The Boo Boo in My Head: How I Keep it Real with My Kid

July 30th

The State of the Boo Boo Address 

The Full Legalization of Marijuana Still Makes Sense 12 Years Later

HAPPY 4/20!! In celebration of this stoner holiday I am blogging my persuasive speech from the Public Speaking class I had in college back in 2003! Also because, I am going a bit retrospective. I am hoping to post for the next month or so from memory, reflecting on some events, things, or concerts I haven't managed to document yet. After all, this is for when I forget. So, the following is my persuasive speech. I put off this class until my last semester because I had so much anxiety about public speaking, also, my professor told me that my chosen topic had been done and done before, she has been doing this 30 years and had seen this and that and was it really important, she asked? Yes. So, I chose it anyway, and presented this speech (or what mostly is this speech, as I am not sure if this is the final copy of what was presented on that day)...for which I received an A+ with the comment "Very persuasive!" Made me proud. Here it is:

Marijuana is a plant. I know, you’re thinking, yeah, moron, we know, but I just want you to think about that for a minute. It has leaves, a stem, a root system---it’s a plant. It takes in carbon dioxide, gives off oxygen. It grows naturally on the earth---it’s a plant, you see, and that’s what plants do. Cigarettes and cigars both come from a plant. Alcohol is made from plants. Marijuana is a plant, just like them, but it is illegal. Why is marijuana discriminated against? What’s up with making a plant illegal in a country that was founded on the idea of freedom?

People may claim that I, and people like myself, are just ranting pot heads, but in a country where anti-marijuana commercials are followed by “This Bud’s For You!” and “It’s Miller Time”, something can’t be right. It is in my opinion that the prohibition of marijuana for recreational use by the federal government is a hypocritical, social injustice, especially when compared to the legality of other drugs such as alcohol and tobacco. 

First, I feel that it’s important to understand the history of the prohibition of marijuana. Marijuana has been illegal under the system of prohibition since 1937 in the United States. The first crop was grown in 1611, but the practice of smoking marijuana was not introduced until the 1920’s. It was introduced by the same people that used opiates, the immigrants. Since immigrants were seen as violent and unwanted, marijuana, which was used primarily by them at the time, was classified as a narcotic. It was used legally for awhile. During the prohibition of alcohol, it was welcomed as a worthy substitute. During the 20’s, it was in over 40% of the medicines of that time, however, by 1937, all states had anti-marijuana laws. During the same year, the federal government passed the Marijuana Tax Act. This law required tax stamps to possess marijuana, but also required the presentation of the marijuana in order to receive the stamp---but if you were presenting the marijuana in order to get a stamp, you already possessed the marijuana without a tax stamp---which was a violation of federal law. This trick already made it impossible to legally possess marijuana, but the details of the act are irrelevant because no stamps were ever issued. Also, during this time period no tests were done regarding marijuana and its effects. It essentially became illegal because of misconception---and blatant lies. Even though marijuana was illegal, the government had to convince the ever-curious Americans that “weed was bad”. The first fight against marijuana was one of silence. If youths didn’t hear about it---they wouldn’t experiment. In the 1930’s, it was deemed that no schools could talk about marijuana.

The anti-pot population’s idea of silence didn’t work very well, so they moved on to strategy two---exaggeration. This was the age of “Reefer Madness”. The American Journal wrote, “Marijuana users will suddenly turn with murderous violence upon whoever is nearest to them. He will run amuck with knife, axe, gun, or anything else that is close to the hand, and will kill or maim without reason.” One doesn’t even have to smoke marijuana to see that that is an asinine exaggeration. Today, now that marijuana has actually been tested and studied, we can see that what they were telling people in the 30’s were blatant lies. Either way, marijuana is still illegal.

But what is their reason? In my opinion, no argument for the prohibition of marijuana is logical, not to mention that all arguments become invalid and hypocritical when we look at the legality of tobacco and alcohol. The War on Drugs is a horrid hypocrisy because it only targets certain drugs. It seems that people don’t realize that alcohol and tobacco are drugs. If you drink, even occasionally, if you smoke cigarettes or cigars---you are a drug user. And yet, marijuana is illegal and these drugs are not. This does not make logical sense. Our government’s arguments for the prohibition of marijuana do little to defend their cause.

