[Mb-hair] Re: weed - it's good for the brain!

[Michael Butler]

Jim,

Thanks a lot for your story shared with us.

Peace and Love,
Michael

> 
> My weed story... a brief background of JIM
> 
> 
> 
> It's long.. it's crazy... it's sad... but it all turns out well in the end..
> 
> 
> 
> Growing up, My father had MS. It began to take its toll when I was maybe 5 or
> 6, and quickly over powered the man who used to stand tall as my Dad. My Mom
> divorced him when I was maybe 8 or 9 and he was sent to City Hospital to live
> the rest of his days. (City Hospital was an awful place, the smells of
> industrial cleanser reeked in the hallways.) We would go visit my Dad, every
> week for the first few years.. then every month... till I was about 15 or 16,
> then friends and other stuff became more important.. least I thought so then.
> (And I guess in all fairness to myself.. I used to leave there in tears, as he
> would look at me with these vacant eyes, and was basically a vegetable.
> drooling, unable to move.. It was more than a kid of 15, hell more than I
> could take today..) Anyway.. when my Mom divorced him.. I was pissed off... I
> grew up believing the better or worst, richer or poorer, sickness and in
> health.. (Looking at it from an adults perspective.. My Mom was all of 22 and
> had
> four kids and a terribly sick husband..I'm not angry with her anymore. My Dad
> was just dealt a shitty hand.. hell, my family was.) Anyway.. After the
> divorce my Mom started bringing guys home from her work and from wherever..
> and there were parties and dates and all that stuff.. This really bothered me,
> so I moved out and in with my grandparents.. (Mom's side.) From 1974 through
> sometime in 1976, I lived with them.. My grandmother died in 1975 of a
> misdiagnosed case of Tuberculosis (Sorry bout the spellings) My grandfather
> followed her a year later.. Alcohol induced heart attack.. brought on from a
> broken heart. I had to move back home.. My Mom had since married.. Gene, was a
> biker, drug dealer and mean drunk, but my Mom saw something in him.. Many
> nights I would come home to the house upturned from one of his drunken rages..
> Many a night I would listen to him hit my Mom.. It wasn't a good place to be.
> My younger brother smoked.. All of our friends smoked.. but I who was und
> er the
> shelter of my Grandparents for the past few years was not tainted... YET. I
> got my first Job at 15, it was a summer job and I can remember having more
> money than GOD, or so I thought.. After my first check came in, more great
> news.. Alice Cooper was coming to town.. and my brother and I had been long
> time fans. So I bought us tickets in June of 77. That day I came home all
> excited and went to the fort we had in the neighbors garage...All of the gang
> would hang there and roll and smoke pot.. I never smoked, just helped roll, as
> I was really good at it, and then pass it by.. the gang would always try to
> talk me into it, and that day.. I was just so happy, I said.. fuck it.. and
> took the joint.. I remember I didn't even get stoned the first time I smoked..
> Anyway.. Mom was smoking, Step Dad was smoking, little brother was smoking..
> why not.. My Mom found a little bowl and smoking kit in a jacket pocket maybe
> a week after I started.. She told me, She wasn't happy about it and as
> ked how
> long I had been smoking.. I replied.. Years. That kinda opened the door.. I
> then started smoking in the house with my Mom and step father.. We'd have huge
> parties pretty much every week.. I mean crazy parties. Like up front at a
> concert only through the whole house.. I got kicked out of High School the
> following year for fighting with the Vise Principal, who dared me to hit him..
> (Little man with the Napoleon Complex) So.. I sat home and smoked with my step
> father.. playing cribbage and spades, hearts and chess as the revolving door
> of clients came by to smoke and buy many flavors of weed.. It got to the point
> where I was smoking nearly a half an ounce of dope a day. (that's no
> exaggeration.) Pot led to Cocaine, and Qualudes, and Crystal Meth and
> Mushrooms, Hash, Angel Dust, Speed, Acid, THC, PCP... you name it, I did it..
> Except I never used needles. I smoked and did anything that was put under my
> nose from 1977 til 1983 or 84. I had then joined a rock band and was learning
> Bass, I
> would get stoned and totally not remember the parts just taught to me moments
> earlier.. I was so flighty.. So.. The thing that draws many people to drugs
> was the thing that pulled me away from drugs.. Rock n roll. I decided that
> music meant more to me than drugs and I quit cold turkey.. Not doing anything
> for the next 15 years or so.. Now.. maybe once a year if I am around friends
> smoking.. I might take two tokes, just to get a slight buzz.. but can't ever
> see myself doing it like I used to.. I know many people have no problems with
> it.. Looks like the tide is turning with this new research too.. but it didn't
> help my memory any.. And.. I would really hate my kids to start that habit.. I
> don't think my son would as his asthma is terrible.. but I do worry about my
> daughter sometimes.. but she is a good kid and though I am sure she has tried
> it.. I don't think it is her scene.. Anyway.. thought I'd share my drug days..
> JIM
> 
> Sean Courtney <dauber at banana-and-louie.org> wrote:
> On 10/15/2005, Robin McNamara wrote:
> 
>> There are many things that marijuana is good for both physical &
>> mental. Our government refuses to study it properly & spreads garbage
>> propaganda of how bad it is for you. Carl Sagen, said that marijuana
>> gave him intellectual insight.
> 
> I don't blame the government, and I'll tell ya why: ours is by far not the
> only government to outlaw it. Very few countries allow it.
> 
> My overall thoughts:
> 
> 1) Whether it be pot, tobacco, or hickory, putting ANY smoke in your lungs
> ain't safe -- that's why the fire department tells you to get as close to
> the ground as you can, so you don't breathe it in! And that's why your lungs
> force it out.
> 
> 2) The stuff stinks...literally! Either that or the stuff I got a whiff of
> at the McCartney concerts (and the one Brian Wilson show I went to where
> someone lit up a blunt -- I'm sorry, but 1) you shouldn't light up when
> you're ten feet away from a recovering drug addict, and 2) of all the songs
> in the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys catalog to turn on to, "Sloop John B" is NOT
> a good one to do that to!!!!) I've been to was rancid....seriously, that
> stuff smelled like....well, sadly, what my feet smell like right now.
> 
> 3) However, I wouldn't step in the way of legalizing it. In fact...here in
> NJ there's this guy known as "NJ Weed Man" who's been arrested several times
> for possessing the stuff. He's RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR!!! and promises to
> legalize the ganja here in the state. I'm seriously
> thinking of voting for the dude -- he's much more qualified than the two
> bozos in the democratic and republican parties who are running. I'm not
> bashing republicans and democrats or anything, but the candidates for NJ
> governor just don't give me a good feeling.
> 
> 4) It really would be in the government's best interest to legalize it, what
> with the taxes they could put on it, medicinal qualities, etc.
> 
> 5) Uhhh...nothing else, really...I just wanted a fifth point. :)
> 
> --
> dauber at banana-and-louie.org
> * ICQ: 28677921 * YIM: dau_ber * AIM: ddaauubbeerr
> blog: http://scattered-frog.blogspot.com
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