Drug Testing

Most smokers know that smoking is bad for your health, but people tend to forget that smoking has some positive sides as well. Lets take a look at the cigarette smoking pros and cons. First the Pros:

* Most cigarette smokers feel they have a strong bonding with other smokers. It is easy to get together and talk while you smoke.
* Smoking gives the smoker a sense of gratification.
* The nicotine in the cigarette gives the smoker a good relaxing feeling. This has proven to be very good against stress.
* Holding the cigarette gives the smoker a feel of comfort and keeps the mind busy.

Now to the Cons and They are a Lot More:

* Smoking leaves a really bad smell in your clothes, car, hair, mouth and in your home.
* Your lunges will slowly get worse and your condition will follow
* Most smokers tend to get an annoying cough during day and night
* The nicotine can make you feel sick or dizzy if you get too much or too little
* You will slowly get a yellow tone on your skin, fingernails and teeth
* You will run out of energy faster and your motivation will go down
* You might loose the sense of smell and taste (partly or totally)
* Your cigarette can start a fire if you fall asleep or forget it somewhere
* You are costing yourself a fortune just to keep smoking every day
* In worse case you might end up with cancer and die from long-term smoking

As you see the cons outnumber the pros and this should be enough to give it up. I feel that today when we are so educated and we know how dangerous it is there is no reason to risk your health. You just have to be mentally strong and say no. I have done it myself and I loved every cigarette but I don’t like to be addicted and not be in control. The cigarette will slowly kill you and it is really easy to stop if you really put your mind to it. Enough with excuses and you have learned the cigarette smoking pros and cons now.

In order to cure alcoholism it is first necessary to wipe out the addiction to alcohol. A doctor views alcoholism as a disease, the definition of which is a mental or physical state which interferes with the normal workings of the body. Disease in general can lead to a feeling of discomfort, dysfunction, disturbed behavior, syndromes, distress or it can even result in causing death.

Going by this definition of disease, alcoholism is also a disease that may impede the subject’s control over his habit of compulsive alcohol consumption. His craving for alcohol becomes as strong as the need for food or water. An alcoholic may continue to drink alcohol in spite of its grave legal, health and family consequences. Excessive consumption of alcohol or its denial may cause distress, deviant behavior and withdrawal symptoms. Alcoholism may damage the vital organs and lead to the consumer’s death.

A cure to alcoholism is not far away as you begin to feel guilty for every time you have a drink. You won’t fall any lower when you start off the day drinking and in larger quantities, just to forget about wanting to give up. This is the point when you must pick yourself up and start to get medical help to cure alcoholism.

Screening and Diagnosis: The apparent signs and symptoms of alcoholism such as memory loss, dyspepsia, pain and weakness may be initially confused with those of the old age. The doctor will prescribe a screening test with a standard questionnaire to confirm his suspected diagnosis.

Withdrawal Symptoms: Should an alcoholic be denied access to alcohol at a fixed hour, then you will begin to see withdrawal symptoms set in such as sickness, head aches, pains, uneasiness etc. This state of mind can be confirmed by either the patient or someone very close to him.

Blood Alcohol Tests: Such tests are important for discovering what level of alcohol consumption we are dealing with at a particular point of time. This test can give some insight into how serious the problem is, but it doesn’t indicate any problem that may have arisen due to long term alcohol consumption.

Tests on kidney, liver or reduced testosterone levels in case of men are also suggested to determine the effects of alcohol. Other blood tests are carried out on the size of red blood cells which enlarge due to prolonged alcoholism. These tests also determine the existence of a factor called carbohydrate-deficient transferring which points to heavy alcohol consumption.

Treatment: The irony with alcoholics is that they refuse to acknowledge the existence of health problems as consequences of their nefarious addiction. They probably understand that the first step in their treatment would start with reduction or stoppage of their loved drink. A great amount of patient counseling is required on the part of the family and friends to persuade the victim to take up treatment. A variety of treatment procedures is required depending upon the circumstances of the addict. It may involve evaluation, an outpatient program or a residential inpatient treatment.

Evaluating the Level of Dependence: Counseling is the ideal method to really find out the real level of alcohol dependency as the existence of alcohol craving is a real one. Once we have established this level, an alcohol reduction plan will be drawn up in order to smooth out the body’s negative effects.

Intervention by Specialists: Normal practice involves specialized alcohol addiction medics determining a specific treatment strategy. This will of course include counseling with relative behavior therapy, prevention therapy, the identification of paranoidism and beliefs that lead to psychological stress, learning how to cope with traumatic events, learning how to put mind over matter, behavioral modification techniques, the use of self-help manuals. Once all this has been put into practice then it is time for follow-up care in a treatment center.

Residential Alcoholism Cure: If, however, you have become dependent upon alcohol, simply cutting back the alcohol quantity may not prove effective. You may have to go for residential treatment programs which may include alcoholism cure, abstinence, individual and group therapy, participation in alcoholism support groups, educational lectures on alcoholism cure and so on.

By Punkerslut

“We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal.’ It was ‘illegal’ to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

[”Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” written while in jail by Martin Luther King Jr, 1963. Quoted from The Portable Sixties Reader, edited by Ann Charters, a Penguin Classics, page 31.]

Introduction

The government has cast a shadow of fear over the entire subject of drug use. Society trembles at the law as congress struggles to push through a law that would count selling drugs as the equivalent of terrorism. [*1] Those who are known drug users are banished from the spotlight and regarded as those who weren’t content with a normal life. Yet with fear as their base, with prison sentences for drug crimes that excel those of murderers and rapists, the government then begins to unveil its “public information” on drugs — what may justly be called propaganda. With this unease and terror that the government has instilled in its people, society and culture become the trembling jury on the matter of drug use. The opinions are cast out and the polls are collected. There seems to be an overwhelming consensus that usage of chemicals for altering the mind will destroy intelligence, that any person to regularly use these substances must automatically fit the stereotype of a “junkie,” and that there can be no justification for legalizing these profane activities. Even the downfall of the economy is sometimes blamed on drug users, based on the assumption that “drugs destroy one’s will power to labor and instill a sentiment of laziness.”

