Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Against Sedation, Unnecessary Injections, and the Therapeutic Use of Ketamine (and Thoughts on Vaccines and Autism)

      When I noticed a pattern of what used to be considered "club drugs", getting into therapy clinics (beginning with ecstasy in the 1970s, prescribed to married couples; and now ketamine), I said something about it. This caused me to be seen as “old-fashioned” and "irrationally worried".
      When I discovered that trans and gay icons Michael Alig and Ernie Glam had likely used rohypnol ("roofies") to drug celebrity "drag kid" “Desmond is Amazing” Napoles, so that they could rape him - around the same time that Napoles was seen mimicking snorting ketamine, while seated on a couch with another transvestite - I said something about it.. This got me called a “transphobe”.
      Well, I don't care what they call me, I’m not going to shut up.


      I'm not going to stay silent about ketamine often being administered via injection.

     Despite the fact that ketamine is taken in powder form when used as a street drug, but comes in the form of pills in a clinical setting, prescription ketamine pills can be crushed, and snorted, and the drug can then be consumed just like how it is consumed on the street.

     Between excessive vaccination shortly after birth, repeated booster shots for Covid, and the push for ketamine usage in clinical settings, people are getting way too accustomed to getting shot-up all the time; and for no good, medically necessary reason.

      When did we decide that we're fine with receiving injections from Walgreen's employees? When did we decide that we're fine with receiving vaccine injections in an open-air parking lot? This is not an exaggeration; I actually witnessed this, in Waukegan, Illinois, in 2020. Walgreen’s was vaccinating people outdoors in order to observe “social” distancing regulations (which would probably be more accurately termed “physical distancing” regulations). Don't we have standards for our own health?


      What the hell could be going wrong with your life, that you need to be shot-up with something which both sedates you and makes you trip at the same time? You can't even choose between sedation and hallucination? For God’s sake, pace yourself. If you're going to do drugs, try not to do more than one or two drugs at the same time.
      I guess the needle holes are supposed have a therapeutic benefit too? The puncture wounds are there to make you feel better? If it hurts and feels good at the same time, and isn’t medically necessary, then it's a maladaptive behavior. It doesn’t need to be promoted.


      You know what I do when I feel stressed (aside from smoke weed, which is both a mild stimulant and a mild depressant)? I massage my hands.
     Try it. Once your hands feel better, it's easier to massage other parts of your body. Start with your elbows and shoulders and joints. Then massage your feet, so that you can walk more comfortably, and avoid allowing the muscles in your feet to become tense during long drives or long periods wearing shoes and tight-fitting socks with elastic bands, which reduce circulation). Then massage your head and neck, until your neck can turn freely and move back and forth easily and quickly.
     Do some push-ups; not to get buff, nor to instill self-discipline; just to correct your posture. If you don't like push-ups, do yoga. Do some shoulder stretches that expand your range-of-motion. I don't have time to go on walks, but if that's your thing, do it. Put on some calming music and burn some incense. Cuddle up with a loved one or a pet.
      Do whatever you need to do. Just don't shoot yourself up with hallucinogens that also sedate you. This is not therapy. It is drug use, disguised as medicine.


     We need to pay attention to what our bodies are telling us, and respond in-kind. Sedatives block pain signals which are essential to our survival. The fact that narcotics help us avoid going into shock when we are experiencing extreme levels of pain, does not mean that we should adopt an understanding of comfort which values pain suppression above feeling and confronting the pain for just long enough as is necessary to diagnose the actual problem and its cause.
      Opioids and narcotics do have a medical benefit; they are sedatives. That's why narcotic pain relievers are used in controlled manners in hospitals. But this class of drugs also includes heroin. Heroin provides the medical benefit of pain relief, but that fact alone does not make it an acceptable drug, or the best drug, to use in a clinical setting.
     The fact that some sedatives are generally regarded as "safe", and have helped certain people who are strong enough to survive using them, certainly merits making them legal for use by adults. But these are not excuses for recommending and prescribing sedatives as freely as they are being recommended and prescribed; and especially not when the patient is a minor.
     Not everything that relieves pain is a medicine. People who cut themselves often report feeling euphoria, and a sense of release, when they self-harm. This is due to the release of endorphins, and also to a decrease in blood pressure. The fact that the behavior reduces pain, doesn’t mean that it’s medically beneficial overall, since it only masks the pain. And, like a syringe, it creates new pain somewhere else (that is, at the site of injection or cutting, which then becomes an easy place for pathogens to enter the bloodstream, and cause infection, resulting in more pain).
     These vicious cycles must be avoided.


