to get involved because its a feeling you can't get from anything else, the feeling that you are doing something important. I'm going to periodically post updates about the Columbia Chapter of NORML. So look forward to more updates in the future.

Love and Respect,

~Krissy

Society's Woman

I was talking yesterday with my new friend local blogger Vide Infra yesterday and I compiled my worldview about being society's woman into an easy to explain philosophy.

First of all I'm going to start of by saying I am not a feminazi. I love men, most of my friends are men, I've dated alot of men, I'm not here to down men in the least, because I think that this model of femininity is propagated more by other women than it is by men.

I'm not going to blame the media either, which is another common thing we lay the blame on. You interpret the Cosmopolitan or the Gucci Ad the way you perceive it, but its not the medias fault. The media is a business and it gives us what sells. What sells you may ask? Well its quite easy, open any women's magazine What do you see? Millions of ads for cosmetics, designer clothes, perfume, diet supplements and every other thing on the planet to make a woman into something else. Its not the magazines fault though that its full of articles that tell us how to do our hair and make-up and that tell us how to be something else entirely. The Magazine takes cues from its reader, what sells more, what sells less, and you know what magazines, TV, Internet, news papers and every other media have figured out sells with women? The stuff that women claim makes them feel inadequate.

I'm not denying that maybe a minority population of people have some sort of mental condition where seeing a lot of glossy idealized images of women may be psychologically damaging, they may get the wrong idea about how women should look, but the majority of women don't have that problem, their just look for a scapegoat to explain their own nature. People are inherently shallow and there's nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be attractive. I seek to be attractive, its a part of our main directive, to seek a mate, even though your not aware, alot of the things that we do are for the purpose of attracting a mate to carry on the species, its hard wired into our biology.

I am not a feminist in the classical way, although I identify myself as one. I don't blame all my problems on men, I don't hate men, and I don't look for sexism in every social institution. I do not think that a woman should get a job over a man if the man is more qualified, I do not think that women are smarter or better than men. I think that intelligence is evenly distributed throughout the population, there are smart people in all walks of life just as there are stupid people in all walks of life.

I believe that being the woman that society wants me to be is too thin of a line too walk. Its a juggling act while wearing stilettos and walking a tightrope with no harness or safety net. It used to be that women only had to be a few things, of course this was back in the times when women were not afforded many of the opportunities that they have now, I would not give up the opportunities I have now for a more clearly defined societal role. But I mean that women are expected to be everything at once. We have to be smart and career driven, but not so much so that we're too intimidating and opinionated. We have to be beautiful, but not so appearance minded that we are shallow. We have to be sexual, but we can't be like a guy with our sex. We have to be hard to get and seem to good for the guy, but still be available. The juxtaposition is maddening.

I can't be Society's Woman.

I used to blame this impossible standard on men, thinking they were selfish and wanted perfection on their arm. But my views have changed recently. I've never had a man tell me that I was too involved in my work or too motivated too succeed or too opinionated. I'm sure there is a population of men who would feel that way if they met me, because beauty is kind of relative. But I've never had a problem attracting men to me ever since the start of my junior year and I have only grown more motivated since then, and I still don't have trouble.

The people who have been quick to reprimand me for my deviance from the appropriate behavior for a woman are other women. I cannot even begin to count how many times a female has said to me, you'll never meet a guy with your nose in a book, no guy is gonna want to date a girl who is more physically strong than them, no man wants a woman who is so opinionated.

I used to be very insecure back in the day about different physical aspects of my body. I'm short and too skinny, my boobs were too small or my thighs too fat, or hating the little bump on the left side of my nose, or my hair just won't do the right thing. I worried that these small imperfections would make it hard for me to find a guy, but then I noticed one day, whenever I'm just having a good time and enjoying myself and not thinking so hard about how I look, men are far more interested in me. No one has a completely perfect body, and most guys don't care that my thighs may jiggle a bit or that I'm a bit thin or having a bad hair day. That while physical attractiveness plays a component in weather a man finds me attractive or not, it comes more from within and that those things that other women condemned in me, the intelligence and being opinionated, were the things that kept men coming back. That although my out word appearance drew them in, it was my intelligence and personality that kept them interested and made them want to pursue me. They liked me BECAUSE I had an opinion on a political issue, or was well versed and well read, not IN SPITE OF it. They liked that I was articulate and knew what I wanted and that I was forward and driven and that it was those things that make a relationship not the right pair of shoes or outfit or perfect make-up.

So I have decided that the woman that society (aka other women) wants me to be is an asshole and I don't want to be like her. She has some good components, but she isn't me. I am secure in myself now, I don't need the approval of other women or men to feel good about myself anymore, I need to be secure in what I'm doing and trust myself, and then others will follow.

I know that I will never be able to make everyone happy. Beauty is relative. Some people will say about me Krissy Aldrich is beautiful and interesting and some people will say Krissy Aldrich is short, has the body of a twelve year old and a nasty attitude. I'm not going to let the ones who say bad things about me get to me anymore. All that's important to me is that I'm happy with myself, and my close friends and family are okay with who I am, if I have that going on than I think I succeed, not only as a woman, but as a person.

I am not Society's Woman,

I am Krissy Aldrich, I'm nineteen years old, and I am proud of who I am.

Thank you Vide Infra for talking with me and helping me develop this thought into something I could write on, and thanks to all the people who have loved me for who I am, I wouldn't be where I am now without you guys.

Check out my friend's blog: http://lookbeneath.blogspot.com/