I had a long conversation with an old friend last night about drugs .... his best friend is losing his son to meth and he's devastated ... this child has been involved in drugs since he was 16 and he's now 26 ... he's been in and out jail ... his father, a hard working, responsible man, has requested rehab for him but it doesn't exist as a consequence of jail time ... he will have to spend $100,000 out of his own pocket for three months of treatment ... at this point, he says that he's trying to save his son's very life ... if anyone has a suggestion I will pass it on ...
We talked for hours and hours about drugs ... we're both children of the 60s and we remember the days of pot and mushrooms ... if meth existed then, we didn't know about it ... we're older now and no longer want that kind of distraction ... things change ...
At the time that we did indulge, Reagan was in his "zero tolerance" and "war on drugs" days and we were terrified of "getting caught" ... many of our friends did get caught and spent time in jail or lost possessions ... now we have a marijuana dispensary in the middle of town and this substance is seen as a beneficial herb for many ... mushrooms have also been studied and many scientists are concluding that they too can be beneficial ... https://www.bbc.com/news/health-36247599
I'm not advocating for the use of these drugs, I'm just noting how attitudes have changed ...
So, if these drugs are legalized nationally what happens to all of those people who were persecuted over this? .... do they get an apology? ... any compensation for the time and money lost? ... and what about the role of our government in creating the drug culture? ... do they take any responsibility for this?
https://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisc...nt?oid=2184385
I know that I'm all over the place with this post and that's because there are several problems here that are screaming for attention .... the combination of innocent people having been experimented on, the government role in the drug culture in SF, the innocent "hippies" who paid for their use of soft drugs like pot and mushrooms, and the lack of treatment for those addicted to serious drugs like meth ... somehow it all seems connected ...