      Ketamine therapy is experimental, and it is still in its early stages. Just ten years ago, this was exclusively a recreational drug (known as "Special K", and causing a reaction that users described as feeling stuck in a "K-hole").
     Even if ketamine has helped some people, that does not mean that it should be advertised on Facebook and YouTube (by companies such as Mindbloom and Joyous) anywhere near as much as it has been. And, judging by how rarely the word ketamine comes up in discussion threads underneath these companies' posts, the companies and patients are not too eager to admit exactly which "therapy" these companies are promoting.
     We are not asking ourselves about the long-term side effects; for example, what will happen to the thought processes (and addiction patterns) of people who are told that all of their problems will be solved, if and only if they submit to intravenous administration of a sedative hallucinogen.
     We are teaching depressed people that the solutions are at the bottom of a syringe. This, coupled with the ongoing existing opioid epidemic, threatens to create the perfect conditions for a new generation of heroin addicts (and of people addicted to other I.V. drugs).


      In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley described "baby hatcheries", in which all modern babies would be birthed out of test-tubes, instead of born out of their mothers' wombs (the only people left doing so, being described by the moderns as "savages").
     In these hatcheries, different classes of workers (still embryos in-vitro) are subjected to various levels of alcohol poisoning. This causes the babies to be “born” with different levels of brain damage, and different levels of limits upon their mental capacities. This dooms them to a lifetime of social and economic immobility, lack of freedom, and inability to produce or innovate anything that they have not been directly ordered to produce.
     We can see – judging by the problems experienced by adult children of alcoholics, and the reduction in crime which followed the removal of lead from gasoline – that Huxley’s “warning” about the future, might have actually been intended as a prediction.


      Sedation is not a solution. Medically unnecessary sedation is the problem. Sedation makes us blind to our problems.
     Sedation makes it harder to remember what happened to us. Sedation makes it harder to move our mouths to explain what we remember. “Atypical antipsychotics”, prescribed to treat depression and other illnesses, often contain neuro-tranquilizing sedatives (Abilify is one such example). [Note: I have written about this topic previously, in my March 2021 article "Abilify and Other [']Atypical Antipsychotics['] Are Overprescribed, Dangerous, and Increase Some Psychotic Symptoms". That article can be read at the following link: http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2021/03/abilify-and-other-atypical.html]
     When a depressed person is suffering from memory loss / amnesia, or is concerned that they might have forgotten a past abusive or traumatic event, should under no circumstances be given any sedatives that might hinder their ability to recall and describe such events. To sedate a person who is in such a situation, should really be considered suppressing evidence of a crime (or even interfering with a criminal investigation), if there’s any chance that the trauma they suffered was caused by an abuser intentionally.
      Sedation is not good for you (unless you are prone to bouts of violence which cannot be explained by a previous intentional assault, in which case there are many milder forms of sedation available, and criminal action would be more therapeutic than sedation).


