Utah Pirate Radio

Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says
by Damien Cave, New York Times (24 Jun, 2008)

So why is the War On Drugs still aimed at the least dangerous substance of them all — marijuana?

MIAMI — From “Scarface” to “Miami Vice,” Florida’s drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit. An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it. “You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments,” said Jeff Beasley, a drug intelligence inspector for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which co-sponsored the study. “There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that’s what makes things complicated.”

The report’s findings track with similar studies by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which has found that roughly seven million Americans are abusing prescription drugs. If accurate, that would be an increase of 80 percent in six years and more than the total abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy and inhalants.

The Florida report analyzed 168,900 deaths statewide. Cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines caused 989 deaths, it found, while legal opioids — strong painkillers in brand-name drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin — caused 2,328. Drugs with benzodiazepine, mainly depressants like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug, appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and judged the cause of death of 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0).

The study also found that while the number of people who died with heroin in their bodies increased 14 percent in 2007, to 110, deaths related to the opioid oxycodone increased 36 percent, to 1,253. Florida scrutinizes drug-related deaths more closely than do other states, and so there is little basis for comparison with them. It has also witnessed several highly publicized cases in recent years that have highlighted the problem. Only last year, an accidental prescription drug overdose killed Anna Nicole Smith in Broward County.

Still, the state has lagged in enforcement. Thirty-eight other states have approved prescription drug monitoring programs that track sales. Florida lawmakers have repeatedly considered similar legislation, but privacy concerns have kept it from passing. As a result, federal, state and local law enforcement officials say, Florida has become a source of prescription drugs that are illegally sold across the country.

“The monitoring plan is our priority effort, but that is not enough,” William H. Janes, the Florida director of drug control, said in a statement accompanying the study. He said Florida was also looking at ways to curb illegal Internet sales and to encourage doctors and pharmacists to identify potential abusers. Some local police departments have taken a more novel approach. In Broward County on May 31, deputies completed a “drug takeback” in which $5 Wal-Mart, CVS or Walgreens gift cards were distributed to 150 people who cleaned out their medicine cabinets and turned in unused drugs in an effort to keep them out of young people’s hands. “The abuse has reached epidemic proportions,” said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s just explosive.”

- Article from the New York Times, June 14th 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/us/14florida.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

So many memories. Just the words “Pawn Shop” bring back a significant set of emotions to me.

I remember when I first started living on the streets when I was a kid, I simply could not live with my family. It was a major personality conflict that just didn’t work out. Probably mostly me. Whatever… But I remember I started selling all of my stuff off to the pawn shop. I was like 15-16 years old and I simply didn’t need or want any of my stuff any more. Having all of the this stuff just gave me not so fond memories. Memories of people that I love(d) that it didn’t feel like they loved me back some times.

I needed several things, obviously food, and sometimes decent shelter such as a motel or something, but usually I had friends to stay with when I was in Utah. So the motel was a rare need.

So sometimes, despite my better judgment I sold some very precious items that I owned. I sold my electric guitar that my parents bought me when I was 12. They bought it for Christmas and even though I didn’t ask for it, I can’t say that I didn’t want it. I didn’t have a lot of time to learn to play guitar because at the time, my friends were my number 1 commitment, then school, then my family which often had me babysit for them while they were at work.

So the guitar didn’t really mean a lot to me, it wasn’t like a daily or even a weekly activity for me. I did learn to play some Niel Diamond stuff that my dad taught me, like Solitary Man. And I learned to play some Social Distortion and Mike Ness songs.
But when it came down to getting a good home-cooked style meal (fast food, lol) as opposed to taking precious time to learn to play guitar, I took the option of selling the guitar for food, just so I could feel semi-normal again.

It felt good, like I had control of at least some small part of my life even if only temporarily. So having food was bigger to me than having a guitar, a skateboard, a nice mountain bike, and a number of other things that my family had bought me as a child. Some of the things I had bought myself. I worked for Mapleton irrigation for 2 summers with my buddy Joey, who was our next door neighbor and who’s dad was the watermaster at the time.

Good times! I remember working as hard as I could there the first year, shoveling ditches, and burning weeds out of the ditches, walking for miles. And even with all of that, my buddies on the crew said that they thought I was slacking. LOL
The second year I busted my tail, and they told me so. It felt good to be 15 years old, and to be able to work as hard as a migrant farm worker.

But yes, even that stuff that I earned with my own money, like cloths that I bought for school I got rid of eventually. Mostly when I moved to Seattle when I was 17.

I simply could carry everything and when I got to Seattle at first I didn’t know ANYONE. So I knew that it would do me no good to take it all with me.