The government argues that they have to protect the people. Well, how dangerous is this plant compared to the other legal drugs that the government says are okay for their people to have? These are the number of deaths that result directly or primarily from the following cause. Tobacco---kills 340,000 to 450,000 people each year. Alcohol kills over 150,000 people, not including the 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders. Aspirin (including deliberate overdose) kills 180 to 1,000 or more people. Caffeine (from stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heart beats, etc.)---kills 1,000 to 10,000 people. “Legal” Drug Overdose (deliberate or accidental), this would be prescription medication, kills 14,000 27,000 people each year. Illicit Drug Overdose (deliberate or accidental), kills 3,800 to 5,200 people each year. Marijuana kills 0 people each year.

All of the studies done at American universities and research facilities show marijuana toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not show anyone dying from an overdose. Medicinal drugs are given what is called and LD-50. The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage half of the test animals receiving the drug will die. Researches have attempted to determine marijuana’s LD-50, and failed. It’s estimated that it is somewhere around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. Simply put, in order to induce death, one would have to consume as much marijuana as there is in 20,000 to 40,000 marijuana cigarettes. NIDA-supplied joints weigh around .9 grams. So, theoretically speaking, you would have to consume 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about 15 minutes to overdose. Logically speaking, it is impossible to die from marijuana, and yet, our government feels the need to “protect us”. The government’s claim that it’s a threat to the people is invalid and illogical, and so are the arguments that it destroys your short-term memory and decreases reaction time. Alcohol and tobacco do worse things to your body than marijuana. It’s asinine that people argue this point when alcohol and tobacco are legal.

Alcohol and tobacco have been proven to cause more health problems than marijuana, but we have the right to consume them and use them, as we should. They have both been proven to be addictive. Marijuana has never been proven to be addictive. Alcohol causes cirrhosis of the liver, not to mention 50% of all highway accidents. Marijuana users have the same or lower incidences of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Tobacco kills almost 10 times as many people as all illegal drugs combined. Tobacco companies add chemicals, like urea and arsenic, to their cigarettes. They add cocoa and licorice---when burnt, they act as broncho-dilators, enabling even more nicotine to get into your body to ensure you’ll become addicted and buy more of their drug. Tobacco companies are drug lords---they spend billions of dollars each year pushing a product they know kills people. How can this be legal in our country when marijuana is not? Many young, up-and-coming politicians are given large sums of money to finance their political campaigns. It’s obvious that these politicians, once elected to office, wouldn’t say or do anything against the tobacco companies when their political career was essentially funded by the tobacco industry.

Another argument for the prohibition of marijuana is the gateway drug theory. This argument is invalid because it should be expected that more people who smoke pot move to harder drugs than non-smokers. They’ve already proven themselves curious enough to try drugs in the first place. I’m sure a similar link could be made between alcohol drinkers and marijuana smokers, but alcohol isn’t targeted as a gateway drug. Let us not forget about free will. People addicted to heroin at one time made a personal choice to use it. It’s completely absurd to claim “the weed made me do it!”

In conclusion, prohibition does not work---there has been no permanent change in usage because of the legal penalties. The DEA spends $1.3 billion a year trying to stop marijuana. Over 4 million people have been put in jail for marijuana charges. The answer is full legalization. The anti-marijuana community argues that this will lead to a drug-usage increase, even though all evidence proves otherwise. Holland legalized marijuana in 1976 and the amount of users actually went down by 40%. Wouldn’t it be better to legalize and monitor its usage instead of imprisoning smokers that are no more criminals than alcohol and tobacco users? I urge you to take a stand against the prohibition. Don’t let this wonderful plant be against the law.