      There are ways to drink alcohol without becoming dependent upon it, and without using too much. You can find Kombuchas that contain just one proof of naturally-occurring fermented alcohol.
     Do you think you would want to drink as much alcohol as you do, if you were to eat more fruit, drink more smoothies, and/or eat foods that have cooking sherry or brandy in them? I bet you wouldn’t.
      Similarly, would you drink or use drugs as much as you do, if nobody had ever mistreated you or beaten you up or abused you? I doubt it. Would you abuse drugs - or gamble, or whatever your vice is - as much, if the person who hurt you the most, were in prison? Hell no.
     So, then, why are we routinely distracting people from their original problems, and demanding that they get sedated?


      Some people suspect that thimerosal and mercury in vaccines could be a major contributing cause to autism. I don’t know if that’s the case. But I do think we should be asking ourselves whether repeated injection could be a cause of autism.
      American children are given many more injections at young ages, compared to American children fifty years ago, and children abroad. I remember taking an allergy test at age eight; they pricked my back eighty times to test me for eighty different things. My reaction gradually shifted from an honest “Ow!” to an emotionally dead, robotic repetition of “Ow. …Ow. …Ow. …Ow.”, all expected, and laden with inevitability and futility. I could feel my sensitivity to pain, and my positive regard for the people who allowed this to happen to me, leaving my body.
      Forget about the chemicals for a second; we are desensitizing people to pain through repeated needle penetration. Common characteristics associated with autism include aversion to touch and self-stimulating behaviors. What better way to cause fear of being touched by others, than stabbing someone with a needle eighty times? What better way to cause a need to stimulate oneself, than to expose someone to painful and unwanted contact with others? Maybe some autistic symptoms are just natural reactions to exposing someone to repeated painful unwanted unnecessary interactions with others.


     Now let's think about what autism might have to do with sedation.
     There are currently class action lawsuits underway, over whether acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) could have a causal relationship to autism.
     Those who defend acetaminophen say that it is not toxic, and that it is the night-time pain reliever which is most often prescribed to pregnant women. This, they say, suggests that acetaminophen is not harmful to the developing fetus.
     Well I say "So what if Tylenol is the pain reliever most often prescribed to pregnant women? That fact alone doesn't make it harmless. We might as well be asking which intravenous narcotic street drug is considered the least harmful to pregnant women." Just because something is the least harmful in its class, doesn't mean it's harmless, and doesn't mean it's good for babies.
     We should notice that a lot of the same people working for the federal health programs, who say that acetaminophen is safe - I'm talking about the Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden Administration - are the same people who consider Tylenol (and drugs similar to it) as so dangerous, that they were willing (in the 1980s and 1990s) to implement laws against drug possession in schools, which eventually enabled them to strip-search teenage school girls if they suspected possession of drugs, whether it was hard drugs or ibuprofen. [Source: http://www.aclu.org/press-releases/us-supreme-court-review-unconstitutional-strip-search-13-year-old-student-ibuprofen]
     Now, ordering minors to remove clothing is an invasion of privacy which is impossible to justify, and it is an obvious example of legislative overreach. But that fact does not mean that minors' access to pain relievers should not be regulated or limited by trustworthy adults. If Tylenol and acetaminophen are so safe, then why have teenagers chugged Tylenol in order to commit suicide? [Source: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Suicidal-teens-turn-to-Tylenol-4712700.php]
     Acetaminophen is dangerous. It suppresses the symptoms of cold and flu, but it does not actually cure those things. Colds and influenza are caused by different viruses, but the fact that they are viral diseases does not mean that they can't result in infections that will need to be treated with antibiotics. Severe colds and flus can result in infections of the ear, nose, throat, and lungs, which would be more effectively treated with the mucus thinner guaifenesin, antibiotics like Azithromycin, and/or injection of saline to relieve extreme dehydration, rather than with acetaminophen.
     Acetaminophen sedates the body, providing it with adequate rest, which is therapeutic. I'm not disputing that rest helps the body, and is essential to recovery from colds and flus, buying the body time to recognize the virus and muster a defense against it. But rest can be achieved without sedation. Taking acetaminophen is unnecessary whenever the patient is able to get to sleep on his own.
     Why sedate when you can medicate?
     Sure, acetaminophen suppresses the inflammatory response. But isn't the inflammatory response part of the immune response? And isn't the immune response necessary for survival? Why are we suppressing the immune response? Are we trying to cause an immune deficiency? Why use acetaminophen to reduce inflammation, if more natural anti-inflammatories (such as ice, ginger, tomatoes, olive oil, leafy greens, fish, nuts, and fruits) might solve the problem by themselves? [Note: I am not talking about acute inflammation here, nor about burns by fire or chemicals; some cases of inflammation are extreme, and should be limited. But inflammation should not be stopped altogether.]
     It would be great if we got to the bottom of this issue; whether acetaminophen causes autism. But we should also be asking whether acetaminophen can act as a sedative, contributing to short-circuiting of the nervous system, producing the same sorts of unpredictable bodily movements which, in the autistic person, are always described as "nervous tics" (or "flapping"). The same nervous tics or flapping, seen in a patient who has A.D.H.D. (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) will be described as symptoms of A.D.H.D..
     That's why, when we observe symptoms commonly thought to be characteristic of autism or A.D.H.D., we should be very careful to consider whether some other illness (aside from autism, and bearing some degree of overlap in symptoms) might be the actual culprit instead.
     [Note: I have previously commented on this topic; in my November 2022 video "Covid-19, Pneumonia, Sedation, and the Possible Link Between Acetaminophen and Autism and A.D.H.D.". That video can be viewed at the following address: http://rumble.com/v1vgcle-covid-19-pneumonia-sedation-and-the-possible-link-between-acetaminophen-and.html]