After awhile, I earned some money, once working at a car wash for a summer, and then working at Sun Valley ID Ski Resort as a line-cook (I had no talent cooking, LOL). I eventually acquired a $130 watch made by SEIKO. It was silver and gold, and worked very nicely. I didn’t have a home, a car, not even a bike. But I really needed a good watch, and that one kind of gave me some hope. Something to look forward too.

Eventually, after going back to Seattle, that too ended up at Broadway Pawn off and on for about 2 years. I would get $30 out of it, and after I would earn $40 more I would be able to get it back. Those were the days. I truly appreciated the pawn shop, then. It seems stupid to me now. But back then with no job and no credit, not even a permanent address, it was a great service to have available to.

Then one really stupid occasion where an acquaintance that I had met online once in a Mormon chat room own a pawn shop in provo utah, and I went there to meet him. He was too busy to go to lunch with me as planned, so I started to leave and I ran into a high school friend who was selling his laptop. When he saw me in there, he asked me what the laptop was worth, and I told him (I work in the computer repair field), and he asked me if I would give him $250 for it which is $100 more than the pawn shop would give him for it, and $50 less than I said it was worth (on ebay). So he sold it to me. For 10 months this Mormon fellow didn’t say a word to me about the incidence. And I had spoke with him several times. But out of no where, he told me that I stole the sale from the guys working for him.

I told him, that was not true I was just saving my buddie (from way back) from getting ripped off.

The guys at the pawn shop told him that the Ebay price was $150, meaning if they gave him money for it, that is the absolute most that they could get for it from eBay if they needed to.

I told him that it was worth $300 on eBay, and that I would put money behind that. He took my money, not theirs. Their loss. But for a long time I remember that being a wierd, strange unspoken issue.

Ahh yes! The PAWN SHOP!

A good service for poor people with no credit.  A life line for those in need.  Also a hub for the black market.  And a great place to meet scalawags that would tell you anything to get a good deal on a laptop!  LOL

And now for a song about pawn shops, by Sublime.

http://www.youtube.com/v/GxvnVzaDglI&hl=en

In loving memories of spending time with my brothers.

I remember as a teenager, even when things weren’t good with my parents, but I could still come and visit for awhile.

I remember so many times that were likely the all time happiest times in my life, chilling out or taking a drive with Sublime on the radio. Listening to Tupac or Sublime. Brad I remember was really in to Tupac, and I wasn’t really in to that kind of music, I was way more into ‘hard-core’ punk like Minor Threat, Bad Religion, etc. But Brad wanted to always chill out to Tupac, and Sublime, and Justin always loved to chill out to Sublime, or Def Tones or something. I was fairly neatral, we could listen to ethier, but I really digg on Sublime and since they did too, we would turn on Sublime more often than not.

Still to this day, I find myself listening to Sublime, even though I don’t agree with most of their lyrics. But Sublime really calms my soul from time to time.

Listening to Tupac, Social Distortion, Def Tones, Peter Tosh, or a number of other bands..  Still brings me back to that time in my life.

I listen to the song by Kenny Chesney “I go back“, and that is exactly what music does for me.  It sometimes brings me so close I feel like I could actually reach out and touch the past.

RIP Justin Thompson 1/13/86 to 1/22/2002

Love you man!    

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Sublime&search_type=&aq=f

This is just a video that I found on YouTube. I haven’t researched much about the origins of this event. But it was really beautiful seeing the people having their voice, peacefully assembling together in protest.

http://www.youtube.com/v/zKUWhi3KlfA&hl=en

Sublime - Jailhouse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hVoo75XYqc&feature=related

This is dedicated to two great people in my life who are no longer here.  Justin Thompson my bro, and Bradley Nowell a brother from another mother.

Sublime ~ Badfish

<///<

Much much love.

 Im more fond of Johnny’s version of this song than NIN.

 http://www.youtube.com/v/vSWTgLvxPYc&hl=en

http://www.youtube.com/v/PUkk80v1l80&hl=en

Rick Steves (from the Travel Channel) at Seattle HempFest 2007!  Good times!

http://www.youtube.com/v/EX3OYNS0mZE&hl=en

Listen to a former Colorado police officer discuss the topic in the video above.

In the past few weeks, I have had a lot of people ask me why I have been so concerned with the legalization of Marijuana.
I have been posting videos, and comments about this topic on YouTube and other forums because I absolutely believe it is an injustice to keep this plant illegal.  To keep good medicine away from people who need it.

Marijuana  has never killed anyone due to the toxic effects of the plant.

Today on my desk at work, someone left me a pamphlet on my desk that is for a cable television discussion on the topic of Marijuana.
The article cites that in the annual deaths in the U.S.

