Chris, review carefully this time, You are once again reading into my words what you'd like to attack.
First of all, if I should get a headache from lack of coffee, it will pass within hours. I do not go into any serious withdrawal symptoms for the lack of it. I enjoy it, it makes life fun, as do a score of other habits--all of which make life enjoyable. You may claim to be addiction free, but I would warrant you are not able to recognize them. Even milk can be addictive, or evil Soya products or body building foods. Any food allergy can be indicative of addiction, just as any strong desire for certain types of food. Potatoes allergies and Vodka cravings go hand in hand. Dr. Douglas Hunt wrote a good book on nutrition and fears, called "No More Fears" which you would find informative. Then of course there are the other less recognized addictions as in relationships to people, internet habits, sex, acquisition of knowledge only for status, or addiction to power-over. You are on this planet because you need healing in some way, and if you don't ever recognize that, then you are destined to go through life in denial. Let's be clear on another important point. I have never ever condoned or promoted the use of pot, coffee, or any other substance to anyone in either a professional capacity, as a volunteer, or in my personal life. The clientele with whom I worked were all very troubled people, who had without exception suffered extreme mental, physical and sexual abuse. Almost all suffered not so coincidentally from schizophrenia, some from bi-polar disorders and so on. This was not a centre for addiction but a healing art facility, and no therapy was conducted other than by the individual in their personal processes that developed from doing the art. Though I was an evaluator for art therapy students from the local university, no therapy was actually practised but by the clientele themselves. Because of my position and the many hats that I wore, most members did reveal a great deal to me about their lives. I was there for them as any good therapist would be: as a good listener, empathiser, and slightly more sane person people could turn to when things got really bad. My devotion to this cause of healing through creativity did not assign me in any way to be judgmental. Coffee was provided, and a smoking area outside--or else there would not have been much of a clientele. As well materials were supplied at no cost because consumers rarely can afford art supplies. I found permanent space in unused city property that was once part of the Defence Department, so that membership fees did not have to be an issue. This centre continues to give meaning to people's lives without any lectures from anyone on addiction or any other problems. People have to find their own way about these things, but as I mentioned before--addiction to prescription drugs was the biggest concern of the membership. Inability to do art was most often related to the side-effects of these highly controlling chemicals, and I had to bite my tongue there--whereas I would be tempted otherwise to suggest alternative therapies. Pot would not be one of them. What was helpful was to suggest that until they got things worked out about what was the best solution to these addictions, they could always try to remember that creativity is everyone's equal right to access, and that once they felt more in-spired (as opposed to dis-spirited), they could depend upon a place to go either to express that inner self, to become inspired by others' works, or just to hang or help out. These were almost all highly intelligent people, who were very up on statistics and side-effects of most substances, and needed no education from me in this department, but at no time was any imparted. Below you are continuing to say that I think drugs should be legalized. This is reading what you want to use from your soap box, and not concentrating too well either, I must add. I feel that marijuana and hashish should be legalized, as should hemp production. I never said that anything else should be legalized, though I think there are probably exceptions. I feel that if the government must waste money on the war on drugs, then they should focus upon heroin, opium, cocaine, amphetamines, etc. I understand how you feel that one life screwed up by adverse reactions to THC is too many, but your passion might be better focused on creative ways to help kids get back into the stream of life. You don't seem to be crying for the zillions put on Prozac or Ritalin. Alcohol and tobacco kill millions, yet there are comparatively few deaths that are directly related to hard drugs, and almost none directly related to THC. Of course you are free to choose what you feel is the greater "evil", but don't you think that given the limited resources and abilities that law enforcement possesses, their time would be far better spent getting the serious pushers? And include in that category physicians and pharmaceutical industries, McDeath, Nike and the like! By the way, no drug offered by pharmaceuticals addresses cause either. It's always about managing symptoms. ----- Original Message ----- From: Christoph Reuss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 8:35 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Possible U.S. cutbacks? > Natalia wrote: > > I do not need to recognize my addiction to caffeine. I enjoy it as long as I > > have it > > The problem comes when you don't have the drug. Do you enjoy headaches too? > > The talk of "freedom" by the drug-legalization crowd is really Orwellian. > Addiction and craving is the opposite of freedom. I enjoy my freedom of > not needing caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and all the other junk. This way > I am free of hangovers and of withdrawal headaches, nervousness, inability > to concentrate, etc., and of the constant need to buy stuff from unethical > businesses. > > > > I'm sure it's no more of a concern than > > your next ale, or mineral water, should you run out. If I get headaches from > > not eating, am I also a hopeless addict in that respect? > > Your likening of water/food to drugs won't become correct by repeating it. > Water and food are essential to living creatures, but drugs aren't. > The best you can say is that the strength of addiction of one drug > (marijuana) is relatively weak, that it can be used for medical purposes > in some conditions (but only to tinker with symptoms, never to cure > causes of illness), that it makes you _feel_ better (not to confuse with > _being_ better!) for a while. > > > > Don't give me this childish "you are not worthy of discussing > > something with me "dismissal" cr-p. > > I never suggested that "you are not worthy of discussing something with me", > I merely suggested that a constructive discussion can't be based on totally > flawed comparisons (like water--drugs) and a line of strawman arguments. > But here you come up with another strawman. > > > > That is so like a loser trying to save > > face, and I'm sure that you don't want people to think any such thing. > > I have spent a lot of time helping many young people, and I deserve some > > credit for my observations. You are not speaking from a very broad base of > > information, and so far nothing from personal experience. > > Talking about losers trying to save face, you can't be serious to claim > that you "helped many young people" when you actually talked them into > addiction (or staying in it), by belittling and denying the backsides and > dangers of drugs, the way you're doing on this list, even to the point of > "not needing to recognize your addiction to caffeine" no matter how obvious > the withdrawal symptoms are. > > A loser trying to save face will deny that there's a problem at all, > no matter how obvious the symptoms are, and will encourage others to join > the miserable voyage, just to pretend it's all fine. As drugs enhance > self-deception and illusions, it's a vicious circle. > > Having worked in a bar, of course you have plenty of experience with > addicts to all kinds of drugs (and you have received more than your share > of passive smoking), but unfortunately it seems that you are unable to > derive the right conclusions from that. (Better don't talk them out of > addictions, or you would be fired immediately by the bar.) Namely, that > the best thing is to stay clean from the start. Anyone who didn't "get" > this --or even actively denies it-- is counterproductive to "helping many > young people". > > Chris > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