I contend that these are nothing more than lies. Now that the government has taken a program to promote them, I contend that they are now nothing more than mindless propaganda.

But in a nation, with a marked history where goodness has only prevailed through social disobedience, there can be little doubt as to why there is such a strong front on the side of chemical usage. We want the liberty to do with our bodies as we please, the essential message of every liberation movement, from women’s rights to abolition. These movements made progress in civilization by contending that a humane creed was just, by offering sacrificing their time and dedicating their lives to a cause. Soon, the culture, the society, adaptated, to these new movements and their claims for justice — and artwork reflected the depth of struggle, music expressed the misery of oppression, and literature showed a new light on an old way of thinking.

In a way, I believe that the right to use substances freely is the liberation of the mind, the freedom of the spirit. All throughout the centuries, glorious men have been the first to denounce the evils of censorship. They argued that by burning men of virtue and kindness, because their heart does not allow them to conform, the better lot of civilization is being destroyed. To think as you wish, to believe as your mind judged, to hold true or false the creeds of society was your right, and no law should ever infringe upon this. The intentions of these great thinkers was to create a society where science and art were accelerated by the freedom of the soul, but that powers that existed opposed this. The ruling class had a vested interest in keeping things the way they were. By promoting ideas of liberty, of freedom of conscience, the masses would question their leaders, and so it was that censorship came about. No longer were men able to say what they thought, but what they were allowed to think became limited. Everywhere censorship prevails, the pure spirit of liberty rests in a dark age.

Fortunately, our people became more aware that the right to say and think as you believed was instrumental to a true and living liberty. I am not saying that the daemons of censorship have left the arena, that the people are free to say and think what they will entirely. It is quite true that the First Amendment of the Constitution may very well be the most abused and neglected, as far as the police Gestapos and the congress goes. A man’s opinion, especially in matters of politics or society, are enough to grant officers the right to detain him indefinitely, and the body of laws in this country allow any person to be arrested at any time, for countless many crimes. But so it goes, that those who which to oppress the liberty of the body, will first attack the freedom of the mind.

With that, I open this piece… A reason to do drugs. A defense of the urge to inebriate, the desire to intoxicate, the pleas of a soul to forget or remember, whichever the substance happens to be. A reason to use mind-altering chemicals, psychotropic substances, spiritual gateways.

Life: Happiness and Hope

It has been the marked crest of every man’s honest journey — the epitome of the ultimate quest, the goal of a life well spent, the purpose of an individual’s search for freedom. Everyone wants to be filled with spiritual enlightenment and philosophical truth. We want to know. We want to know who we are as individuals. Almost hopelessly, we analyze our actions, our responses, our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs, our conditions of life. And we try to find one crystaline and perfect sentence, one seamless idea, one concrete thought, to describe ourselves. So that we can hold on to this precious truth, and cherish it with the pride that we can say, “I know who I am.”

We want to be able to take who are we, and be honest with the world about it. The idea that we have to be ashamed of how we feel, no matter how taboo or unpopular, the treasured thought that we can be emotionally naked without having to fear response, this idea, and this idea alone, has been something all have wanted to incorporate. Some have found it hopeless, and trekked in the other direction, hoping to conceal what they thought they could never express. Others were afraid of being hurt, afraid of living with the pain that accompanies liberty, and so they sheltered themselves with a mental barrier. Among those who have dealt with breaking down this mental barrier, becoming living symbols of liberty, it is no secret that a soul becomes dim and fades without the light of another’s presence. So it should be, that loneliness accompanies depression, that family accompanies happiness — the only friend of sadness is silence, liberty walks hand in hand with contentment.

Finally, we want to be able to understand the world. The physical sciences of anthropology, psychology, biology, physics, all manage to fascinate us and allow thoughtfulness to grow bright with reason. Yet we wish to understand the world, not as a physical entity, but the creatures within this world. Our friends, our enemies, our loved ones, those who betrayed us… We want to know how they feel, how they think, and why they do. Those conditions which fostered their resentment, their pleasure, their vengeance, their aggression, their passiveness, their charity, their kindness, their affection — a longing exists within us to understand those conditions, how they create the sentiments that are harbored by minds. With this understanding, of ourselves, of the courage to be honest, of the workings of the world — we want to be able to interact, to touch another’s spirit, to meld with the inner beauty of another to create unforgetable memories. Memories that one day we will travel through as a means to remind ourselves how strong we were to say what we had to say, how fortunate it was that boldness should release us at that moment. Tears and laughter have often be regarded as the depth of a person’s soul, but that is only because such actions have been caused by emotions so strong, that there was no ability to resist responding physically. If the day should come that a gentle touch or an affectionate gaze would be enough to reveal our thoughts, then it may be a society very much worth living in.

In short, we want to be free. We want to taste the nectar of liberty. But just as it is that a man is not free, when he is threatened with death as an alternative to slavery, so it is that we should be human in our civilization. We will fear rejection, insults, mockery, and ultimately, humiliation, if we say what we think, if we act the way we feel, if we do the things we really want to do. Those ancient ideas of what is socially awkward, of what is just and unjust culturally, come back with a sting in our heart. “Just let it by,” perhaps we tell our conscience, “It’s the way things have to be,” or maybe, “It would incur more suffering to do things abnormally, no matter how honest they are.” So the last of these excuses is most enlightening, in that we are all terrified of the response of a society, that looks upon our inner selves as something not unlike a freak — a living, breathing social violation.

