The “Leave the Herb alone but arrest all the junkies,” crowd is always out there with that stupid look on their aged faces. This article was a good one and it is correct in everything it says. I have been an opioid addict for 39 years now and I defy anyone to pick me out of the everyday crowd. Addiction does not necessarily cause people to be assholes; it happens to all sorts of people. People who don’t identify themselves. Sure, it is a helluva thing to get under control, at first, but many do – those who aren’t felled by prohibition’s evil effects.

For example: a Dr. Halsted – one of four founders of the John’s Hopkins Med Center, was found, after his death, to have been a lifelong user of morphine. He to 86, I believe, and was doing groundbreaking and successful surgery till he died. His death, of course, had nothing to do with the morphine (although his longevity might) and there are no reports of him ever prowling about in Spandex and heels.

The harms of addiction result from it’s criminalization as does the stigma demonstrated so well here by people who – by virtue of their professed opposition to the Drug War (at least where it concerns themselves)should know better.

Go ahead and shoot it for a few days and see, you will be in a spandex dress and tights by the end of the month, learning to walk in heels.