      There are alternatives to sedation, injection, ketamine, alcohol, heroin, antipsychotic neuro-tranquilizers, and acetaminophen.
     The fact that our doctors want to end our suffering as quickly as possible, shouldn't have to mean that we allow them to kill us slowly, by administering sedatives that compromise our nervous systems' abilities to feel which of our organs are damaged and need repair. We don’t have to stay life-long drug addicts just because the medical-industrial complex, Big Pharma and the violent administrative state have decided that being a drug addict is fine as long as a doctor gives you permission to be one.
      The Western model of medicine is flawed because it focuses on relieving pain and masking the symptoms of a disease, instead of getting to the root and treating the cause of the disease. This is not a new idea, and it is not difficult to observe. Hospitals are using fentanyl to sedate patients. [Source: http://www.instagram.com/p/CqOEDDEDqFr/?fbclid=IwAR24cYX_vdPZu6NhRRmbbcCPuvaOiZ6qV2Ix5c6hd0n8HoWvvzJz5NThk1Y] This is wrong, and it needs to stop.
      If we are not careful to make sure that this trend does not continue, then someday soon, we will find that sedatives are the only officially endorsed “cures” for what we are told ails us. Then, we will be forced to take “medications” that are actually harming us, and the fact that we are laying down in one particular hospital bed will be used to prevent us from seeking a second opinion somewhere else.
     We will be led to believe that the sedative is the only thing that we need in order to survive. And we will die in our hospital beds, our so-called "need" for sedation prioritized over our actual needs for water, food, exercise, vitamins, sunlight, love, and human interaction.


      Soon, refusing to allow harmful “medications” to be administered to our children, will merit losing custody. You might think it’s unethical to refuse to allow a child who has been diagnosed with cancer, to be treated with radiation therapy. But think about this: What if they don’t have cancer? What if a second opinion needs to be sought? What if they have a non-cancerous disease that is commonly mistaken for cancer? Well, in that case, radiation might not be good for them at all. Radiation might actually increase their likelihood of developing cancer, if they did not already have it.
      We are already seeing this in the transsexual community. For one, people who receive genital surgeries are being given sedatives. Not that sedatives don’t knock people out so that they don’t wake up from surgery. Not that sedatives don’t help reduce the pain of surgery. We should be asking “are sedatives and surgery really necessary, if a person can change their gender just by changing their mind?”. And secondly, the state legislatures of Washington, California, and Maryland have introduced bills which would allow the government to take custody away from parents whom refuse to call their “transgender kids” by their preferred pronouns or refuse to give permission that they receive “gender-affirming care”.