A Reason to do Drugs

I admit it — it may sound absurd, or ridiculous, when I claim that drugs, that mind-altering chemicals, will allow a greater understanding and confidence of self, as well as society. All throughout our lives, we live in the same body, our thought processes typically go unvaried. As we grow and develop in a society, a society that nurtures us through schooling and home life, we grasp the accepted values and ideals of society. We become comfortable, at ease, secure. We follow the rules and regulations that have been set forward to us, whether it is on attire and dress or the rules of dating and approaching a member of the opposite sex. As we accept the truth of society’s mannerisms, we become less and less freedom. We find that we must go through pointless and sometimes even awkward procedures to say what we want, to express how we feel, to act in a way that our conscience has justified. In a society where conformity reigns, it cannot be argued that thinking becomes standardized. Perhaps the purest moment for many of us is that of extreme youth. It is not perceived as sin for small children to walk naked, indoors and even outdoors, so long as it is the child’s yard. The words they say, whether revealing a secret or expressing a poor opinion of a person, tend to be excused. Yet as this child grows, letting go of sincerity of word and honesty of thought become a standard part of growing up. So, it may very well be true, that the purest moment of a human being, a socialized human being, is their first day of consciousness.

When a person uses a drug, they are given the opportunity to throw off the chains that society has put on them. The mold that we are forced into slowly begins to crumble. And in the case of certain psychedelic drugs, it feels as though a sledge hammer struck with mold. There is no doubt that alcohol has this effect, as it is seen as a social drug that lowers inhibitions, allowing people to override the traditional methods of socializing. Those ideas, those inclinations and thoughts, which stir and culminate in the mind of a sober man, sometimes only find their release in the actions and words of an intoxicated man. So the saying goes, that a sober man’s thoughts are a drunk man’s words. In reality, many of those ideas which are repressed by sobriety, by the acceptance of socially-originating confines, of cultural prejudice and bias — many of the sincere thoughts of a man, which must stay private and hidden because of society, are never fully recognized sometimes, except under the influence of a mind-altering substance, be it alcohol or other.

And though it may be true and accepted that alcohol can bring these positive effects to a user, it is a fact that is recognized mostly because of the acceptance of the drug alcohol. If someone were to make the same statement about heroin, or cocaine, or LSD, or PCP, or any other drug, one would have a very different response. When the thought of illicit chemicals and drugs is brought up, people automatically think of addiction, death, and crime. This may be true for irresponsible drug use, which can only be blamed on government propaganda’s ability to miseducate the public. Only teaching sex abstinance to high school students results with students having unprotected sex, with unwanted pregnancy and venereal disease. If this is true, then doesn’t it make sense, that only teaching “say no to drugs” would result in addiction, death, and crime?

Certain drugs, such as alcohol and Marijuana, manage to give the user a feeling of euphoria, pleasure, and happiness. In this state of inebriation, the user is capable of examining the elements of their life with a less-confined thinking process. Inhibitions are removed, thoughts are free. If used irresponsibly, these drugs can cause great harm, physically, mentally, emotionally. There is no doubt to this. However, few recognize their ability to help an individual cope with an emotionally stressful situation. If a person had problems repressing an experience that happened to them, they may walk with more confidence and security, once they confront it. Such drugs have been labelled as “soft drugs,” but even with hard drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine, users have reported an altered perception of their life, that allows them to constructively reconsider aspects of their life. It seems as though these chemicals hold the user in an objective position, allowing them for the first time to really consider their life. Their emotional baggage, of social inhibitions, of political prejudices, of cultural bias, of tevelision commercials meshed in with noise level of propaganda, all of that disappears, and they become truly free in a mental state, a living and breathing example of liberation. So the saying goes, that when a man says he needs 40 ounces of freedom, he is talking of alcohol.

Aside from these soft and hard drugs, each with their own varieties and categories and subcategories, there is a classification of drugs known as Psychedelics. Much like other drugs, they are accompanied by a euphoria, a pleasure, a sort of pleasing sensation, either a physical “body buzz” or a mental happiness. However, unlike other drugs, they have the ability to open life in ways that no other drug or experience are capable of. Alcohol, for instance, gives a positive emotional charge, while lowering inhibitions. Every drug seems to have that ability, of giving pleasure and destroying inhibitions. With a psychedelic drug, to say that it has the ability to open life in ways that nothing else is capable of is rather simple and straight forward. Some psychedelics include LSA, LSD, Salvia Divinorum, or Dextromethorphan. Under the influence of these chemicals, the pillars of reality come crashing down, the most basic and simple actions become infinitely complex. You close your eyes and you find yourself being dragged through the sets of every movie you absolutely loved and absolutely hated. You open your eyes. The clouds turn to swirls, the sky an entire ocean, and the leaves of the tree begin to burn — and then you realize that you still haven’t opened your eyes. Upon opening your eyes, the world moves around you with a surreal quality; everyone is flying, the television screen flickers with what seems to be a divine light, and bright neon lights with the colors of green and pink seem to be flashing randomly everywhere you look. Hallucinations.

There is something distinctly beautiful about crawling on your knees, trying to piece together the broken shards of your sanity.

And in this state, this psychedelically inebriated state, you think about your life. Maybe you realize that every moment you spend shopping is one less moment spent with your family. Maybe you realize that every cute girl that you pass by without saying a word is a missed opportunity of affection, friendship, and love. Maybe you realize the ultimate truth, that life isn’t forever, and every time you’re doing something you know is useless, you know is pointless, you’re wasting away your existence. Because as we grow up, we are taught that game is a life, and the person to finish with the most material possessions is the winner. This understanding is obliterated into a thousand pieces, just about the same time you close your eyes again, still seeing the physical world, only now it is melting into a sticky pile of goo, and the neon purple sparkles keep grabbing your attention. You find yourself battling animated clay figures. Getting up out of your seat, you realize that your sense of balance has been destroyed, and you fall onto your bedy, but you never stop falling. You find yourself falling at the slow rate of one foot per second, falling, falling, falling, further into a mine shaft, blanketed by darkness and the shiny slivers of metal that keep blinking. Trying to accomplish something in the physical world, you have to relearn everything. Walking becomes an absurdly difficult challenge, as the muscles in your body seem like they forgot everything that decades had taught them.