Joe VS. The Driveway

Today we had a bit of Joe Vs. The Driveway. My husband and I are lucky in that in MOST cases, it's usually only one of us that freaks out about a situation, and the other can still freak out, but to a lesser degree and try to help the other remain calm...or tell them what an idiot they are being. Regardless of the chosen roles or tactics, one of us is usually calm-ish...and one feels irate. This musing has to do with getting stuck part way up the driveway, 3/4 of the way, to be exact...and THAT is a metaphor!

My husband was driving, and I was in the passenger seat. If this was a dream, I would say that is a significant note. I don't know about in real life. (No, really---I don't know about it.) During this particular incident, I was actually the calm one, which I love, because it honestly doesn't happen as often. I usually am the one dealing with the unstable mood or explosions of emotion, and will occasionally need to calm my husband down here and there when he does the same. So, needless to say, I feel awesome when I'm on the other end...like I'm a god damn Zen master or some shit. I revel in it...just a tad...because it's a good lesson. And, as synchronicity would allow, it usually has something to do with what I am personally working on in my inner world at the time. (Go figure!) And explaining or teaching, seeing something from the other seat, as it were, is one of the best ways to LEARN what it is you are teaching. So not only because I don't feel like the idiot, but because I get a chance to SEE how I should be reacting all of the time. I get a chance to see my reactions mirrored...and see how futile they are. How self-sabotaging, how pointless. Preach it, sister! Preach it! It's amusing to me, although, it is a humble sermon, because I am too often in the driver seat...literally. I am the one stuck in the driveway and not the one just watching the drama unfold. Sometimes you lose sight of that.

So my husband was getting angry as we were going up the driveway and backing down again and again trying to get past where we were. Meanwhile, the snow was just continuing to come down, not making it any better. But we had full bellies, we were in our own driveway and we were together. This is what I told my husband. No big deal. We'll get 'er! We were 3/4 of the way up the driveway...and a day later I would realize how odd it was that our driveway is shaped exactly like the arc my therapist made with her hand when she was describing how I was doing progress wise, and we got stuck in the exact spot she stopped her hand in the air and declared that I was at...3/4 of the way...riiiiiiiiight near the top of the LAST little hump before you're home free...where you keep sliding off track! Hmm...interesting. Where you are tested with what you have learned thus far. You can't make it up smoothly without knowing what you've learned. Do I digress? 

In all actuality, I just had the car stuck in our driveway a week prior on my way back home from my friend's house one night. (It was a BAD winter for our driveway!) Luckily, I had a little wine in me, so the cold wasn't bad at all and it turned into a beautiful moonlit walk, as Sam Cooke serenaded me via Pandora the entire length of my trek. "Darling, you send me...Honest, you do, honest, you do..." It was actually rather enjoyable, as I sneaked up to my snow covered abode like it was a hidden cabin in the woods. Which takes me back to us being stuck in the driveway. It's no big deal...it is what you make it. I had decided to walk and listened to Sam Cooke! It was enjoyable. It could have been made into an ordeal. I could have become so pissed that I tried to kick my tire, slipped, and fell on my ass! I could have broken my coccyx! It COULD have happened. But I CHOSE to enjoy the moment. This is what I was thinking about when we became stuck after our outing for breakfast that morning.

In my husband's defense, though, he was the one in charge of unstucking the car both times, so I am sure that is why he wasn't enjoying the moment as much as I was. I didn't see much amusement in his eyes when I replied to one of his outbursts with, "I"m having a really good time!" and a large grin. Maybe now wasn't the time? But if not Now, when? Now is exactly when you need to have a good time! Even when you are stuck 3/4 of the way up your driveway...because you're almost home. No matter how much you keep sliding into that deep drift, no matter how long it takes you to pull yourself out...no matter how many times you have to back down the drive and get a head start back up...you're gonna make it home...even if you have to walk. That's a metaphor...and a good life lesson.

BOOK REVIEW: Savor

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung was a very interesting read. This book was able to combine a great amount of nutritional information with mindfulness practices. 