     They sedate us because they don't want us to be able to feel what they are doing to us.
      You cannot solve old problems with new problems. New problems can only distract from the old ones. Solving problems requires solutions; not more problems.
     You have options.




Written and published on July 4th, 2023.

Edited and expanded on July 5th and 25th, 2023.

Originally published under the title "Against Sedation, Unnecessary Injections, and the Therapeutic Use of Ketamine"

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Take Marijuana Off the Schedule I Narcotics List


Originally written on September 28th, 2016
Edited and Expanded on October 4th, 5th, 10th, and 19th, 2016
 
 
 
            On June 20th, 2012, Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) asked Drug Enforcement Administration Chief Michele Leonhart whether heroin, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine were greater health problems than marijuana is. Leonhart refused to comment, and declined to admit that hard drugs pose a greater health problem than marijuana does. Years later, Polis commented that she was "terrible at her job".

            Of course, marijuana and its byproducts should not be classified as Schedule I narcotics. This is, first, because the term "narcotic" has several definitions. One definition is simply a vague label for any illicit or prohibited drug. Another definition refers to any substance that affects mood or behavior, and has nonmedical purposes. Yet another definition implies that "narcotic" applies to opiates and sedatives, pain relievers and painkillers, and drugs with analgesic and anesthetic effects.


            While it is true that marijuana is illicit and prohibited, and has non-medical purposes (including its effects on psychology and emotions), it would be misleading to describe it as a narcotic. Marijuana is not a narcotic; rather, it has stimulant and depressant effects, both of them mild. Marijuana is certainly not an opiate; in fact, alcohol is more chemically similar to heroin than either alcohol or heroin is to marijuana.

            Secondly, marijuana does not belong on the Schedule I narcotics list, because drugs are supposed to be put on Schedule I only if they have no scientifically demonstrated medicinal benefits. Of course, marijuana does have medical purposes. The most active psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - Delta-9-THC (Delta-9-tetrahydracannabinol) - facilitates the growth of neuronal stem cells into adult neurons, and untangles the tau protein that agglomerates in neurons. This protein probably causes, or at least contributes to, a host of neurodegenerative disorders, possibly including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Tourette's. Whole-plant marijuana - which can be eaten; it doesn't have to be smoked - has even been shown to reduce seizures, even more so than concentrated synthetic marijuana-based compounds that have had the psychoactive ingredients removed. THC is found in cannabis sativa, and is responsible for the "head-high" effects that some cannabis gives.

            Although marijuana has some mild depressant effects, it is not a narcotic in the sense that that term means sedatives or opiates. It does, however, have pain relief effects. CBD - cannabidiol, which is responsible for the "body-high" effects in some cannabis, and which is found in cannabis indica - is the type prescribed to medical marijuana patients. It has been used to relieve joint pain and glaucoma, to expand the alveoli of the lungs (increasing lung capacity), and to stimulate and regulate the appetite.

          Vaporizing marijuana at 190 (instead of smoking it) ameliorates nerve cancers, while avoiding the lung cancer caused by inhaling combusted material. Congress should either repeal unconstitutional federal laws against drugs, or else it should enact drug policy via a proper constitutional amendment. Until that occurs, the states have every right to nullify those laws, and interpose the federal government if it tries to enforce them.
     Either way, marijuana and its byproducts should come off of the Schedule I narcotics list. Additionally, governments should legalize and normalize the production of hemp, which is only toxic if consumed in amounts which are impossible to ingest by creatures of our size. Removing marijuana from Schedule I would legalize the testing of new cannabis strains which is needed to officially show that the drug is not harmful when ingested properly.
     Until we adopt D.E.A. and F.D.A. policies supporting legal testing - and a drug education policy that seeks to enlighten, not frighten - we will continue to be plagued with problems like addicts being in the shadows, addicts being driven to a life of violent crime, and people overdosing because they don't know whether their dose will kill them.