Hours of crawling on the floor as monsters come flying through the wall and your entire concept of reality is flushed down the toilet. Next day. Next morning. Your mind feels as though it were a sore muscle. You’re trying to piece together just what happened, what was real, what wasn’t. You slept for 12 hours, but it feels like it’s already a year later. At the same time, you’re not sure if you’re sober or not. That sort of quasi-intoxication “I’ve only had one and a half beers.” Then you see someone whom you haven’t been honest with, someone you held your real feelings from. Not in an effort to exploit them, but in an effort to protect yourself. You see a person you’ve liked, whose words have intrigued you. And you tell them how you feel about them. It’s not an unspecified joke/”I love you” — the one boy/girl that, as a third grader, you vowed to yourself to approach and say this to. It’s not a smooth come-on or approach, that would make the club scene. It’s an honest explanation of feelings, and proposal of doing something about them. So the exchange occurs, a social violation, a freak of culture. Only fifteen minutes later did you realize how socially taboo it is to say exactly how you feel and do something about it. And you realize, as you analyze and overanalyze the events, that humiliation is not the first emotion to capture your mind, but liberation slowly springs roots in your heart.

Thus begins a long, beautiful journey with psychedelic drug use.

Drugs in Our Society

There is no doubt that strong opposition to drug law reform exists. Much of this opposition comes from conservatives, and less strongly from liberals. There are various attitudes brought towards mind-altering chemicals. Some want strict penalties for the possession or sale of these drugs, while others only want strict penalties for harder drugs. Another segment of the politically minded individuals want decriminalization of drugs, and instead of providing jails or prisons to users, provide them to treatment. On the other end of the political spectrum, there are those who want to make it completely legal to possess any of those substances which are now illegal today. In a way, I can say that I am among them. However, there are certain drugs which I think ought to be illegal for certain people. Those whose usage of a substance has brought them to criminality ought to be disallowed from using that substance. I’ve known individuals who have used Heroin on an irregular basis, and it acted as a “getting off” for them — and in a way, it was no different than an alcoholic’s nightly usage of liquor. To both of them, it is a means of acquiring happiness. It was a method of releasing pain, of releasing stress and tension.

It is always believed that usage of hard drugs will immediately lead people to lives of criminality and heartlessness. So those individuals, those kind, warm-hearted beings, who have offered the world their charity and inner beauty, must sleep with the idea, that what they truly are is considered a moral atrocity to society. It is a tragedy, and I imagine that the emotions that come to mind for these people, are very minor in difference, from those of oppressed blacks and oppressed women of past generations. An oppression that was sponsored by the government, as the War on Drugs is. It becomes an inherent prejudice of the population.

The question of choice comes up. Race and gender weren’t a choice. But you can throw down that syringe or that pill or that pipe anyday. It’s probably true that many psychonauts (explorers of their own consciousness) are strong enough to kick any chemical habit that interferes with their life as they want it. Yet, it is something stronger than that. If threatened with death, a man could abstain from Homosexuality, even if it was his strongest desire — so, also, it may be true with a man abstaining from Heterosexuality, even if it was his strongest desire. Threatened with death, many who have held dissenting religions opinions have accepted their fate to being burned alive. What is a choice? Given perfect liberty and perfect justice, a psychonaut will choose his chemical usage — a Hindu will worship Ganesh — a Homosexual will love those of the same sex. In a way, the psychonaut regards his chemical use not much unlike his religion or sexuality. It is a decision in his or her life that fills them with meaning, hope, and pleasure. To live in a society that believes that only the heartless and mindless engage in such pursuits, and when this idea infects close friends, family, and intimate lovers, it becomes a burden on the heart of the psychonaut… and, among his hopes, one becomes that one day, society will accept him for who he is and his loves for what they are.

Arguments

Interestingly enough, the government finds it justified in supporting the idea of Gateway Drugs. Those who try Marijuana, for instance, may lead to hard drugs. If this is true, then 200 million Americans must secretly be heroin addicts or crack users, since two thirds of the population has used Marijuana. But evidence doesn’t support this. On the contrary, instead of heroin use being around 66% in America, it’s actually dangling to less than 1%. Perhaps the evidence which they are relying on, is that heroin users state that they first tried Marijuana. Yet, one must also consider that Marijuana is much more readily available, in a less intimidating form (more people would choose to smoke something long before they inject it). For instance, of the many celebrities that exist, many of them first had low paying jobs like the rest of the population… but then, would it be just for businesses to say, “Careful if you work here… you may just become a celebrity.” The fact is, there is no connection between soft drug use and hard drug use that I can imagine. Soft drug use is a common practice among the people, as is demonstrable with alcohol and Marijuana. Empirically, it is also wrong. My first drug was Dextromethorphan, a psychedelic chemical, typically recognized as a between on soft and hard drugs.