438,000 of those deaths are due to cigarettes
21,000 of those deaths are due to alcohol
0 (zero) of those deaths are due to marijuana

I have always been in favor of the legalization of marijuana even though I have not smoked it for over 10 years.

My recent emotional uprising concerning the topic, is that my friend Sue from a past job recently died from a rare form of stomach cancer.
She was unable to eat due to the kemo suppressing her appetite, and she ended up dieing a very painful and long death.

The laws of the land, and her religion reject the idea of medical marijuana.  She was from Utah.

Though, marijuana is proven to be an extremely helpful remedy for cancer symptoms including loss of appetite.

Marijuana slows cancer growth (and doesn’t cause cancer):  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318526,00.html

New study (not yet complete):  http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Support/marijuana
My wife worked closely with Sue Ellen, and I came in contact with her almost daily for 2 years.  We shared birthdays, holidays, and day to day work life with Sue.  She made the office an absolute joy!  She made the best birthday cookies ever!
I wish a good, effective  remedy could have made her last years more enjoyable.

So yes I am in favor of legalizing marijuana.  No I am not in favor of breaking any laws.

See my videos (below) on this site for more information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTihOwQGID0

What do you want to do before you die? 

 http://www.youtube.com/v/SSYFTZrABMg

Have you ever thought of putting together a list…  Of what YOU would want to do before you die? 
Have you ever thought of what it would take to complete that list?

 I saw this video on YouTube and I thought I would share it with you.

 In my life I have been very open to my inhibitions.  When I find something that I REALLY want to do, I do it.  Somehow, I do it. 

There are 1000 more things that I would want to do.  I can start the list here now, and maybe I will stop at 100 after a few comments to this first post.

 Ok, here is goes:

1.  I would like to fly my parents, wife and daughter to Holland.  It has always been my goal to show my parents a freedom that they have never known.  A culture that is freer than they have ever known.  I would love to hang out there myself for a week or more.

2.  I would love to take off into the wilderness with some basic survival tools with my wife and live off the land for an entire summer.

3.  I would love to back pack around the Galapogos and confirm things that I have read about.

4.  I would love to improve an HHO system that would provide abundant free fuel for the world.

5.  I would love to build a learning establishment for street youth who need a learning environment catering to their needs and their lifestyle.

6.  I would love to see my daughter grow up and be a princess. (and do something to help)

7.  I would love to buy my sister a new SUV that runs off of HHO.

8.  I would love to build a new technology business with my brother.

9. I would love to see Marijuana legalized bar-none. (and do something to help)

10.  I would love to see Mike Gravel’s plan “The National Initiative” (and do something to help)

11. I would love to see my wife get the education that she desires (and do something to help)

12.  I would love to see the US get out of Iraq, and truly free that nation. (and do something to help)

I will post more, I’ve got 88 to go.  I will just post more in the comments as I go forward.

It seems like my ideas are a mixture of seeing and doing things. 

 Oregon Marijuana Doctor Tells All: Q&A Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/v/UoLuC8LG2os&hl=en

For more information (1 hour and 26 minutes):

 A panel of legal and medical experts join author Ed Rosenthal in a discussion on the impact of state laws allowing medical marijuana versus federal efforts to override all decriminalization statute… 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Of6PCVk9qA 

Top Five Marijuana Myths

• Marijuana Can Cause Permanent Mental Illness
• Marijuana Is Highly Addictive
• Marijuana Is More Potent Today Than In The Past
• Marijuana Offenses Are Not Severely Punished
• Marijuana Is More Damaging to the Lungs Than Tobacco

More Marijuana Myths

• Marijuana Has No Medicinal Value
• Marijuana Is a Gateway Drug
• Marijuana’s Harms Have Been Proved Scientifically
• Marijuana Causes an Amotivational Syndrome
• Marijuana Policy in the Netherlands is a Failure
• Marijuana Kills Brain Cells
• Marijuana Impairs Memory and Cognition
• Marijuana Causes Crime
• Marijuana Interferes With Male and Female Sex Hormones
• Marijuana Use During Pregnancy Damages the Fetus
• Marijuana Use Impairs the Immune System
• Marijuana’s Active Ingredient, THC, Gets Trapped in Body Fat
• Marijuana Use is a Major Cause Of Highway Accidents
• Marijuana Related Hospital Emergencies Are Increasing, Particularly Among Youth
• Marijuana Use Can Be Prevented

http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/

Superior Court Judge James P. Gray on the Drug War
His book “Why our drug laws have failed” discusses the topic of the US Drug War.

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http://www.youtube.com/v/4hb6l5XbBrg&hl=en

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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVCLpsU3IdI&feature=related

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHWfPKWmpeQ&feature=related