     Additionally, we will still have to face problems associated with young people trying drugs for the first time, not knowing simple things about how to take drugs safely (for example; that they shouldn't hold-in marijuana smoke, because more than 99% of THC is absorbed by the lungs upon inhalation, and holding in the smoke does not increase the drug's effects, but only leaves tar on the user's lungs).
     Lack of knowledge regarding safe drug use can lead to overdose deaths, as well as deaths resulting from ecstasy users dying from water poisoning because they incorrectly believed that they needed to drink as much water as possible while on the drug. Moreover, the risk of (non-fatal) overdose extends to marijuana as well; in my opinion, marijuana prohibition has resulted in a shift from smoking to edibles; because ingesting cannabis in foods allows users to more easily conceal its scent. Few marijuana users seem to be aware that the risk of non-fatal overdose (including disorientation) is higher for edibles as opposed to smoking cannabis; I believe that normalizing the smoking of cannabis will help reduce non-fatal overdoses from edibles. 

Friday, January 3, 2014

Lonny Shavelson's "Hooked" from a Sociological Perspective


     The most glaring challenges encountered by individuals in Lonny Shavelson’s Hooked present themselves almost as paradoxes. The first is the urge to use drugs for the dual purposes of celebrating one’s successes and as a cure for feeling upset, anxious, or worried, and as a relief for depression following an episode of failure. The second is convincing oneself that it would be beneficial to temporarily resume taking drugs either as a way to relieve the stresses of attempting to quit the drug, to test one’s tolerance and find out whether the time spent without the drug will allow one to return to a consistent but less intense pattern of drug use safely, or to assert that the use of the drug is acceptable because going several weeks without drugs is enough to convince a former hard-core addict that it is almost as if they no longer do drugs anyway.
One challenge that seems difficult for a recovering substance addict to overcome is the sheer availability of drugs and the ease the addicts have obtaining them. Although she resisted all three temptations, we saw with Darlene that along with finding drugs by chance comes an urge to consume them, or else an urge to put them to good use – in a manner of speaking – i.e. by selling them or giving them away. Another male mentioned in the book relapsed when his friends offered him free alcohol and cocaine.
Another challenge is for a recovering addict to avoid people and places associated with their patterns of drug use. For many of the addicts mentioned, the treatment facilities which they were supposed to visit with some regularity were in or near those parts of town where they knew they could obtain drugs with little effort or risk and without anyone else finding out, as in the example of Mike and his connection at the 16th & Mission BART station, which was two blocks from a treatment facility.
For Crystal, simply visiting the facility in her neighborhood was enough to get her noticed by those individuals with whom she had relatively recently sold, bought, and consumed drugs. In situations like that, Crystal would lose control of her refusal skills as she accepts her friends’ offers, and let one thing lead to another. Knowing that ceasing to take part in such activities may cause friends to disappear or react with disapproval or condescension could very well have been one of her causes for relapsing.
