John Finkbiner
12-12-11
Drugs and society
1. In the book, Strassman tries to illustrate through his clients the statement “these reports challenge our world view, and they raise the emotional intensity of debate: “Is it a dream? A hallucination? Or is it real?” “Where are these places? Inside or out?” in chapter 12, before introducing the different stories, Strassman states “Rarely did the DMT environment take center stage during someone’s trip” (p.176). There is no right way to answer those questions. Based on his volunteers and their experiences during their DMT trips, the one question that was answered was while tripping on this drug, what is reality? Different people saw different things, experienced different things, felt different things. But with all the people’s experiences, there were common themes in most trips; whether it was perceptions of DNA, seeing different shapes, seeing entities, or other things. From reading all of the examples, the questions above are answered by the participants as the trips are a reality. Strassman states this when he says “perhaps you think these perceptions are not so strange after all. We all dream of unusual places and things. However our volunteers not only saw these things, but felt an unshakeable certainty that they actually were there” (p.183). The volunteers all went somewhere in their trip. The felt real emotions. Aaron experienced elf like creatures standing along a highway in which he traveled regularly during one of his sessions (p.188). During this trip he felt controlled by these creatures. Lucas encountered a space station with droid like creatures who paid no attention to him (p.189). Gabe who ended up in a space like setting felt a sense of panic while tripping even though the beings were telling him everything was alright (p.190). This theme of “feeling something” is repeated in all of the sessions and I believe that if you feel something it is real. Whether if it is a dream or a hallucination, I believe if emotions are felt it is real. The easiest way to explain it is the trips are as real as Santa Claus is to a adolescent child, if you really believe in the experience then it is reality.
2. In chapter 1 marijuana use is compared to the use of alcohol. Since marijuana is illegal it is impossible to really know the exact statistics of how many people smoke pot compared to how many drink alcohol. And since marijuana is illegal most of society takes the anti pot stance compared to the anti alcohol stance. This is illustrated in chapter 1 when the authors state “90 percent of Americans have consumed alcohol in their lives compared to about 45 percent who have used marijuana” (Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.5).
Another way in which the way society views marijuana use compared to alcohol use is through an economic perspective. Alcohol is advertised heavily, “Since 2001, Anheuser-Busch has spent over $2.2 billion placing television ads, followed by Miller and Molsen/Coors” (Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.6). This compared to the tens of millions of dollars spent on not advertising weed but the anti marijuana stance. Alcohol is tied into everyday life; you can’t sit through a television show without seeing an alcohol commercial or seeing it in the actual program. Alcohol is used to celebrate accomplishments such as graduation and winning championships. It is used in every day celebrations as well such as weddings, a promotion; it’s even engrained into some church festivities. Although marijuana is portrayed as “bad” in the media, it is a growing phenomenon. Many Hollywood actors/actresses and other media figures have openly expressed their approval of cannabis and presidential candidates have came out and talked about their pot experiences (Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.11-12). Alcohol is portrayed as a good thing in pop culture. Alcohol companies capitalize on aspects of everyday life to market their product. Some television commercials base the scenario of you had a long hard day at work so go and indulge yourself with their product. And like what was mentioned earlier alcohol is used to celebrate many events in life. Alcohol companies also use attractive women and sports stars to help advertise their product. The biggest reason why alcohol is portrayed as good compared to weed is simply because of its legal status.
3. The medical benefits that the authors mention in the book and the medical benefits Zach told our class about makes marijuana more attractive. The book focused on the theme of how toxic is marijuana compared to alcohol? The answer is simply its not very toxic at all. In 1988 a “U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s administrative law judge concluded ‘In strict medical terms, marijuana is far safer than many of the foods we commonly consume….Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man’“(Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.33). There are many examples of medical use that Zach and the book mentioned. Some of them include; it helps with stress and anxiety, helps with muscle spasms that come with multiple sclerosis and other movement disorders, helps induce sleep, alleviates tics associated with Tourette’s syndrome, is a known pain reliever, reduces inflammation, and can help induce hunger for those who have suffered sudden weight loss due to HIV/AIDS or cancer chemotherapy. Marijuana also has been proven to help prevent diabetes and some cancer as well as treat the spread of MRSA, which is resistant to many prescription drugs (Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.37-38). I do agree marijuana can be used in a medical way that could do more good than harm. It is a natural entity that you are putting into your body rather than some product that has been made in a laboratory with side effects not known. Marijuana has side effects as well and if someone has an addictive personality than they could most like get addicted to it just like they could with some prescriptions, but the biggest selling point to me is, it is natural.
4. There were two parts to Steve Fox’s marijuana policy reform. Based on opinion polls he found that “they demonstrated that those who understand-perhaps through their own personal use-that marijuana is a relatively benign substance, especially as compared to alcohol, are naturally more inclined to support making it legal.” He goes on to say “they indicated that much of the public remains unaware of the objective fact that pot is far less harmful than alcohol” (Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.137). So fox believed with support of the marijuana policy reform would help convey more truths about the harms of marijuana and alcohol use to the public. He proposed testing this hypothesis on college campuses based on the popularity of both substances for college students. So the Marijuana Policy Project was born and being dubbed the “High and Dry” campaign (Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.137). The question of because marijuana is safer than alcohol, should penalties for possession or use be equal to those of alcohol use or possession was then put on a student initiative ballot. The support of this was so overwhelming they decided to take it to the state level. They put the issue of eliminating all penalties for adults who possessed up to one ounce of marijuana on a city wide initiative in Denver in 2005. The initiative passed making Denver the first city in the U.S. to make possession of marijuana legal (Fox, Armentano, Tvert, p.140).