As Cheung highlights better eating choices and patterns, Thay's mindful action plans are woven around them. This approach utilizes breathing exercises and the untying of your internal knots. Mindful Eating is discussed as well as Mindful Movement. The book is filled with practical meditations you can practice daily to improve your mindfulness with food and exercise. 

One of the biggest things I got from this book was the discussion of the nutrients we physically ingest as well as the nutriments, which includes all of our interests we take in, people we engage with, media we consume. These nutriments have as big of an impact on our psyche as the nutrients we consume have on our body. It is best to be aware and mindful of everything that we are ingesting in our daily lives. 

BOOK REVIEW: How To Eat

How To Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh was a fun little book. It's a pocket book, so it is small in size but vast in truth. It is filled with small passages pertaining to food, eating, drinking, and cooking. The main teaching of this book is mindful eating, experiencing your food with all of your senses and seeing all of the Universe in every meal that you consume. The orange is nourished by the sun, the soil and the rain, and thus contains those aspects of the Universe and, in turn, we are nourished by it. 

Thay explains how the monks eat together in silence and refrain from chewing and swallowing their problems along with their food. He suggests similing as you eat with friends and experiencing them in the moment as well. In these meditations he talks about everything from the proper way to do the dishes to the Five Contemplations we should always consider when eating. 

How To Eat was a quick yet enlightening read, and because of that I will probably enjoy this book again sometime. I am sure I would get something out of a second helping of these simple yet profound teachings.

BOOK REVIEW: The Tao of Eating

The Tao of Eating is a wonderful book! It is up there with Eating in the Light of the Moon for me, and it was actually a recommendation from Johnston, so it makes sense. 

The Tao is known as "the way". This book focuses on the Tao of eating versus the way of dieting. The author explains how to "undiet" and eat according to your desires, for your mind, body, and also your soul. She advocates having a soulful relationship with food, deeming no food off limits, no time of day taboo for eating--NO RULES regarding food, and no eating with the goal of losing weight at all!

Some of the suggestions seem rather radical, but only if you still believe what you have been taught by the way of dieting. When I started applying these practices to my life I felt a little out of control and uncomfortable not restricting ANYTHING from my body. Especially because I am recovering from disordered eating patterns, this book was helpful in supporting me in eliminating all eating restrictions. The theory is your body will find its balance once again as you are applying no negative beliefs or thoughts to food. This was a slightly scary yet liberating experience,

Aligned with the teachings found in the Tao te Ching, the main text of Taoism, The Tao of Eating explains how to live a diet free lifestyle and truly find your soul using the cues your eating patterns have to offer you if you choose to listen. It is suggested that we listen to our body's cravings in order to bring awareness to its needs.

BOOK REVIEW: The Only Diet There Is

The Only Diet There Is by Sondra Ray is quite a different book. This is basically another LOA read about weight and body image. The author explains that our way of thinking about ourselves is of the utmost importance when it comes to reaching and maintaining our ideal weight. She discusses psychological reasons for your extra weight and explores your belief system about your body and food. This isn't a diet in the normal sense, but a diet from negative thinking. According to Ray, it is this negative thinking that is sabotaging our attempts at weight loss.

This book is a little crunchy, but very therapeutic if you read it with an open mind and allow it to sink in. It is heavy on God and uber heavy on affirmations. The author explains that it is our thoughts about the food we consume that make it "good" or "bad". I actually wrote out ALL of the affirmations in this book. Some of them are pretty ridiculous seeming, but others really hit on some key reasons why people have weight issues and clicked with me. I see the affirmations as a tool to re-frame your subconscious mind and in affect change your belief systems about your body, food, and eating. 

In changing our mind, I can see where the affirmations could be helpful, as affirmations in general are great tools for change, but I can also see where many people could hate this book with a passion and believe it is utter bull shit because of their absurdity. It really is about what you believe. Self-change is a lofty endeavor for anyone, but you might have better results by starting from the inside. Your weight is a physical symptom of something else that is going on and it is true that in any weight loss attempt the best thing to change is your mind. As within, so without!