Another challenge is how to remove the desire for using and abusing illicit substances to self-medicate, that is, cure emotional pain, psychological trauma, and block out negative memories from a person with a troubled past who also has multiple and / or severe drug addictions. We see that Mike suffers from guilt from not preventing the abuse of his sister as a child, that Glenda had a traumatic experience involving her mother’s alcoholism-induced death, and that Darlene had been raped in her adulthood multiple times. Also, we see that both Darlene in her relationship with William (p. 290) and Crystal in her relationship with Tony (chapter 12) struggle with abusive relationships during the time period covered by the book, and it appears obvious that the drug abuse and addiction of all partners are likely making those relationships less healthy and less stable.
A challenge that was evident from Darlene’s experience with the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic (chapter 14) was how to begin reducing substance abuse and providing mental health care for a person who does not respond positively to confrontation. As Dr. Pablo Stewart says during the clinic’s argument concerning Darlene’s violent gesture at a staff member (p. 286), “…you learn to calm the clients down, not… accelerate things until we’ve got to throw them out.” Darlene’s behavior is often unpredictable, she is blunt about her thoughts and feelings, and she has no qualms about appearing contemptuous of people who want to help her curb her drug intake, nor about appearing less than optimistic about the possibility that any progress can be made. That is precisely why the methods of a program like Walden House, which would react to a relapse by Darlene in a way that would undoubtedly frighten, frustrate, and anger her into never again returning, is likely to fail when an individual with an extreme case of substance abuse – in this case, in conjunction with psychological disorders – requests the help of the program.
     The problems presented in Hooked that seemed to have obvious solutions were the addicts’ lack of adequate housing, education and vocational training, and their non-drug-related health care problems. It seems that if these addicts’ housing situations, physical fitness, and life skills could be on par with at least the worst-off citizens who do not suffer from substance abuse and / or psychological problems, they would likely be well on their way to recovery, if only they exhibit optimism, enthusiasm, willingness, perseverance, and patience towards the programs, substance abuse and mental health counselors, and case workers that treat and assist them. It also seemed obvious that – as in Pablo Stewart’s view – it should be imperative that those programs and professionals coordinate with one another and make referrals (p. 54).
     One of the most poignant moments of Hooked comes when Crystal tells the Iris Center that she is there “to work on the biological, social, psychological, and spiritual issues around [her] addiction,” followed by the group’s applause (p. 239). Crystal appeared to have a definite readiness and willingness to improve and discover herself from relatively early on in the process, and simply being able to say something like that, especially in front of a large group of people, is probably an early indicator of success.
     I appreciated Darlene’s and Mike’s cases the most because of the controversy they caused, both in the mind of myself as the reader, and in the minds of people around them. I feel like Mike even convinced me that he could return to heroin just once more after going so many months without it, and that he could manage to do it safely and not do it again. Glenda’s story was also powerful, with its allusions to disturbing medical conditions, highways littered with broken bottles, and the blatantly unnecessary despair and suffering borne by the two individuals, Glenda and her mother, that is embedded so deeply in the American historical framework.

