To Everything There Is A Season...
Well, if that doesn't sound like something I've read in the Bible (book of Ecclesiastes, in case you were wondering), many times, right?
Yes indeed, there IS a time for everything.
Reminds me of the old song from the Byrds (Turn, Turn, Turn), so if you find yourself humming it or making it your new "ringtone" for your cell phone...I'll fully understand.
Seems we're all pretty much smack dab in the middle of a LOT of "stuff" these days, both good AND bad.
We seem hard pressed to find the good, while the bad comes at us from every direction.
Yet, all is NOT lost...
Personally, I have our gladiolas in the garden, another sign that hell is a lot farther off than I realize.
A shame these guys don't have a fragrance either...darn shame.
You see things around you...marvels of God and nature, and you believe that there IS hope for the world.
But these things are CLOSE BY...what about the "bigger picture"?
What about your city...or state, or this nation?
You want to believe that there IS a solution to our problems; there always seemed to be one when you were a child. Mom and Dad seemingly had the answers to everything, as did you teachers, the policeman on the beat, the crossing guard, and even the mailman.
Now that you're all grown up, are those answers as readily as hand?
Do you find yourself asking MORE questions, but getting FEWER answers, no matter where you look?
Well, you're certainly NOT alone.
Being bold enough to ASK questions shows you're not only still alive (a really good thing if you've got places to go today), but are concerned about yourself, your family, and so much more. And it's the first step in a journey that may take you places you never thought existed...again, both good AND bad.
*** I watched the second part of the DRUGS, INC series on NAT-GEO channel, and they talked about HEROIN in the first hour, and MARIJUANA in the second.
Both shows were very good, being informative AND enlightening.
Heroin is a drug we really don't hear about as much as we USED to...and we SHOULD be hearing about it, because it's an insidious substance.
Here's a few facts:
-- Heroin changes the way the brain works, so when an addict is deprived of the drug, they become physically sick. These physical changes in the brain lead to chemical dependence.
-- Physical symptoms of heroin withdrawal include severe muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and in some cases, even death



-- Two million people across Afghanistan are involved in the cultivation of opium poppies.
-- Because it’s injected, heroin’s impact on the brain is extreme. Unlike other drugs that rely on snorting or smoking, heroin’s effects are felt within seconds.

It quickly crosses from the blood stream into the brain, releasing huge amounts of dopamine which trigger a euphoric state in the user.
If you want to see a damn good depiction of heroin use and withdrawal (from the Hollywood side) grab a copy of MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM starring Frank Sinatra...This movie is about as gritty as the cinema could get back then, and it's a convincing study of Sinatra's character and the world of an addict.
*** In the next hour, the show on Marijuana, they showed the "king of cannabis", who lives in Amsterdam (big surprise) and his world wider search for the "good stuff" that he readily sells to patrons in his 30 "coffee shops" in that city.
They also showed how airborne interdiction units seek out and destroy pot growing in a state park.
Some facts on marijuana:
-- Used by 167 million people worldwide, cannabis polarizes public opinion. On one side, there are cannabis revolutionaries trying to legitimize the plant. On the other, law enforcement is trying to wipe it off the planet.
-- In 1970, the U.S. Federal Government passed the Controlled Substances Act classifying cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug, just like heroin. This designation identifies the drug as having a high potential for abuse with no medicinal value.
-- In defiance of Federal law, 14 U.S. states now allow patients to grow or purchase cannabis on a doctor’s recommendation. Chief among these rebel states is California.
-- Cannabis contains a complex mixture of more than 60 unique active compounds known as cannabinoids. The two most abundant of which are Tetrahydro-cannibinol, or THC, and cannabidiol, or CBD.
-- When ingested, the compounds attach themselves to cannabinoid receptors, molecules affecting neural signals
in parts of the brain governing memory, anxiety, appetite, coordination, and pain.
One thing they didn't mention was that in some places (the East coast for example) pot can be laced with a myriad of substances, such as PCP, "Special K" (horse tranq - Ketamine) , crack cocaine, spiced rum or other types of liquor (misted on buds as they dry upside down to "enhance" the flavor and potency of the resin).
Some of the "best" marijuana can be found along the equatorial regions on the planet, (because of climate, naturally), which I suppose means that "if" we EVER suffer global warming, we can all grow pot to ease our angst, as we'll be seeing MORE temperate zones, conducive to marijuana growing.
Right now, police and DEA helicopters search for pot fields from Denver, to Cape May, NJ to the Appalachian trail.
The newest lick if UAVs for recon and find pot fields for law-enforcement to eradicate. And these fields are pretty damn sophisticated.
MALAWI is the one country highlighted in the show, and of course the people are about as poor as dirt (and probably eat it for dinner).
There is even a "church" of cannabis...the "preacher" there uses it for a ruptured disk, and believes marijuana is "the Tree of life".
Granted, some people do benefit from cannabis use (for pain during cancer treatment or AIDS), but even this gets abused by the "recreational users".
There really would be no problem with marijuana IF people knew how to practice moderation and responsible behavior.
But today, so many have absolutely NO sense of boundaries or practice ANY kind of personal restraint, so that kind of washes the whole thing out.
We tried banning alcohol, and while initially it was a success, bootleggers brought it in across our borders, and backroom makers of hooch were busy producing "bathtub gin" from rubbing alcohol and kerosene, making many people ill (if not dead) along the way.
We still attempt to educate the public with the bad side of alcohol abuse...and yet we STILL see deaths due to DUI, or property damage, and the cost to our health care system by such people, while not alarming, is still burdensome.
Imagine if we fully legalize pot on top of it.
We wind up with more people incarcerated, more DUIs, more property damage, etc.
And do we halt the use and sale of other drugs like heroin, cocaine, or meth along this path?
I think not.
There will (sadly) always be a market for such things, and there will always be people who get cauight up in such practices, throwing away damn good lives for that next "hit".
Can we expect law-enforcement to head all of this off "at the pass" ?
Well, maybe in an Utopian world, we can.
For now, we have to allow the officers and agencies to do whatever it takes to minimize the damage to our society by these drugs.
But we cannot do it, while people like Al Sharpton call for "more police firings".
Mistakes will be made...on BOTH sides, and we have to learn to expect that.
But we must not cease in our pursuit to halt the illegal sale and use of drugs that serve only to destroy our nation from the inside out.
With a business like the illegal drug trade reaping about $300 BILLION bucks per year glaring at us from countries around the world, it IS enticing enough to find yourself caught up in it. That's very serious money...money that often goes to fund terrorist activities, instead of "expanding peoples' horizons".
We need to get people off of this crap. Life is WAY too precious and also WAY too short to piss it all up against a wall of drug use.
When you take care of the drugs, crime will obviously fall as well.
As long as drugs continue to permeate our society, we will ALL be victims of it's sale and use.
We need not light a blunt or snort a line to suffer from such things.
All we have to do is nothing at all.
So there you have it...I'll get off my soapbox for now, but in the meantime...
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.
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(( PS: Earlier today, this blog had it's TWENTY-THOUSANDTH VISIT!
Thank you everyone for helping to create and support this marvelous "virtual electronic neighbor fence" that YOU make possible every day. Onward AND upward, my friends! ))