drugs and other indoor sports

once again i am hearing debate after debate over medical marijuana. legalize? decriminalize? legislate? tax? regulate?

i actually heard someone say this morning on the radio, "if you advocate legalizing marijuana, what do you want to do next? legalize heroin? cocaine? crack?" (yes, crack is a form of cocaine, but you're missing the point...) this is someone who is usually pretty on the ball and articulate. so what's with the knee jerk jerkiness? seriously? like if you get your wisdom teeth pulled why don't you get all of your teeth pulled? or if you have your appendix taken out why not just do a hysterectomy and a colostomy at the same time?

so, at this point in my self-righteous condemnation, i must confess that i too used to think legalizing marijuana was heretical. just to get it out there, i have never been high. like ever. no, i'm not a goody goody (ok, well kind of...) but i am just really uptight and controlling... anyway, i used to believe the popular image that people who smoked "pot" (why is it called that?) were all toked out idiots losing brain cells by the millions and floating through life being unproductive and seedy. my sister had several friends in high school who pretty much fit this description. and let's just say one makes assumptions about certain people one sees in the world who are performing -ummmm- not up to societal expectations???

then i got sick. really really sick. for a long long time. and because i am freakishly passionate about doing research (in spite of my blondness), i did a lot of reading about the medical uses of marijuana. it was interesting, but i was already on so many medications and was so unwilling and unable to fight the good fight, i just sort of filed away the info.

flash forward to more recent times. i still have a chronic illness, and when times are bad i look for solutions. i have found over the years that you need to be able to be your own advocate, and doctors are just as often unable as they are unwilling to think outside of the conventional box. so i have tried lots and lots of meds. a few hospital stays ago they sent me home on morphine (with a scrip to be filled every few weeks so i could stay on it...)yes, really. so when i was listening to the radio show this morning, someone called in and said, "how would you feel if the guy in the cubicle next to you was high on pot?" and i thought, "how would the people in line at the grocery store feel if they know i was on morphine? or vicodin? or oxycontin? or valium? or a boatload of other potent mind-messing drugs that i have actually been on over the years. yet i function normally (as normal as that is...) and when i have bad days i am in bed- not because i am stoned on drugs, but because my pain and nausea and other symptoms are so bad that even the strong drugs don't touch it. and i keep coming across books and articles from reputable places that say marijuana could help with every problem i have...

i asked a friend who is an oncologist his opinion on marijuana (i know several cancer patients who have smoked marijuana and also been prescribed maranol- synthetic THC- which is the supposed active ingredient in marijuana; they all say without hesitation that maranol just doesn't come close to actual marijuana.) he suggested some other drug combinations instead, but then admitted that if he has patients who are smoking pot and it is helping them, he would absolutely not tell them to stop. hmmmmmmmmmmm...

there seems to be good solid research out there backing up medical uses for marijuana. yes, it has potential for abuse, i guess (some things i've read disagree), but i will tell you for sure that about 95% of the medications i've been prescribed have potential for abuse and my doctor has decided the benefits outweigh the risks and has prescribed them for me anyway.

i don't want to recap the entire debate over medical marijuana, but i just wonder why this particular drug raises soooooooooooo much fright in so many people. yes, i know most of the conspiracy theories. but those things could be said of other drugs as well. so seriously, any theories on why marijuana has the power to terrorize otherwise sane people?

i still haven't gotten past my hang-ups enough to try marijuana, even though i am fairly sure it would probably help me. but i am seriously considering becoming more involved in the movement to legalize it. after all, why should irrationality trump good sense???

new reality shows

ok- guilty pleasure confession: last night i watched a show called the sing-off. or sing along? or some deviation on that theme- it's several acapella groups competeing against each other for a relatively meager cash prize and probably fame and fortune.

first of all, i found it interesting that the cash was so little. i think they win $100,000.00- which is nothing to sneeze at, but after dividing it among all members of the group and after taxes literally would not even pay our grocery bills for the year. i was under the impression that other shows gave like, a million dollars for putting up with their nonsense.

second, i think one of the judges is literally stoned half out of her mind. she starts most of her appraisels with, "i agree with ___________________ "(whoever spoke just before her, regardless of who that is or what they said). several times she actually made a comment and then followed up with, "wait, did that happen?" or "wait, did you really do that?" all with a straight smile and a glazed expression that said she was one oxycontin short of a coma....one of the judges was in a boy band- i think in the 80s?- and although he can hit a few notes, he doesn't seem to have too much musical background- except that he clearly likes more black/gospel type sounds and clearly dislikes and is uninspired by anything that sounds too "white". the final judge actually writes music, so at least he has some grasp of musical composition, but he comes across as sooooooo nerdy and sooooooooo mellow that we jokingly predict he will say things like, "wow. that song reminds me of mayonaise..."

on the commercial breaks, we speculated on other game shows that might be popular with the ever lowered standards of the american viewing audience.

#1- america's got nerve. it's like america's got talent, except whoever gets voted off the show gets executed. this week, the loser will be electrocuted in front of a live stdio audience... next week, watch and see what happens with this length of piano wire...

#2- america's top martyr. a game show for muslims where whoever wins gets blown up and gets to meet his maker sooner than the rest. i figure it's a win-win situation. people get entertained, potential terrorists go to heaven, and nobody has to get hurt. i might even offer to flip the switch on that show...

#3- america's got no talent. c'mon- you know half the fun people have when they watch these competitions is to see the people with no talent who think they are "all that"- or at least who have enough gumption to go on TV to make fools of themselves. so, cut out the middle man and have a show just to showcase people who, we can all admit, entertain us by having no talent at all.

#4- america's got idiots. let's face it, a shockingly lot of people love to watch others doing foolish things. instead of elevating it, just show it for what is it- a bunch of idiots (often drunk???) who will do maniacal things just to get attention. oh, wait- they already made this and i think it's called jackass. but it's wildly popular, so go figure...

that's all i can remember for now, but feel free to submit your own ideas for consideration. you never know, a big talent scout might be an avid (albeit secret) reader of this blog...