     I have not had experiences with individuals with such traumatic pasts, nor such severe addictions or mental problems as those in this book, but I am not foreign to hearing about such problems. I know a person who suffers from persistent hallucinations, mild alcoholism, and post-traumatic stress disorder coupled with emotional issues resulting from his inappropriate, involuntary commitment to an abusive boot camp for teenage delinquents. He claims to have recently sought medication for his alcoholism only to have the health professional become suspicious that he was being swindled for drugs, and also claims to have gone to a mental health facility to seek alcoholism treatment only to be told he may as well submit to being strapped down for the treatment, and he was threatened by the staff member that the police would be called if he did not submit to the staff’s procedure.


Originally written in July 2009 as a college essay




Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Speech at the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Fest on October 7th, 2012


Written in October 2012
Edited in May 2014



As a libertarian-leaning independent, I would urge my fellow [candidates for] representatives in the House to repeal all federal anti-marijuana legislation, vote to repeal all federal drug laws on Interstate Commerce Clause grounds, and urge the president – whoever he may be – to pardon all non-violent federal drug offenders.
If elected, I would invoke the Commerce Clause to dispute the constitutionality of not only federal drug laws, but also the states’ outright bans on the importation of illicit drugs across state lines. The only constitutional position on this issue is one which promotes the use of federal power to prohibit the states from regulating marijuana in a manner that causes undue inhibition of the freedom of trade of all commodities – marijuana included – across state borders.
My Republican opponent Chad Lee has not thus far made his stance on marijuana well-known, but I think this fact is sufficient to infer that Mr. Lee would not enthusiastically promote the N.O.R.M.L. agenda. While my Democratic opponent Mark Pocan has made some statements in support of decriminalization, I feel that his support of vice laws opposing freer trade and use of legal substances like alcohol and tobacco suggests that his support of personal freedoms could stand to be more principled and consistent.
If I am elected, I would be outspoken in my support of the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana – be it for medicinal, recreational, industrial, or entheogenic purposes – as well as in my opposition to the expansion of the drug war into overseas theaters such as Latin America, South America, Afghanistan, and others.
As a write-in candidate, I will not be on the ballot for U.S. House this November, but with enough write-in votes, I can still win the seat. Just remember to vote for independent Joe Kopsick – K-O-P-S-I-C-K – by writing-in my name on the ballot for U.S. Representative on Tuesday, November 6th.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Addiction and Neurodegenerative Diseases


     Autism is a neurodegenerative disease, a class of afflictions which includes Asperger's, Tourette's, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. A common cause of neurodegenerative disorders is the phosphorylization of the tau protein, which agglomerates in neuronal cells, causing links between cells to tangle and clump-up.

     A recent article said that autism may be triggered by low levels of anti-depressant medications in our drinking water. Drinking water often contains sodium fluoride.

     Fluoride causes calcium deposits to build up in the pineal gland, which is the gland in the brain that secretes melatonin and can be stimulated by psychedelic drugs, which cause hallucinations.

     Hallucinations are also experienced by people with psychotic symptoms, treatment for which often includes anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medications, both of which often contain fluoride or fluorine.

     Symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases include communication disorders; immobility and impaired mobility; and repetitive patterns of behavior such as tics, highly structured play in children, and ritualistic behavior.

     Delta-9-THC - the psychoactive chemical in marijuana - has been shown to help prevent the agglomeration of the tau protein which causes neurodegenerative disorders. It has also been shown to facilitate the growth of adult stem cells into working neurons, and to promote the growth of connections between neurons.

     Marijuana has a reputation among its users as aiding in communication, promoting social cohesion, and increasing capacity for sympathy, which would seem to sugest that it could be prescribed to treat the social aspects of autism and Asperger's. It has been shown to ameliorate the kinds of tics associated with Parkinson's and Tourette's.

     In "The Doors of Perception", Aldous Huxley made reference to D.C. Broad's description of "the mind as a reducing valve". This refers to the idea that the mind must filter-out all unnecessary and superfluous information, so that our consciousnesses are not overwhelmed with vivid sensory information associated with the memory of everything we have ever experienced.

     Ideas like this have been construed to suggest that forgetting has its advantages. Perhaps the short-term memory-loss problems associated with marijuana use are not as disadvantageous to our minds as the long-term memory effects associated with Alzheimer's, some symptoms of which THC has been shown to treat.

     Alcohol and psychoactive drugs such as marijuana and LSD have reputations for improving communication skills, and removing inhibitions, leading to novel and varied behavior. Not that alcohol promotes neuronal development, but these types of behavior seem to be the opposite of symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, such as delayed onset of communication skills in childhood, and ritualistic behavior.


     There seem to be two paradoxes here.

     The first paradox is that hallucinations, behaviors which societal norms cast as too experimental and disordered, and lack of ritual and regularity in everyday living are all things which can be cited in order to support diagnoses of “psychosis” or “neurosis”, which are both vague, overused, practically meaningless medical terms. Psychosis and similar “afflictions” are often treated with anti-psychotic or anti-depression medications, which often contain fluoride or fluorine.

Links to Documentaries About Covid-19, Vaccine Hesitancy, A.Z.T., and Terrain Theory vs. Germ Theory

      Below is a list of links to documentaries regarding various topics related to Covid-19.      Topics addressed in these documentaries i...