Partnership for a thought-free America
by Michael Maiello

Turn on AM radio late at night, and you'll be treated to radio spots from the Partnership for a Drug Free America. These spots spread more disinformation in thirty seconds than even the commercials for instant weight loss and hair growth formulas which surround them. The Partnership for a Thought-Free America. Fear and loathe them.

The radio spots range from badly authored sketches to supposedly true testimonials form former drug-users which have been carefully selected to speak for an entire nation of drug users. The sketches all have the same theme: marijuana makes you stupid. So stupid that you can't remember your own name, what day it is, or what you ate for breakfast that morning.

The true to life testimonials tell tales of youths robbing their parents and stealing cars to get money to buy pot. Yeah. Whatever. The Partnership regularly blurs the line between marijuana and other drugs. People are more likely to steal for crack or heroin (which are physically addictive) than they are for pot (which promotes no physical addiction.) Think about it -- a guy goes cold turkey for heroin, or goes to long without a fix, and his body goes into the convulsions of junk sickness. So, yeah, he might steal a car if he needed the money to keep himself out of torment. But a pot smoker goes cold turkey with no ill effects. I've known lots of pot smokers who's supplies go dry for awhile. They don't become psychos. In fact, people I know have a much harder time getting through a cigarette drought than they do a pot drought. Nicotine, after all, is physically addictive.

Anyway, I don't buy that there are deadly crime sprees around marijuana. The average user doesn't steal to get a fix, because a fix isn't needed. If it's around, it's great to smoke. If not, you wait until supplies become available . Besides, pot makes you mellow. There are very few crazed burn-outs out there, and those people would be crazy anyway. If, by the way, you buy into the notion that people would steal for the drugs because they are so expensive, remember that it's only expensive because it's illegal. There's no reason that pot has to be expensive except that its dangerous to sell.

But the Partnership For a Thought Free America is willing to take the example of one kid who stole money for pot, and present that as normal. Imagine taking the example of O.J. Simpson to make the case that the Heisman trophy is a corruptive influence on society, leading people to gruesome double murders. The Partnership also misses the point of their own ads. They aired a testimonial from a young man kicked out of his parent's home because he refused to stop smoking pot. The problem here is not the pot. The problem is degenerate parents who would throw a teenager out onto the streets because their parenting skills are deficient.

The Partnerships' attempts to link pot smoking with stupidity make me think they should hit the bong a few times to freshen their perspectives. Here's the truth about pot smoking and stupidity -- stupid people who smoke pot stay stupid. Smart people stay smart. Now, it's not a good idea to smoke a bowl and then sit down to write a paper (I can't do it) but skills in reasoning return as the drug wears off (I can always write afterwards.) Also, the time spent while on the drug can aid the long run thought process. Marijuana is mild hallucinogen, opening brain pathways not normally available. It's tough to write a poem while stoned, but poetic insights which are useful later are common. Pot works like a mild version of the magic mushrooms and LSD touted by Timothy Leary (who smoked pot all his life while maintaining a genius IQ, thank you very much.)

Drugs are a tool towards the exploration for consciousness. They are as much a tool as religion and psychology, two disciplines which frequently utilize drugs. The peyote of the American Indians, the hallucinogens of tribes throughout the world, the wine of the Greeks, Romans, and Catholics all speak to the shared mission of religion and drugs. Psychology has had its lithium, Prozac, and Valium. Sigmund Freud regularly lubricated his brain with cocaine, and thought that one day, all psychological problems would be solved through drugs rather than therapy. Perhaps Freud has taken the implications of the drug tool too far.

But we must educate ourselves to ignore the rantings of the Partnership for a Thought Free America, and those who would rob us of these tools completely. We need a Partnership for a Drug Safe America, devoted to the safe and consensual use and distribution of narcotics. Drugs are here. Let's learn to use rather than fear the resource.

Michael Maiello is heading off to the Continent (well, Ireland, for now) for a while. As far as we know, it doesn't have anything to do with the subject of this column.

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