Another may argue not against the legitimacy of using drugs, but they may claim that true spirituality is reached through sobriety. With all that is known about world cultures today, I cannot see how this can be believed by anyone. Usage of alcohol is an intrinsic part of Catholic doctrine. Ancient Mexicans used Lysergic Acid Amedes (LSA) from Morning Glory seeds as a spiritual venture. Mushrooms that were known as “God’s Flesh” were used by shamen from the same region. Shamen in Africa used the liberty bell flower to attain a deeper meaning of their god. Mescaline was used by American Natives as a spiritual enhancer. Buddhism is the exception, with a doctrine that bans usage of mind-altering chemicals. Yet, with that same religion, extensive fasting is a component of spirituality. And this is hardly surprising — once the brain stops receiving it a steady stream of nutrients, it reaches a state similar to intoxication. The idea that fasting is religious can be found in countless religions: in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Whether through use of a chemical substance, or denying the mind the nutrients which are required for proper operation, religions that succeed are based on an activity which intoxicates the follower. I do not believe, however, that one must be intoxicated on a substance to release their spirituality — it is a session, in which they liberate truths from a buried past, in which they realize principles of life that will be incorporated in everyday, sober life.

Ultimately, there are those who regard usage of drugs, to achieve spirituality and keep life pleasant, as a sort of handicap, a crutch. If there are individuals that can live without drugs, then those who use them must be handicapped, they argue. I admit it: if I did not regularly use intoxicating substances (particularly psychedelics, but all of them), I would be less strong, less hopeful, less determined, less of what I had always worked myself into becoming: independent, free, open. However, this is true of many things besides drugs. If I did not learn what freedom was, from having a family that I loved, I would be a lesser person today. Does this make family a crutch? If I did not learn the importance of truth, by reading the works of revolutionaries and reformers as well as philosophers, I would be a lesser person today. Does this make the wealth of knowledge accumulated by philosophers a crutch? Few would agree. Then, if usage of drugs helped me gained insight into life, allowed me a spirituality I did not know before, then is it still a crutch? Maybe to some, those whose thoughts are still covered in the darkness of prejudices.

The Liberty of Conscience

Among all liberties, every action, there is that freedom of conscience that shines. To think as we may, to introduce whatever substance to our bodies that we wish. A true liberty. But to those who live in a repressive state, as the United States remains, this liberty is another darkened figure in the halls of the history of our oppression. Kind and honest thoughts become a target of litigation, as the law becomes more and more powerful. As the public becomes blasted with propaganda, as its heroes become jailed in this political war on drugs, it seems like a curtain has been put over this liberty of conscience. So it is, and it becomes the duty, of every man and woman who loves freedom, to destroy these laws, to obliterate the anti-drug message. A suspension of the Bill of Rights takes place while the president urges one ideal: “this is protection.” Every leader to assert that Civil Liberties stand in the way of freedom has made their claim on the idea that Martial Law is the equivalent of protection. So it is: the protection of the ruling class is the control of the common people.

Let us bask in the hope that chemical inebriation may give us, that perhaps a day will be in sight, where our misery will be a part of the past.

In order to cure alcoholism it is first necessary to wipe out the addiction to alcohol. A doctor views alcoholism as a disease, the definition of which is a mental or physical state which interferes with the normal workings of the body. Disease in general can lead to a feeling of discomfort, dysfunction, disturbed behaviour, syndromes, distress or it can even result in causing death.

In general, as the name would suggest, alcoholism will prevent the patient from kicking the habit of alcohol consumption. The patient’s craving for alcohol would be similar to our actual need for water and will tend to continue consuming alcohol even though his health will be put at risk. The signs soon tell in the patient’s behaviour as he becomes more defiant and the withdrawal symptoms more obvious and should the vital organs get damaged, then death is not far away.

When it comes to actually looking for a cure to alcoholism, guilt will play a major factor as the urge to drink alcohol starts earlier in the day and the quantities increase with the hope of just forgetting the matter at hand. This is the point when medical support should be contemplated in order to cure alcoholism.

Screening and Diagnosis: At first the normal symptoms of alcoholism such as memory loss, dyspepsia, pain and weakness could actually be confused with similar signs of old age. So a Doctor will confirm his suspected diagnosis by prescribing a screen test as well as the patient having to fill out a standard questionnaire.

Withdrawal Symptoms: Should an alcoholic be denied access to alcohol at a fixed hour, then you will begin to see withdrawal symptoms set in such as sickness, head aches, pains, uneasiness etc. This state of mind can be confirmed by either the patient or someone very close to him.

Blood Alcohol Tests: This test is important to show what the alcohol consumption is at any particular time and is carried out in DUI accident cases. Although this test gives some insight, it does not give any clear indication of problems caused by long term alcohol consumption.

Tests should also be carried out on the kidneys, liver and for reduced testosterone levels (in men), in order to establish how alcohol has become a determining factor in damaging our health. The red blood cells are also tested to see if they have become larger, as this is a symptom of alcoholism. Another test indicates “carbohydrate-deficient transferring”, which is also another symptom of heavy alcohol consumption.

Treatment: The negative factor with alcoholics is that they will always deny having alcohol addicted related health problems. The main reason being that they know quite well that it would lead to them having to give up their daily dosage of alcohol. It is so important that family and friends insist on initiating treatment to stop this terrible developing into something even more damaging. There are several treatments available depending on each individual, although in general it will consist of either an outpatient program or a residential inpatient treatment.

Evaluating the Level of Dependence: First of all we have to establish the level of dependency to alcohol as a certain craving level may still exist. Counselling is an ideal way to find out just where stand, followed by an alcohol reduction plan to help overcome the body’s negative response.

Intervention by Specialists: Normal practise involves specialised alcohol addiction medics determining a specific treatment strategy. This will of course include counselling with relative behaviour therapy, prevention therapy, the identification of paranoidism and beliefs that lead to psychological stress, learning how to cope with traumatic events, learning how to put mind over matter, behavioural modification techniques, the use of self-help manuals. Once all this has been put into practise then it is time for follow-up care in a treatment center.

