Thanks!

Gay City News
Everyday A Challenge
By: CHRISTOPHER MURRAY
06/26/2008

So what happened with gay men and meth? A couple of years ago everyone was in a panic. Eighth Avenue was crowded with bus stop posters decrying the scourge that was crystal methamphetamine, it seemed like everyone knew someone who had just lost their job or soul to Tina, brunch pals were dropping like flies. Health officials and community activists made the direst possible predictions about the perfect storm of meth and HIV, not to mention flesh-eating, drug-resistant bacterial infections. Yikes!

Well, the truth is that meth, like crack cocaine, is still around and still wreaking havoc in the lives of gay men and others; it’s just gone underground. The public panic has waned, as it always does – a point this newspaper’s Duncan Osborne has taken pains to point out – and all the hoopla has subsided into the daily grind of users using and former users struggling to stay clean.

FULL ARTICLE AT:

http://christophermurray.org/WritingBlog.html

Meth will get worse in middle class families because of some of these prescription drugs like Ritalin/Addreall.

The thing is, most of the drugs being offered to “fix most anything” are legal…advertised on TV with all the truthiness of ads for anything else, prescribed even when, especially in conjunction with other drugs, they cause terrible side effects, prescribed even to kids . Americans are the most overmedicated and yet among the least healthy in the industrial world. I don’t think a little legal pot is going to do nearly as much harm as Big Pharma is doing…and to the extent that a lot of people would do pot instead of alcohol (or, say, tranquilizers like Xanax) it may actually turn out to be a net gain. But Big Pharma and the liquor industry would not be happy with such a development…diverting their income flow…and Big Pharma in particular hates it when there’s something out there they can’t patent.

I also watched a VH-1 special on the “war on drugs” last night and it was showing the 80s and 90s fight. A really good show everyone should watch. The last part showed the Rave scene where thousands of people go out dancing out in the dessert or huge warehouse buildings. The rave scene is mostly over now and overly commercialized and policed heavily thanks to a bill that was passed to put the DJ and the owner of the party in jail. It is sad that a DJ would get arrested for playing music. Anyone that has ever been to a rave party knows that there are people there that are not on drugs who actually go there for the music and dancing because it is some of the most amazing beats you will ever hear. The VH-1 show was interesting because it showed the cocaine craze which was very flashy and arrogant compared to the rave craze which was more down to earth.

I think pot should be legalized to an extent — i mean its natural.. its a damn plant. Although, I know people that smoke pot way too much. But they could also be drinking or popping prescription drugs in the same amount. Anything in excess is bad for you. Then again I have seen parents feed their kids Ritalin and other “hyper” pills and anti-depressants that can do alot more harm than pot could ever do. Ritalin is basically legalized speed from what I have been told.

Anyone move their feet too much? The pharmacy can make you a “restless foot syndrome” pill you can take. The drug companies will be making pills to take if you think too hard or walk too fast next. I wish they would concentrate on life saving medicines instead of trying to contaminate our bodies with syndromes they think up in the board room.