National Drug Testing Day

On the 20th I pointed out the acclaim of 420 which actually holds a pretty strong following in drug culture. I don't do drugs, I don't drink, et al. However, I firmly believe that Marijuana should be legal and strongly support Barney Frank's bill in congress to that end (legal 3oz, legal 1oz transfer not for profit). I think a number of people are quick to lump marijuana into an all-drugs libertarian argument and I feel that that is a mistake. I think there are some arguments which are exceedingly strong in favor of legalizing harmless drugs whereas harmful drugs have significantly weaker arguments. I think that marijuana should be perfectly legal whereas other drugs should result in treatment.

Sure, but what will you replace it with?

Theology Non-Rule #24: Things need to be replaced when they are removed.

You can't stop doing heroin! What would you replace it with? People need heroin! It gives them comfort!

Admittedly, I don't have anything to replace that with.

In the story of Ashley Smith, what the hell...

Drug and faith user Ashley Smith in 2005 managed to lie and use religion to convince murderer Brian Nichols to let her go before turning on him and calling the cops. Beyond the oddity of sharing one's faith and drugs with their hostage-taker she also has a five inch scar:

She writes that she asked Nichols if he wanted to see the danger of drugs and lifted up her tank top several inches to reveal a five-inch scar down the center of her torso — the aftermath of a car wreck caused by drug-induced psychosis. She says she let go of the steering wheel when she heard a voice saying, “Let go and let God.”

That's right, God told her to let go of the steering wheel and she did it. What a moron. Really, this is a "hero", an "angel" -- My goodness. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Incarcerex

When I was a kid, Mr. T came to my school.

When I was a kid attending Richmond Elementary School in Fullerton California, Mr. T came to our school and myself and other children were taken outside.

I recall my thoughts:

I don't know who this is, but he wears a lot of jewelery and has a funny name. I want to play on the monkey bars. He's saying something about drugs. I bet I could do one of those twirly flips on that one bar. Who is this guy? Why do people care?

Why Columbus was stupid, and drugs lead to the new world

A number of people believe the Washington Irving myth that Columbus was the first to figure out the Earth was round and that sailing west would not lead to certain doom. This is however clearly false. There was a disagreement between Columbus and the intellectuals of the time, mainly the distance to Asia going east and the circumference of the Earth. He figured it was about three thousand miles traveling west to hit India, everybody else said it was probably about 11,000 miles, and he would die sailing through the great "Ocean Sea" which covered 180 degrees of the world.

Now, it turns out that the great minds of the time were right on both counts, the distance to India going east as well as the circumference of the Earth to a remarkable degree. He was pretty clearly rebuked by everybody because he was pretty clearly wrong on both these counts. Though, the wrong assumption that the span between Europe and Asia was only water was made on both sides.

Why then did the new Spanish Monarchs fund his journey? Why spend a lot of money funding a fool's errand? Drugs. When the Muslims took over Spain and were later cast out they left a rather interesting legacy: Opium addiction. They were desperate to find a better way to India because they needed a fix. After Ferdinand and Isabella managed to drive the last of them out, they were left with a rather bad drug problem and no supplier. They gave him unusually generous terms, partially because it was doubtful he was going to return, and an order for opium.

Christopher Columbus was wrong on every count, had stupid ideas, and was rightfully rebuked. Finally, though finances were short he was sent on a drug run to India. He was so foolish he believed he actually made it (hence the word "Indians" for Native Americans) and refused to hear otherwise and died believing he was right.