Residential Alcoholism Cure: If you realise that you life has become dependant on alcohol, then just reducing the quantity of alcohol consumed may not prove to be effective. You should consider the option of going to a residential treatment program such as curing alcoholism, individual and group therapy, abstinence, taking part in alcoholism help groups, educational chats on alcoholism cures etc.

By: Shannon Gossage

Police officers arrested Michael after receiving a call from a bathroom attendant tipping them off to someone using drugs in the bathroom. Police reportedly found the singer using a “small amount of crack cocaine and marijuana. Michael, 45, was taken into custody and released from a North London police station. Police gave him a “cautionary warning” after admitting that the drugs were his. A spokesperson for Scotland Yard reportedly said, “The caution was [issued] for the possession of Class A and Class C drugs, cocaine and cannabis. He was released and no further action will be taken.”

This is not Michael’s first run-in with the law or with a public bathroom. In 1998 the former Wham! frontman was arrested outside the men’s room at the Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, California and was charged with “engaging in a lewd act.” Michael received 80 hours of community service after pleading no contest to the charge. In February 2006 Michael was found slumped over in his car and arrested on charges of possession of Class C drugs. Three months later he was again found slumped over in a car and when a passerby woke him up he drove off and hit a traffic wall. That October he was arrested once again after he was found passed out in his car. He was taken to the hospital and charged with possession of marijuana. He eventually was banned from driving for two years.

Michael has recently revealed that he will write his autobiography. He reportedly signed a deal with HarperCollins and has promised that it will be “no holds barred.” Michael came out of the closet after his arrest in 1998 and revealed his longtime relationship with Kenny Goss. He has also recently said that he will retire from doing concerts at arenas and stadiums and is looking to lead a “quieter life.” As for his latest troubles, Michael reportedly said, “I want to apologize to my fans for screwing up again, and to promise them I’ll sort myself out. And to say sorry to everybody else, just for boring them.”

A television drama about the thalidomide scandal which led to thousands of women giving birth to disabled children, has sparked a bitter row between the film-makers and the creators of the drug, 50 years after the anti-morning sickness pill came on to the market.

The two-part drama, produced by the Cologne company Zeitsprung for the channel Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), seeks to dramatise the shocking events surrounding the way the drug came on to the market, and how the victims - many of whom were born without limbs after their mothers took the drug during pregnancy - were subsequently treated.

It is loosely based on the true story of a lawyer whose son was born with deformities and who spent more than a decade in the courts, fighting for recognition.

Around 10,000 children were born with severe malformations as a result of the drug, half of them in Germany.

This week WDR was given the go-ahead by a Hamburg court to show Contergan - A Single Tablet, after a lengthy court battle with the drug’s maker, the German pharmaceuticals company Grünenthal GmbH. Contergan is the name under which the pills, which contained thalidomide and were meant to counteract the effects of morning sickness and insomnia, were marketed in Germany.

Zeitsprung has been told that the film may be shown only after certain scenes have been cut and a disclaimer added stating that the film is a fictionalisation of the real story. Zeitsprung has provisionally agreed to the changes.

“This is a victory for artistic freedom as well as for the victims of Contergan, whose plight is poorly recognised in Germany,” Michael Souvignier, the film’s producer, told the Guardian after the court ruling.

Grünenthal, based in Aachen, has said it may take the case to the country’s highest court, claiming that the film contains gross historical inaccuracies, namely the portrayal of its alleged unwillingness to compensate victims. “We resent the insinuation in the film that we behaved with infamy and without moral scruples,” said Annette Fusenig, the company’s head of corporate communications. She said the company paid 100 million Deutschmarks into a fund to compensate the victims.

The Federation of the Contergan-Disabled and Friends said it was vital that the film was shown. Andreas Meyer, 46, its chairman, was born without arms and legs and survives on the Contergan Foundation monthly pension of €545, while those with no arms only, get €220. He said: “The transparent attempt of Grünenthal … to stop a film which shows the dirty methods with which Grünenthal wanted to escape responsibility, has failed - for the time being at least.”

Steroids and the side effects of steroids usually crop up in conversations regarding extraordinary athletic feats and suspiciously prominent muscle tone. The side effects of steroids are legendary. There is categorical evidence that the detrimental effects of steroid use have ruined many a promising athlete’s career.

Athletes abuse steroids because these drugs, which inhibit the production of natural hormones, have short-term performance boosting properties. In other words, it is possible to perform certain feats requiring unusual physical strength and endurance for short periods.

However, anyone who uses steroids for non-prescribed purposes is asking for trouble. Their medical uses include the suppression of the human immune system so that certain other medicines can work. In this context, they can be useful medical tools and doctors provide for the side effects of steroids by medical means.

The side effects of steroids depend on the extent of their use and the user’s preexisting physical condition. With extended use, they are always dangerous and can cause a number of extreme, long-lasting and sometimes irreversible health problems. The side effects of steroids include stunting of growth in adolescents, the appearance of masculine physical characteristics in women and of feminine ones in men, unfavorable change in sexual characteristics in both genders and psychiatric complications.

Although there exists no real documentation of psychiatric problems as a result of steroid side effects, one often hears of the so-called ‘roid rage’ –apparently brought on by excessive steroid use.

The side effects of steroids can also extend to premature heart attacks and strokes. Extensive medical evidence links steroid use with liver tumors and kidney failure, too. Many people contract HIV, hepatitis and other fatal diseases because they inject steroids under non-sterile conditions, meaning that they use infected needles.

By using a steroid, one suppresses the production of certain natural hormones. This is because the human body adjusts itself automatically when it detects external supplementation of its natural chemicals. This can lead to serious health problems, most especially in the production of estrogen (the female sex hormone) and testosterone (the male sex hormone). By disrupting or enhancing the production of these natural hormones, the user courts disruptive changes in his or her physical and even mental environment.

The liver processes steroids along with other chemicals. There has been considerable hype about steroid-induced liver damage and not all accounts are true. Nevertheless, there is sufficient scientific evidence to indicate that extended steroid use can and does lead to irreversible liver damage.

Steroids also interfere with cholesterol levels, though there is considerable dispute over whether this presents any serious health risk. Steroids often reduce HDL cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein) which is far from harmful in most cases. Moreover, steroids can elevate LDL cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) which medical practitioners refer to as the ‘good cholesterol’ because it assists in protecting the arteries by delivering unused cholesterol to the liver, which breaks it down.

One of the indubitably detrimental side effects of steroids is gynocomastia, or the development of breast tissue in males. The reason is that they cause an excess of estrogen in the body. Other side effects of steroids include acne and the aggravation of existing acne.

The upshot is that, while the side effects of steroids are often not as extravagant as popular press makes them out to be, they certainly do tamper with the body’s natural; functioning. With excessive use, steroids can cause permanent and even fatal health damage.

One of two drug-testing laboratories included in London’s bid to stage the 2012 Olympics has been stripped of its international accreditation by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Officials from UK Sport, which oversees drug-testing in the UK, said the move was due to a “change in policy” but it follows complaints that the laboratory in Cambridge, run by a company called HFL, was also testing nutritional supplements and declaring them screened by a Wada-accredited laboratory.

HFL conducted nearly 20% of the country’s drugs tests in 2006, costing UK Sport about £250,000. UK Sport’s decision not to continue placing at least 1,500 samples annually - the minimum required for Wada accreditation - prompted HFL’s loss of status. HFL still offers quality-control screening on nutritional supplements for more than 40 companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, makers of Lucozade. Some Lucozade Sport bottles in the past have carried “tested at a Wada-accredited laboratory” on their labels. One company, fronted by the Olympic gold medalist Darren Campbell and which has used HFL, labels its products as having “gold-standard screening at Wada-accredited laboratory”. The former sports minister Richard Caborn has criticized such labeling.

A spokesperson for UK Sport said yesterday: “We can’t ever get to a stage where we can kite mark supplements because the risk of contamination is always there. Wada do have concerns about accredited labs testing supplements but HFL was not the only laboratory doing this globally.”

UK Sport says its withdrawal of tests from HFL was not due to direct pressure from Wada, whose draft code, expected to be adopted in November, bans its laboratories from “analyzing commercial material or preparations [such as dietary supplements] unless specifically requested by an anti-doping organization as part of a doping case investigation”. The loss of HFL leaves King’s College in London as the UK’s only Wada-accredited lab.

Jon Williams, a sports nutritionist who works with Campbell at Pro Athlete Supplementation, said: “I know there’s a bit of a conflict there. But the fact that they are Wada-accredited is the reason we went to them. They offer a useful service.”

A spokeswoman for London 2012 said they are confident about the testing capacity at King’s College, which is the other site in London’s Olympic Games bid book.

David Hall, chief executive of HFL, said his company would continue to screen sports nutrition products. “This strategic shift by UK Sport will allow us to support athletes in other ways, specifically to develop further partnerships within the nutritional supplement sector,” he said.

There is little unusual about the stretch of 116th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the middle of Harlem. It is a busy road, full of pedestrians, and lined by restaurants offering the African and Southern food beloved by Harlem’s mostly black residents.

But it was on this stretch of now innocuous street that one of America’s most notorious drug lords ran an empire that spanned the globe. Sitting in a beat-up old car he nicknamed Nellybelle, Frank Lucas considered this patch of road his fortress in the 1970s. It was from here he would deal narcotics and run his criminal gang, earning himself tens of millions of dollars in the process.

Now - three decades later - Harlem and America as a whole are set to revisit the shocking story of one of its most infamous sons. Lucas’s tale has been turned into one of the most eagerly awaited movies for years, which will not only reignite debate over America’s love-hate relationship with drugs but also might win one of Hollywood’s most famous names a long-overdue Oscar for best director.

British director Ridley Scott has adapted Lucas’s rise and fall from power into a film called American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington as Lucas and Russell Crowe as a cop, Richie Roberts, out to bring him down. Released in early November, the film has already wowed many critics and generated a flood of Oscar buzz. The film casts Lucas as part villain, part hero, a figure of black empowerment who wrested control of the drug trade from the Mafia.

The performance of the two leads and the style of the film has already got many observers wondering if American Gangster will finally land Scott an Oscar. Despite directing such classics as Bladerunner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and Alien, Scott has never won the award. ‘He is one of the great Hollywood directors of all time. The length and breadth of his achievement show that he deserves some kind of reward,’ said Professor Toby Miller, a popular culture expert at the University of California at Riverside.

Certainly the story of American Gangster provides rich enough material to mine for Hollywood gold. Lucas was born into poverty in rural North Carolina. At an early age he witnessed a relative being brutally murdered by white supremacists in the Ku Klux Klan. He arrived on Harlem’s mean streets as a country bumpkin, but through a combination of savvy and brutality quickly rose to the top of the local drug trade.

He ended up commanding an international drug ring that notoriously smuggled heroin into America inside the coffins of dead Vietnam veterans. That scam was known as the ‘Cadaver Connection’. His operation was so lucrative that Lucas is thought to have at one time banked more than $50m in Cayman Island bank accounts.

But his high profile also brought police attention, and Lucas was finally caught and sentenced to 70 years in prison, which was dramatically reduced after he agreed to give evidence against fellow drug dealers. Eventually his testimony resulted in more than 100 convictions of other criminals.

His tale was revived in a 2000 New York Magazine article headed ‘The Return of Superfly’, which chronicled Lucas visiting his old haunts in a much-changed Harlem.

But in interpreting Lucas’s story, Scott is likely to court controversy as well as Oscars. ‘There is an eccentricity to him. There is a sense of Scott that he is a sort of hired gun,’ said Dr Chris Sharrett, a film expert at Seton Hall University. That element of cynicism has perhaps shown itself in the film’s depiction of Lucas as an anti-hero more than just a straight bad guy. Scott has certainly not shied away from Lucas’s brutal side, but he has also included a strong sense of black power in the creation of his drug empire. That means Lucas is likely to join a long list of gangsters and criminals that have been embraced by Americans who love a villain who snubs authority. To the long list of Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, now add the name of Frank ‘Superfly’ Lucas.

‘There is a huge respect in America for people who operate on the other side of the law and are able to navigate that successfully. Every male adolescent in the country has a poster of Scarface on his bedroom,’ said Miller.

But, like other mythical anti-heroes, the real life story of Lucas is not as pretty as American Gangster portrays it. In the original New York Magazine story Lucas boasts of killing his enemies and laughs when he describes hiding vast amounts of pure heroin in the coffins of young soldiers. At one point he talks about shooting a rival in the head. ‘The boy didn’t have no head. The whole shit blowed out,’ he boasted to the shocked reporter, Mark Jacobson.

That sort of brutal street reality has not prevented other villains from becoming famous. Old West gunslingers like Billy the Kid were little more than psychopaths, and yet have long been warmly embraced into America’s national mythology. The same can even be said about many modern musical stars in hip hop and rap. Huge names like 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg have long criminal histories, including dealing crack, that are now effectively a key part of their publicity machines. Indeed American Gangster has already been embraced by top rapper Jay-Z, who is making an album inspired by the movie. He said the movie reminded him of growing up and drug dealing in Brooklyn.

But while Scott’s film may stir memories of Seventies Harlem, it does not bear much resemblance to the neighbourhood of today. Famed first as a centre of black culture and politics and then as a seedy no-go zone of drugs and crime, Harlem is now one of the most rapidly gentrifying areas of New York. Much of the film was shot there, but production workers had continual problems finding streets that looked sufficiently down-at-heel to be convincing. The loudest noise now on the stretch of 116th Street where Lucas once held court is the jackhammers of builders renovating old brownstone homes. A brand new bank stands at a corner where Lucas once parked Nellybelle.

Eric McLendon has lived in Harlem for six years. A former television sportscaster he now works for the high-end real estate company Corcoran. ‘I don’t think people are going to see that film and think of the Harlem of today. Harlem is going to be one of the best neighborhoods in New York,’ he said.

That is no fantasy. When Bill Clinton opened his post-presidential office in Harlem in 2000, it looked like an edgy move. Seven years later, it looks like a typically savvy Clintonian investment. Harlem is now home to boutique shops, fine restaurants and an increasingly white population.

Nothing could be further from the gritty version that Lucas knew back in the Seventies. Lucas may have been a real-life villain, but he is very much history.

The real-life villains

American cinema and popular culture is full of real-life villains who have been turned into heroes. This process has happened despite their often truly brutal careers.

Billy the kid Henry McCarty - whose alias was William Bonney aka Billy the Kid - is the most famous western outlaw of all time and has been played on screen many times. In reality some believe he may have been a psychopath.

Bonnie and Clyde Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were lovers and brutal criminals. The lovebirds were immortalized on screen in 1967 by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, above.

John Dillinger This bank robber was lionized in several films and was the inspiration for Humphrey Bogart’s Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest. The role was so based on Dillinger that Bogart sported the same style of clothes and the same haircut.

Jesse James Brad Pitt has been the latest actor to play a sympathetic version of this frontier outlaw. The real James staged several robberies where the innocent and unarmed were killed.

Prescription drug abuse is becoming a major problem next only to marijuana abuse. One of the main reasons for the growth of prescription drug abuse is the easy availability of the medications over the counter from a drug store, from a doctor or through online pharmaceuticals. It is becoming easier mainly to youngsters to access narcotic medications like tranquilizers and stimulants, in which the abuse is rapidly growing. Some of the facts about prescription drug abuse are as follows:

* A considerable number of people are abusing prescription drugs. According to National Institute of Drug Abuse, an estimated 48 million people (20%) who are aged 12 and above of US population have used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes or reasons.

* According to SAMSHA, non-medical use of prescription-type drugs among young adults increased from 5.4 percent in 2002 to 6.4 percent in 2006. This was primarily due to an increase in the rate of pain relievers’ usage, which was 4.1 percent in 2002 and 4.9 percent in 2006.

* Non-medical use of tranquilizers also increased over the 5-year period, from 1.6 in 2002 to 2.0 percent in 2006.

* Teenagers and youngsters are the main sections involved in prescription drug abuse. It is found that, 15.4 percent of high school seniors reported non-medical use of at least one prescription medication within the last year (2006).

* NIDA states that OxyContin use in the last year was reported by 1.8 percent of 8th-graders, 3.9 percent of 10th-graders, and 5.2 percent of 12th- graders.

* Vicodin use in 2006 was reported by 2.7 percent of 8th-graders, 7.2 percent of 10th-graders, and 9.6 percent of 12th-graders, remaining stable at relatively high levels for each grade.

* Friends or relatives are becoming the first reason and an easy source for the prescription drug abuse. Among persons aged 12 or older who used pain relievers non-medical reasons in the past 12 months (2006), 55.7 percent reported that the source of the drug most recently they used, was from a friend or relative for free.

* Doctors are also an easy source to obtain narcotic medications. 19.1 percent of the prescription drug abusers reported they got the drug from just one doctor.

The above facts clearly state that, youngsters are clearly becoming vulnerable to prescription drug abuse. All the sections of the society should take serious steps to stop prescription drug abuse from doing further damage to the community.